Day Five! Paris & Rome

It just doesn't seem possible that we hit Europe's two biggest cities on the same day - what a dream.

Saturday morning, we got ourselves all packed and then headed to our last Paris stop, Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart Basilica). We arose early because we heard the church was stunning just after sunrise. Boy was it ever.

Here's our illegal picture. The nuns were chanting in Latin and praying and it was just so beautiful...the sounds, the smell of candles and the view of the mosaic. I had to break the law.

Is that stained glass magnificent or what? The morning sun was streaming in and just lit up the church. Scott had to drag me out so we wouldn't miss our flight!

Alas, we bid adieu to sweet Paris. It was a magical few days there. We were sad to leave a place with so many fantabulous memories, but we knew we were heading to our other "home" in Italy. That eased the landing. We eagerly stepped aboard that Air France flight - again in business class with the food. Crazy.

Next stop. Citte de Vaticano. Actually, the first stop was for pizza y gelato. Paolo was our tour guide and our translator. I have no idea what he ordered, but it was the best stinkin' pizza I've ever had. It had blue cheese and who knows what else. Loved. It. Ok, now we could go see Rome. I will NEVER get tired of seeing this sight. Ever.

We stood in line for a bit and then headed down to the crypt, where many of the popes are buried. We had a few moments to stop and pray at Pope John Paul II's tomb. I won't hop on the soap box, you people know how I feel about him. I enjoyed the moments of reflection, very much.

My favorite window in all of St. Peter's, dedicated to the Holy Spirit.

After getting my St. Peter's fix, we headed toward the Mouth of Truth. Sounds a little scary? The so-called "Bocca della Verita'," in the portico of the church of St. Mary in Cosmedin could have a bad outcome. Legend says that if you put your hand in the mouth of this ancient sewer cover, that liars' hands will be bitten off. Yikes. Fortunately, we got to keep ours.

One last photo op and then we headed to Paolo's casa. This is a little known panoramic view of Rome and it's lovely, no matter the season.

Of all the "Scott and Kathryn" photos, I think this one is my favorite. Don't know why, just is.

We finished the day, spending some quality time with Paolo and Patrizia. We packed the camera and all the souvenirs, ate some really, really amazing home-cooked Italian food (including Patrizia's to-die-for tiramisu), watched "The Incredibles" in Italian with the boys and said goodnight. It just went by too quickly.

A quick recap on the infamous Paolo and Patrizia. We met back in 2000 during our first trip to Italy and have remained friends ever since. They are our age, with boys the same ages as ours and we have so much in common. Except for the fact that they speak Italian and we speak English. Bah, little things. Never underestimate the power of an English-Italian dictionary and charades. Until next time...

The flight back was L-O-N-G. It's always harder coming back than going, I think. Plus, "Kung Fu Panda," our in-flight movie was on the fritz. Dang it. After a couple of flight delays and emergency landings by other aircrafts, we finally hit Texas soil around midnight and were greeted by a really sweet brother who drove us home.

I'll be honest, it's been tough to get back in the groove of dirty laundry, dirty dishes, dirty diapers, dirty faces and dirty hineys. But, hey...

We'll always have Paris.

Thanks for allowing us to chronicle the trip. Hopefully, we didn't bore you along the way. Shoot, maybe we inspired you to take a weekend with your significant other...or at the very least, go out on a date night. Three cheers for the reinforcements back home. And, my best hugs and kisses to the love of my life, Scott.

Over and out.

Day Four! Chartres & Paris

Friday morning we were excited to hop on the train (a new adventure!) and head south to the little village of Chartres. We'd heard about the amazing stained glass windows and opted to go south instead of east to Versailles. In hindsight, we couldn't have chosen any better. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Navigating the train station, after making a few transfers via the metro, was suprisingly easy. The only thing that was a little worrisome was no one ever checked to see if we had a ticket!!

We arrived in Chartres and headed straight for the cathedral. It was a crisp, sunny morning and the skies were so blue. Inside, we were disappointed to see a boatload of scaffolding. The church is undergoing some needed renovations and many of the windows were covered up by steel. After some debating and wandering around the church, we decided not to take the tour by the fantastic English tour guide we had heard so much about and do the self-guided one, instead. That turned out to be the best decision of the day. We snapped some photos, enjoyed the quiet of the church and grabbed a quick lunch...although, it took us FOREVER to find that quick lunch. Long story, but we did quickly quip to one another (this is for all you "Casablanca" fans out there), "We'll always have Paris."

