The Grand 'ole Eiffel Tower...good times

We got to go to the very tippy-top of the Eiffel Tower one night and it was awesome! We could see everything and the lights of Paris are quite beautiful! We were the last people down and had the top platform to ourselves!
The lights around the river!
This is what the Eiffel tower looks light at the top of every hour. A crazy light show goes off and it looks like it will explode.
The lights facing the lawn of the Eiffel tower!
I was pretty excited to be up there...and went a little crazy! Check it out!

Top of Eiffel Tower from Eric White on Vimeo.

For the last dinner of our amazing, epic journey, we set up the most romantic picnic on the lawn of the Eiffel Tower and watched the sunset and then spent an hour or so in the glow of it's lights. It was an amazing cap to our trip. We are so blessed to have the opportunity to experience this together. I couldn't have asked for a better travel partner...my husband rocks! I've learned so much from this journey and my faith has grown in ways I've never imagined. I am excited to come home and share all our stories!!!

Not the best picture...but it almost captures the magic! ...Katie

Chamonix to Paris

Our trip from Chamonix to Paris was a duzy. Here is a short video condensing our 7 hour trip into 4 min.

Chamonix to Paris in 4 minutes from Eric White on Vimeo.

Last couple of days in France

Well we are not actually back in the states now. In NYC but i am going to continue to update the blog a couple more times about the final days of our trip.

On Thursday we rented a car and took off into Western France. We had two places in mind that we wanted to see: Mont St. Michel and the Normandy Beaches.
Mont. St. Michel was truly one of the coolest places we have ever seen. It is just this cone shaped island that pops out of no where in this bay. It now has a road built to it, but it didn't when it was originally built. There was only one way on or off the island. During low tide a small land bridge would emerge from the sea. During high tide, which is said to "come in at the speed of a galloping horse," there was no getting on or off the island. Even during low tide it was still very dangerous due to quick sand. This proved to be a great defense as this place.

The church on the top was super cool. It is still crazy to see how much attention people payed to to details. We felt like we were so high up. We could see so far.
The view from the road on the way out during low tide. Unfortunately, no tide came Galloping in while we were there. The high tide was not going to be until 11:00pm and we had to get the car back before then.
Our second stop was the Normandy Beach landing site. This was such a powerful place to stand.
Omaha BeachUtah Beach
It was so crazy to see all of the original fox holes and tunnels blown to rubbel
Where they used to keep a turret of some sort.
All of the fox holes and craters were still there

I think it meant more going to this after we went to the the Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany. We were able to see what we were fighting for and then see one of the most important battle places.
...Eric

Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle and More Baguettes

I think Notre Dame is my favorite thing so far in Paris. It was amazing!!! We took one of our famous audio tours and walked through the inside, went all around the outside and then climbed a billion stairs to the top of the tour. This church took 200 years to build and is used as the "center of Paris" (all streets and distances are measured from here).
Lighting a candle for Grandpa Mike!!! Yet another place he would have loved!
Dad...some flying buttresses just for you! Such an incredible design...and it looks pretty sweet too!
The day we went to Notre Dame, they were having a huge baking contest for all the pastry chefs. We got to walk through tents and see all of them sweating and going crazy over hundreds of rolls, baguettes and croissants. The smells were intoxicating! Fitting that they should decorate the alter for 6:30 mass with a bunch of baguettes!
I'm pretty sure 90% of the people walking around Notre Dame looked like this! Everyone in Paris is always munching on a baguette. They just keep it in it's wrapper and take bites during their walk. I'm hoping to keep this habit up when I come back home...it's quite nice!
Going up to the towers of Notre Dame was my favorite. We had such a clear, sunny day and could see 360 degrees of Paris. It was so impressive!
Just chatting it up with some of the gargoyles at the top! There were a ton of these little guys. We saw storks, elephants, monkeys...we basically went on another safari!
Sunny Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the spotlight.
Oh you know...that's just me and my husband looking out over Paris. No big deal.
When we were standing at the very top, you could feel the tower swaying. It was kind of scary...but the view made up for it. We even got to see Quasimodo's giant bells.
After Notre Dame, we visited another church nearby...Sainte Chapelle! It is a lot smaller than Notre Dame, but the stained glass inside made it feel huge. All the walls of the chapel are lined with massive stained glass windows and each piece tells a different bible story. Walking inside and seeing all the colors and light took my breath away.
Words can't describe.
This church was built to hold the crown of thorns that Jesus wore when He was crucified. Whether that is true or not, I'm so glad this magical place was built. ...Katie

