Château de Chenonceau

Mommy & Daddy visited Château de Chenonceau in September of 2014 (for our 10th anniversary) and knew it would be a great place to share with the girls. The castle has beautiful gardens and is is built directly upon the river Cher. The rooms are furnished with beautiful furniture, and each room always has a beautiful fresh bouquet of flowers from the gardens. This time of the year, the entire Château is decorated for the holidays, with grand Christmas trees & greenery in such a way that it almost seems like every castle should be that way every day of the year. The kitchens are particularly fun to see, as they show a glimpse in to what life was like for the servants of the castle. All in all, it's one of our favorites.

The girls fell in love with the maze located on the garden grounds. They spent more than a few minutes running through the twists and turns, racing and challenging each other to various exits and paths.

And meet Mitaines (French for Mittens). Mitaines was born on the Château grounds, and Ellie didn't hesitate to adopt the fuzzy little kitty!

Amboise

For the next three nights, we are staying in a humble little place in Amboise, with a decent view. Yes, this is real. Yes, this was our view (taken at sunrise). Yes life is just THAT good.

And the view at dusk isn't too shabby either.

Neither is the view with the rise of the full moon.

He're an image of the place we're staying at (taken the next day from the château across the river). See the little place in the middle with the blue door? We were on the 2nd floor. The hostess says this is her happy place and she plans to take her last happy breath from this home. We told her we'd love to take care of the property once she's done with it, but there was a bit of a mix-up in translation and she told us we'd have to kill her first. Alas, when we finally handed back the keys at the end of our stay, she joked and said "so you won't be killing me after all?" All jokes aside, can you imagine a cuter more precious place to live? I'm struggling to think of one.

Once you peal your eyes off the view from our place, you'd realize that Amboise is actually quite a cute little town and is quite picturesque even without the stunning views.

Château de Chambord

After three days in Paris, we're ready to visit the countryside! Three days in the Loire Valley, visiting grand châteaux oughta do the heart good. Starting with Château de Chambord, we're setting the bar pretty high.

The girls are impressed with their first "real" castle. Though the audio tour did teach them that it wasn't ever used for defense purposes, seeing a king's "humble" (ha!) hunting lodge is still pretty magnificent. The winner of the entire castle was the grand staircase. It is a double-helix (designed by Leonardo da Vinci), such that two people can go up and down the stairs and never cross each other's paths. I'm sure generations of children have gotten a kick out of this, as did Ellie and Addie. They insisted that we couldn't all take the same path up or down. When visiting a château with a grand double helix staircase, there are rules to be met!

When Addie and I exited the staircase on the rooftop of the château, Addie squealed with delight, ran over to the edge and exclaimed, "I. AM. ON. THE. ROOF. OF. A. CASTLE!!!!! I can NOT believe it!" and followed this statement with a little happy dance. Or two. Or three.

Look, over there! Yep, it's a castle! La de da!

Paris by Night

With the combination of being with the kids, and the trip being the 4th time to Paris for Mommy, and the 3rd for Daddy, we weren't really expecting to get any "new" photos. Needless to say, these priceless souvenirs were a pleasant surprise...

Centre Pompidou

Next on the schedule? Well, being Christmas Day, the pickings are slim. However, the Centre Pompidou isn't too shabby. We don't have much to complain about.

It was a little challenging to get the girls engaged in the modern art exhibit, however two pieces in particular caught there eye.  They decided that this tall thin sculpture was sad because she died from being too hungry.  See her bones?  She's a ghost.  Look closely at the fat white sculpture in the distance.  The girls felt like this was another ghost who was sad because she wasn't very nice during her life.  She was too greedy.  She should have shared the food.

Ah! The making of a traditional Christmas sand castle and sand turtle. Yes, we're making memories! Haha.

Christmas Day on the Eiffel Tower

Can you think of anything more magical and special than spending Christmas morning on the Eiffel Tower? I didn't think so.

Of course the girls wanted to climb the steps of the tower. Really? Are you nuts? Do you know how big the tower is? And here we thought this trip wasn't going to have anything new for Mommy & Daddy to do. Up the steps we go! Up and up! All the way to the 2nd floor of the tower! And did the girls complain about their achy legs? Unless you consider Addie's concern about "my legs are shivering but they're not cold" a complaint, then no. Not a single moan - from the girls anyway. