london/paris trip

ok, i fell asleep last night starting this post. I'm still on Paris time. Thought I'd share my trip recap.

I just got back from London/Paris on Sunday afternoon. Jen & the kids went from church to the airport and met me at the terminal, very happy reunion. She was tired of being a single parent and I was tired of sharing my bedroom with dudes in Europe. London was amazing... let me say how I really feel about it- A-MAZ(E)-ING. Seriously. I could live over there. It was fantastic. It is kind of being taken over by the rest of the world. I heard any number of different languages while on the bus, train, or roaming the streets. I guess that's what happens when you rule the world for years and years. Karma. But seriously, if you get the chance to go, I thought is was so fantastic.

We went to Big Ben, where a classmate proposed to his girlfriend during the trip, also westminster abbey, the royal palace for the changing of the guard, the tower bridge (because london bridge was bought by a guy from arizona and the bridge is not that cool because he thought he was buying the tower bridge). We saw the tower of london, and a number of businesses over there. The 2nd largest British bank (Barclays) is run by Americans. Only one Brit on the entire executive team... interesting. We attended Hyde Park ward. Hyde Park is where President Hinckley used to proselytize as a young missionary. The ward has some crazy number of countries represented in it's membership... I think it's over 60 countries.

My group to the Chunnel over to Paris at the half way point of the trip. Paris is pretty awesome too. The food is better than London. I ate a snail at one of the restaurants while I was there. Tasted like a mushroom. The golden gates in the one picture are in front of the Versailles palace, built by Louis the XXIV, also where the french revolters took down Louis the XXVI and Marie Antoinette. Versailles was my favorite visit of the whole trip. For anyone traveling to Europe I recommend uploading the podcasts for these tourist attractions. It makes the experience amazing.

My 2nd day in Paris I asked Mom if we had relatives there. She got me the old address to some family members there. I found the apartment only to find a Brazilian maid that opened the door. In my spanish and her portuguese I found out that they had lived there over a year ago but that they had moved. She didn't know where but she did know where Arnaud does business sometimes so she gave me that address. I hiked down there, about 2 miles away and found the cosmetics store closed but the neighboring business open so I talked to the 2 girl employees in that store. One of the customers spoke the best english (which wasn't that good) but they helped as much as they could, including giving me the code to get into the apartment building next door. Then I went door to door at dinner time looking for the Darde Family. Well, no surprise looking back, but anyone that opened their door to me had no idea what family I was looking for. I had to give up but then Mom was doing a lot of research and found a new address and a phone number for me. I finally made contact on my last full day in Paris. This cute little family is the Darde family. Long story short, his great-grandma (Cecile) is our Grandma's (Genevieve) older half-sister. Arnaud, Katia, and their son Vadim. Katia is half Russian but she grew up in France. Vadim is a russian name as well. We agreed to meet on Saturday, which was my last full day in Paris. They met me at a subway stop and bought me breakfast at a pastry shop. We took it back to their place. They were a very sweet family. Vadim will turn 1 in March. Arnaud works for L'Oreal and their apartment and car are paid for by L'Oreal. They were very excited to meet me and ask about the family. Arnaud is the oldest of 4 kids so we have some other relatives over there that are younger.

Anyway, I'll put up a few more pictures, but I wanted to share these and a picture of our french family members. oh yeah, Katia is Russian Orthodox and Arnaud is Catholic but Katia's dad is french and she grew up in France. They were excited to know how big their American family is.

Big Ben- with Matt, Graydon's homeboy from undergrad. His father in law was one of our professors guiding the trip so he and Amy came along for the ride.

The Louvre entrance

arc de triomphe- 12 streets feed into this round-about

notre dame- the lds church is down the street from here. also, the gay district and the spanish district (opposite directions). the spanish district has awesome food and cool shops. the gay district has a good pastry shop... actually every district has a good pastry shop. the food was really good. my favorite were the crepes (even though i think mine can compete).

la tour eiffel

Versailles- it's awesome... seriously

view from the eiffel tower

The Darde Family- l to r- Vadim, Arnaud, & Katia

love to all

au revoir!

ps- I would have loved to take Jen with me but we figured since she is going to go with her parents and siblings in June (I was invited) that we would just switch off watching the kids. Jen went to Santa Barbara for the weekend, Las Vegas for a few days with her good friend, and then was able to see all of you that came to Grandmother's birthday party. I'm sorry I missed it but was glad to see everyone that was still there on Sunday afternoon. Sorry I missed everyone that couldn't make it! (callisters, rob, spencer, and G-train)