Paris

When my sister visited me last month we were able to take a quick trip to Paris. Last minute changes allowed Caden to tag along. We didn't know until the night before we left who was coming on the trip. When it was decided I asked Caden..."Hey buddy, do you want to go to Paris tomorrow?" OK, so can you imagine as a 6 year old getting that opportunity? We feel very blessed to be able to live here in Germany and have so many chances to enrich our family's life with such experiences.
So at 4:45am Caden, my sister and I headed to the train station to catch the ICE train to Paris. What a way to travel!! We had our own little "room" with closing glass doors. We could get up and walk around the train whenever we wanted. There was even a little bar/bistro for snacks and drinks. It was great. The train took about 4 hours with a few stops along the way.

This picture is deceiving. Caden never slept on the train. This is him "resting" his eyes for about 2 minutes.

When we got to Paris we checked into our hotel and headed out to see the sights. First stop....the Eiffel Tower.

You can either take the elevator up the tower or you can take the stairs. The lines for the elevator were really long, so the overachiever in Shauna and I decided to take the stairs. It actually wasn't that bad. We made it to the first level and took a break to look around and eat.

Looking down from the tower is an amazing map of Europe.

We had lunch inside the Eiffel Tower. Shauna ordered french fries. Yeah, so the French do NOT know how to make good fries.

We had a wonderful time looking at all of the beautiful views. After about an hour we headed to the next stop......the Louvre.