Every church has a first-degree relic, i.e. something from a saint, underneath the altar. Typically, it's from the saint for whom the church is named. In the Chartres Cathedral, that relic is on display. It's the veil Mary wore when she delivered Jesus. While the actual veil (a replica is two pictures down) was behind all that scaffolding, a small piece was housed in this, for pilgrims. We spent some beautiful time in prayer in this church.

While we're heading back to the train station (we thought we had a good 30 minutes or so), we finally found that cold Coke with ice we'd been looking for...in McDonalds! Just to clarify, that is all we bought there. Promise. We saunter over to the train station and look up at the boards. We saw our 1:34pm train as on time, but noticed there was a 12:57 train as well. It was 12:54. We ran down that flight of stairs so stinkin' fast I nearly broke my leg. We lept onto the train (I'm making this sound so dramatic, aren't I?) and less than 20 seconds later, the doors closed and off we went. Not only did we score an extra 30 minutes of train time, but this train had 2 less stops than the later one. God must've wanted us back in Paris!

Now that you know what a relic is, Notre Dame's relic is the crown of thorns, from Christ's Passion. It was originally housed in La Sainte Chapelle, but after many years of selling thorns to the highest bidder (can you imagine?) the crown was respectfully brought back to Paris and placed in Notre Dame at the urging of King St. Louis IX. During our first trip to Notre Dame, we found out that the church held a veneration (a public display) of the crown of thorns on the Fridays of Lent at 3pm. See why that train ride and self-guided tour were so key? We made it back to ND at 2:20 and landed fourth row seats. We were ecstatic.

The Crown of Thorns

I should be clear, about 360 days of the year, the crown of thorns is housed in a magnificent reliquary in the church. But not today. Today, the bishops brought out the incense, the church was hushed, the Latin choir chants echoed throughout the church and Scott and I sat in awe. It was most certainly the spiritual high of the trip. At the conclusion of the service, we were prepared to leave, when we realized that part of the veneration was going forward and kissing the crown of thorns. It's difficult to describe the emotions you feel when you're that close to something of Christ's passion. You think of his sacrifice and his love, as well as your own shortcomings as a human being. Yet, you know that he did that for you. What a precious moment of love.

We walked out of that church as different people.

For a while, we just walked in silence, holding hands, and taking it all in...breath, by breath. It was in that moment, I knew this trip was something our marriage desperately needed and it was a divine gift. We spent our last evening in Paris, strolling (slightly quick) through the Musee d'Orsay and enjoying some amazingly beautiful Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne and more. I still can't believe they let us get this close!

Close to exhausted, but still feeling the energy of Paris, we had one more very important stop to make. Scott promised me some shoes...and boy did I find them! When my feet recover from all that walking, I promise to show them off. I can't wait to say, "Oh these? I got them in Paris." We stopped off at the hotel, dropped our props and went to dinner. A final dose of creme brulee did the trick...our perfect week in France was nearly complete.

Tomorrow, we enjoy two fabulous cities - Paris and Rome - shoot some illegal photos, almost lose a hand, eat real Italian food and watch an unlikely movie in Italian. Buono note!

Happy Birthday to the Will.i.ams!

Today is a special day...grandson and grandfather share a birthday and a pretty sweet first name. When I went into labor 8 years ago, the night before my dad's birthday, 8 DAYS OVERDUE, I never dreamed what a special occasion it would become. Scott's dad had William as his first name, too, so there was never a question what Master Will's name would be. Here's a quick walk down memory lane...

2001

Just a mere 6 days old.

2002

Believe it or not, in a land far, far away, we were a quaint little family of 3.

2003

Our first year back in Texas

2004

2005

with Granny and Poppy

2006

And then we were 5!

2007

2007 (again) with Papa Bill at his 60th!

2008
At the bowling alley and in Indiana with his Godparents, Fr. Kevin and Carla

Will, I cannot believe you are 8. You are smart and funny and so darn sweet, when you want to b,e anyway. You love to read, you love to fight with your brother and you love to give your sisters kisses, even when they don't want them. Somedays I wish I could stop time.

May the world never taint your faith or your spirit. Rather, may you flourish in a society that desperately needs strong men of faith, conviction and principle. With every day, we are thankful that God gave you to us first. There is no better "biggest" brother than you. We love you, more.

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY!!

Day Three! Paris

Ah, sweet Paris. We slept in a little and finally got moving. I was so excited to get going, I plugged in my hairdryer using the ADAPTER (read: not a converter) and subsequently blew the fuse and all electricity in our hotel room. I'm pretty sure the front desk muttered something about incompetent Americans. Scott just laughed. I did not. The maintenance guy arrived in a jif and we were back in business. That makes travel tip #2.

