Seeing as Thursday was my last day in Europe, we decided to have a low key day again as a family. We headed up to Montmartre and saw sacre Coeur and toured the artist booths in the main square - where Mom of course bought a couple paintings. Montmartre is a really nice part of Paris. It has old buildings and streets that give it a lot of charm. The mix of shops, people and food give it a very eclectic feeling as well. I think that if I ever move to Paris, I woul...

Wednesday was another beautiful day. Mom, Jamie and I split from Keith and Barb today to enjoy some family time around the city. We spent the day walking around and enjoying the sights and buslting city atmosphere. We walked from our hotel, passed the arc de triomphe and onto the Eiffel tower. This was my fourth time in Paris, and I still love the Eiffel tower. I love the brown colour, the height, the intricacies of the structure… just everything! From ther...

Tuesday morning, we headed out nice and early to Versailles. It was a really busy place on that gorgeous day! Waiting in line for entrance, security and audio guides took over an hour. Once we were all set up, we toured the beautiful palace, which is coated floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall with marble, gold and art. It is such a luxurious place… and that's only the inside. The real beauty of Versailles is the never-ending gardens that seem to have a fountain ...

Monday, our original plan was to go to Versailles palace. Unfortunately, the palace is closed every Monday, so our plan did not work out. Instead we decided to do something on Jamie's "must-see" list: go to the D-Day beaches. We drove from Versailles to the Juno Beach Centre, which is a museum created on the beach where Canadian soldiers landed during WWII. We walked right up to the beach, on the English Channel. The sky was grey, the wind was blowing and the wa...

Sunday was a really big driving day. We started in Italy and ended up in France, crossing Switzerland along the way. Three countries in one day - breakfast in Italy, lunch in Switzerland, and supper in France. We left northern Italy and drove through a huge mountain tunnel and entered Switzerland - which was an uneventful crossing. Switzerland is not part of the EU, so I was expecting a big deal at the border, but they didn't even stop us. We were going to have...