Arriving in Paris

We arrived the morning of Sunday July 17th, weary, loaded down with waaaay too much luggage (I overpacked, as usual!) and lucky to have Marc's smiling face waiting for us on the other side of the glass at baggage claim. He'd arrived 2 weeks earlier. Since Reims, where he stays/works, is almost an hour's drive, he took an airport hotel room Saturday night and took the hotel shuttle to the airport to meet and assist us. Back to his hotel, we regrouped, showered, some of us slept, and then set out for a quicky tour of Paris in the afternoon.

First stop: Le Tour Eiffel, of course!

Gaby brought a little Elmo along to share in her adventures.

You can't escape the souvenir sellers!

Planking in Paris!

A rare photo of the 4 of us.

We drove to Reims in time for dinner (which is so unbelievably late here -- just can't get used to finishing by 10!) and to catch the Women's World Cup final game, the US and Japan. Marc had looked into getting us tickets, as the game was in Frankfurt. We decided against it because of the late start time of the game, 8:45 local time. The roughly 6 hour drive home would have been ridiculous. So we watched Japan defeat the US while dining at the James Joyce Pub, with Marc's colleague Stefan, who had just arrived himself, from Quebec.