27 years left on mortgage!

Three years ago today, I signed my name 150 times in a row and earned the keys to my house. It certainly doesn't feel like its been that long!




How better to celebrate than with painting, pressure washing, and cooking? The Florida room is almost complete. The only remaining tasks are: install door, paint trim, and buy new blinds.




Pressure washing is dangerous for perfectionists. I've been wanting to clean the green off the concrete for weeks now- see the difference a little high pressure spray can make?




Buying the scrubbing attachment was well worth the $30- this thing is like a floor buffer that removes dirt in an 8" radius super quickly. What a life saver on my sidewalk. Driveway. Brick path. And hopefully soon, the lanai!








A delicious bowl of soup was in order afterwards. And chickpea salad. Great recipes from my Pampered Chef vegetarian cookbook. Thanks Aunt Barb :)








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Paris Culture

Which one would you use as Shampoo? Conditioner? They translate to milk hydrant and body and hair gel. Each day I tried one before the other, laughing that I might be scrubbing my hair with lotion, but it was Paris, so why not?




The flowers were in bloom everywhere we went, it was really something.








Being such a romantic city, the bridges are covered in padlocks with initials and dates written on them. Lovers buy a lock from the street peddlers, attach it to the bridge, and toss the keys into the Seine River.




Croque-monsieur and croque-madame for lunch. I had mine sans ham, and Henrik enjoyed the one with a fried egg on top.




There were whole pigs, roasting on rotisserie, right on the street.




And seafood markets, where you could buy strange-looking creatures from all over the world.




Then we found the grocery section of a Macy's-like department store, and they had seafood there!




And macaroons...




Fresh bread...




Bottled water (yes, this whole wall is water!)




And a section called "USA" which made me smile- notice the Oreos, pop tarts, and microwave popcorn!




My cold had reached an unbearable level when we stepped into a pharmacy, I demonstrated deep man-cough, and they sent us away with this amazing packet of cough syrup that really worked! Especially when chased with beer or wine!




And the French recycle! In these huge green receptacles, very interesting.




We visited Amelia's twin brother's wine shoppe and packed a box to ship home. What a fun place! We told stories and laughed, while sampling the goods.




We ate at one of Juan's restaurants the night before and had ceviche and a cheese plate. They recommended this amazing wine with a story where a tiny village outside of Paris lost nearly all of their crop during a frost, so 22 vintners combined their salvaged grapes into this one wine. It was divine!
The following are just random shots of the street that I took as we traipsed for miles through the city. It reminded me of Stockholm, in many ways, but it was not as clean and tidy as Sweden... and the people were much less friendly than in Scandinavia!




































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Sightseeing in Paris

Standing outside Musée du Louvre was breathtaking! I have always wanted to visit but never really thought it was realistic. There were swarms of people, everywhere, waiting to get inside the infamous museum.




We wandered around a while in search of the Mona Lisa. To our surprise, there were oodles of people ahead of us with clearly no crowd control. It was a free-for-all to get a glimpse of da Vinci's ever-famous painting (which is much smaller in real-life, by the way).












But still incredible! The photo below is taken of us facing Mona Lisa- look at the crowd admiring the largest painting in the whole museum collection (of which they house 7,500!)- Wedding of Cana by Veronese.




I posed with Aphrodite in the Venus de Milo statue. Wow, it is amazing to see the real thing after studying all of these famous works in textbooks for so many years.




After our patience of crowds wore thin, we enjoyed lunch at a little outdoor cafe (nearly all offer outdoor seating!)




The bread and cheese was to die for! I will miss the quality of these delicious staples when I'm back home.




Then we visited Notre Dame cathedral and took a handful of photos from different viewpoints. The entire church is about the size of one city block!




















Modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, the Parisian Panthéon serves as the burial site for many famous French folks- Victor Hugo, Voltaire, and Marie Curie.




And the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is just half the size of its famous counterpart, and sans Avenue des Champs-Élysées. But right outside the Louvre, and easy to photograph!




And of course, L'Tour Effel (at night!)
















Not only did we see it, but we climbed it! Great views of the city from so high, it was incredible. And we happened to be right in the middle at midnight and the lights twinkled. At first I was frightened (I'm already terrified of heights), but when I realized what was happening and how awesome it was to be there right then, I embraced it.




Afterwards, we had some wine- both grande and petite, and a warm apple tart. Oh Paris, I miss you already!




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