We made our first foray onto the Paris metro system, which was very similar to the one in Rome. So, that wasn't intimidating, it was just the myriad of 14 different lines (compared to Rome's 2) that threw us for a loop. Americans have GOT to jump on this public transit train. We went all over Paris for 3 days for less than $30. Enough about efficiency, onto stained glass. We ventured to Sainte Chapelle for our first stop and it did not disappoint. Just as we reached the top of the stairs, this was the feast for the eyes. Wowza. That morning sun just lit up those windows.

This next comment is totally for my brother. We were super excited to find an English-speaking gentleman to take our photo. First question, "Um, which button do I push?" Let's see, that BIG BLACK BUTTON that's on EVERY STINKING CAMERA, sir. Still, he could not focus it. Travel tip #3: Look for someone with a camera like yours, regardless if they speak English or not, they will know how to use it.

Just across the way from Sainte Chapelle was Notre Dame. The granddaddy of 'em all, in Paris. We were able to go to confession here with a sweet French priest who spoke fantastic English. He was so kind and complimentary of Texas and encouraged Scott and I to take time to just "be present" in the church. That we did. Oh, and Shannon, thank you for the tripod tip. It made many a dark, gothic church turn out beautifully in the photos.

Every vacation must have a self-portrait, no?

We grabbed a nice, little lunch of panne and fromage (bread and cheese) in a little side cafe and people watched. That was really fun. Then, we headed over to infamous Rue de Bac. One of the churches we wanted to visit was closed for restoration until Palm Sunday. Bummer. But, we did manage to make it to St. Vincent de Paul. Don't freak out, that's not really him on top of the casket, just a wax replica. His remains are buried in the casket below. It was a really sweet church and I fell in love with this stained glass window.

We had a magnificent day and it just got prettier as the day progressed. The original plan was to head to the Musee d'Orsay, home of a tubload of Impressionist works. But after we stood in line, the ticket agent informed us that the impressionist wings were closed. Um...ok? Plan B. The Louvre. But before we did the whirlwind tour, we decided to just chill on the grass at the Jardin des Tuileries, Paris' most central garden. The sun was shining, the wind had died down and we enjoyed some M&M's. What says love more than sharing your only package of chocolate? :-)

I have to say, the Louvre surprised me the most. I came in with low expectations and was totally wowed by what we saw. The Mona Lisa - eh - it was nice.

I was much more mesmerized by THIS...the "Wedding Feast at Cana." Take a look at the bottom right corner, see that guy standing there? This thing was massive. You Louvre groupies can have your Mona Lisa, I'll take this painting any day of the week.

Number 2 of the "Big Three" - the Venus de Milo. Again, impressive, but not nearly as hold the phones as what I saw next.

The Winged Victory. Most certainly my favorite piece of art in all of Paris. Is that space just made for it, or what?

All that art gawking and picture taking wore us out, so we strolled down the Avenue des Champs-Elysses and happened upon this delish pastry shop, Laduree. Oh my, people. The delights here were not to be believed. We brought the kids back some macaroons, but saved the good stuff for ourselves. Aren't we generous? Then, because we hadn't had enough to eat, we grabbed a croissant from Paul (the restaurant, not the guy). But, we at least paid for ours. The lady who cut in front of me in line, just grabbed hers and ran. Crazy.

We did a little shopping and then heard sirens outside. We realized the police were clearing the streets and making way for a veterans parade, with the Arc de Triomphe as the backdrop. What a fun surprise!

You knew it was coming...we saved the best for last on Thursday. Scott rounded the corner, saw the Eiffel Tower and exclaimed, "Now THAT'S Paris!" There is no more perfect way to end the day than by spending it with the love of your life in the world's most romantic city. We snapped some pictures, stood in line and made our way to the second landing. We were even atop the tower when the light show came on. The Eiffel Tower was just as beautiful as we imagined, but even more romantic.

We ended the night at a little restaurant recommended by some friends from France. Scott and I both gave it a run for a tie for the #1 meal in France. I think we got there at 9 and left around 11! What a fun, fantastically wonderful day. If you wondered if you can see Paris in a day, the answer is yes :-) We so enjoyed our time together, especially on this day.

Tomorrow, we will suspend the France journals and celebrate a certain someone's big day. Master William turns 8 and Papa turns 29! No worries, we'll get you all caught up on Saturday.