Well hello! Or good morning to you, as the title says. We were still feeling a little French, as we came back this week from a vacation in France.
France. Really!
It still seems surreal that we were really there. Like a dream!
A few short weeks ago, Jonah surprised me (on our anniversary) with the news we were going to France. I was completely surprised and still remember my jittery, nervous, excited voice shakily saying,”whattt??”
A completely wonderful surprise. And I am so glad of how and when he told me, because the tickets were already purchased. There was no room for me to think through the long flight overseas. I know it’s a silly thing to be nervous about, but that was one thing I feared about traveling overseas. This was to be my very first overseas flight! I was thrilled, and so thankful for this amazing gift. We were meeting up with my brother in law and his wife once we arrived, and we were to leave in 3 short weeks.
The preparation was quick, as I packed for the climate there, packed for our boys (that were staying with family here) and tried to wrap my mind around the fact that we were going to see Paris! Really? Just the two of us strolling along French countryside?
I wanted to share some stories from our trip, and thought it would be fun to document them here.
Another fun surprise from Jonah was that he rented the Fuji x100t for our trip. We shoot with a Nikon dslr typically, and the bulk and weight (with lenses) just make it rather cumbersome. It was hard to decide to only take the Fuji, since we weren’t really familiar with it, and it has a fixed 35mm lense. No lense changing if we opted to only take it. However our choice to take just the Fuji was a great one! It was so lightweight, so quiet, so amazing with the dynamic range that we never missed our heavier friend at home. We liked it so much, we are thinking of investing in one. It’s an amazing little camera.
We have yet to edit the hundreds of photos, but we loved that the Fuji had a wireless option, so we could share jpegs immediately (when there was wireless) on Instagram.
Another great resource for our trip was this handy guide by Fodor’s Travel. I picked it up in the library, and it even has a handy pullout map in the back. We referenced it often, and I also liked that there were several key phrases and words in the book to help us when we were a little lost in translations. Really though, we found that most French we spoke to knew some English. And honestly they were all very friendly.
I will be sharing some photos and stories, as soon as we get them edited. Meanwhile, I am still feeling the effects of jet lag! They are 6 hours ahead of us, and the fast pace we kept while over there (not to mention the different eating schedule) have thrown me for a loop being back at home. It was a lovely trip, and I am already missing the incredible food!
Until next time! Au revoir!