Everyone is Always Eating Baguettes Here

We've made it to Paris. It's our last leg of the trip and I am having a very difficult time believing that it is almost time to get home! I am excited to come home to see everyone but I am loving traveling and non-stop time with husband is pretty excellent as well.
We have 8 days here in this romantic city, so we got to have a full day of just exploring the city. We saw the Eiffel Tower, which did not disappoint. It is enormous!!! We are going to go back later this week so we can see it at night!
This church, Sacre Coer, is built on the tallest part of Paris, on a hill called Montemarte and has some of the best views of the city anywhere. Sadly, we went there on a cloudy/rainy day, but it was still amazing. The church is made of gypsum, so it just gets whiter with age. I thought it was sweet!
We climbed over 300 claustrophobic stairs to reach the top of the dome. Eric wasn't even breaking a sweat.
The top of the dome served up 360 degrees of amazing views. You could see the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame.
We got bored of just standing at the top of the dome, so we decided to go for a little flight. It was breezy.
Paris is a city full of chimneys. It seems like every building has at least a hundred chimneys on top.
We also got to pay the Louvre a visit. It is massive, the biggest museum in the world! We didn't accomplish the whole museum (only about a third of it) but we were in there forever and saw a ton of amazing art.
I was pretty impressed by the giant pyramid.
Yep, we saw Mona...and she's no model or anything, but it was still cool to see.
The crowd around Mona was way more fun to watch. I don't understand why there are constantly hoards of people surrounding Mona taking pictures? Eric and I got a spot to view her at the very front and just stayed there for 4-5 minutes (listening to our dorky audio guides). We got a few dirty looks, but hey...it's MONA!
This was my favorite thing at the Louvre...Winged Victory. The things they can accomplish with stone is sweet!
We had a fun-filled ART day and loved every minute. We went to D'Orsay museum too...it was full of Dega, Monet and Van Gogh. I fell so sophisticated...ooooh la la! ...Katie

My wonderful return to Chamonix

We finally made it to Chamonix. I have been looking forward to this our entire trip. I have actually been looking forward to coming back here since I came in highschool with Mr. Donahue and my Mom and Aunt. It is one of my top 3 favorite places on the planet. Our trip this time was a lot less sunny than our planet. We didn't pack to well for this leg of our journey. We kind of thought that by May everything would be nice and warm in Europe so we didn't worry about packing heavy sweatshirts or heavy jackets. Well we got a very cold surprise when we arrived in Chamonix and it was snowing. Knowing that we would freeze, we decided that we had to go up to the top of Mt. Blanc anyways. There were people at the top wearing full on winter coats.

I love to eat snow. I was more than happy to take a huge bite out of the side of the mountain.

This was a tunnel they had to build down one of the walkways because there was too much snow to just plow it out of the way.
The view looking straight down the side of the mountain off the deck we were standing on. Just sharp cliffs and then you disappear into the abyss.

We also made our way back over to Mer De Glace. It is a beautiful glacier that snakes its way down the mountain. Every year they carve tunnels into it and make a kind of museum of ice sculptures in it. It is pretty cool because they have to make a new one every year due to how much it moves
The S curveKatie enjoying the view
This shows all of the holes from previous years

Mer De Glace from Eric White on Vimeo.

....Eric