This is not a travel guide. However, I think Paris deserves a little attention here on the blog since it kept me in radio silence for the last couple weeks.

And, that alone was a vacation within a vacation. No email (except to keep in touch with the Kiddo). No phone. No work. You don’t realize how many buzzes and rings and blips our phones make until you’re not carrying them around anymore. It was lovely.

We packed our 10 days in the City of Love to the brim! A very walkable city, however, I tested just how walkable my body was. We estimate we hit an average of 12 kilometres per day. Whoa.

Never mind the 81 (82 if you ask Steven) stairs we climbed at least once a day to get up to our apartment each day. So, clearly… the heart rate was at a healthy clip for our trip. No complaints there.

One of our first stops was the Notre Dame. It was a short 15 minute walk from our place, and ended up being a frequent sight for us as we trekked along to other parts of the city.

We were lucky enough to visit Paris the first time, 14 years ago. And, I have definitely confirmed with this visit that the Notre Dame is one of my favourite places on earth. I mean, look at this place!

The Cathedral and the surrounding garden is so beautiful. This is a happy place for me. And, believe me I could post about 50 images if I wanted to. It’s one of those places that you walk 10 feet, see a new angle and NEED to snap another photo. Thank you digital!

We chose the bridge on the Seine River closest to the Notre Dame for our “love lock”. Yeah, we did that. It’s in there somewhere… I’ll post a little more on that later.

And of course we needed to revisit the scene of the crime. The crime being our engagement over 14 years ago. Yep. Just babies deciding to get hitched. Not too shabby Steve!

It’s hard to chose highlights. It’s honestly one big highlight. It’s all good. If you like history, architecture, beautiful people, walking, good food, and always having something new to do — this is the place for you.

We thought this was pretty charming. A Parisians version of sunbathing at the beach. Apparently, when the weather gets nice, they shut down a road along the river and fill it with sand and volleyball nets and all that good stuff, and create a beach where there isn’t one.

We made our way to Louvre Museum and saw this young lady…

And the ensuing traffic she creates… elbows out!!

A revisit to Venus de Milo.

And, Olivia loves the owls… so I snapped this little buddy for her.

So much to share, I could go on and on. Yep, it was a very nice break away. It was a bit of a test for me… 12 nights without my baby girl is a new record. But, we all survived, and are so amazingly fortunate to have such loving Grandparents — not to mention an amazing kid (we’ve been told she was not problem at all, and we’re stickin’ with that story).

It was a fantastic couple of weeks revisiting some old memories and creating a ton of new ones. Look at these faces… these are happy people.

Bonus round! Look at these babies on the evening of their engagement 14 years ago. BABIES! Ahh!