Europe 2016...Paris and Mont Saint-Michel

 Our next port was in La Havre, France.  We split up here, Cheryl and I went to Paris (a three hour bus ride) and H, B, and the kids went to Mont Michel (also a three hour bus ride).  First up...Paris!  The bus ride included a tour of the city and then they dropped us off for 2 hours of free time.  Thankfully, they dropped us off pretty near where we stayed last year so I was very familiar with the area and we were able to make the most of our two hours.  We had a brief stop at the Eiffel Tower, we weren't terribly happy to see a giant soccer ball hanging from it...but, what can you do?  Nothing. 

 Our bus dropped us off pretty close to this monument...I think it is called Cleopatra's Needle but I could be wrong.  I do know that there is a matching one in London.  In the picture below, if you click on it and look closely, you can see the Arc de Triomphe way in the background.  We walked towards the Louvre instead because there is more to see over there.  We walked through the Jardins de Tuilieres over to where our hotel was last year.  I wanted to get pizza for lunch at a place I went to last year and I wanted to get some macarons and we needed to do some souvenir shopping. 

 Above is the place we stayed last year and below...the amazing sandwich/bread/pizza place!

 I had to buy a dozen of these and take them back to the kids and H and B.  They were amazing, and so pretty!

 After we had pizza and coffee we walked over to the Louvre and the gardens again and took some pictures of Cheryl's shoes and touched some statue butts because that is how we roll.  :0)

 After walking through the gardens, we crossed the street to walk along the River Seine and see the famous lock bridge.  Actually, this is the second lock bridge.  The original lock bridge was buckling under the weight of the locks and they cut them all off and prohibited people adding any new ones, so people just moved on to this bridge which is newer and stronger. 

 This crepe stand was right near our bus and was on our must do list so we stopped and got crepes for dessert.  I had nutella and banana and Cheryl had a sugar crepe.  That is a crepe with....sugar.  Sounds boring to me but Cheryl said it was delicious.  I also found out that she doesn't like Nutella though so I am not necessarily ready to trust her judgement.  After our crepes, we went back to the bus and made it just in time!  I bought myself a pretty Paris bookmark that you can see below. 

 This amazing place is called Mont Saint-Michel.  When the tide is in, it is an island, pretty cool, huh??  It is a medieval monastery and according to Hannah and Grace, the most magical place they have ever been.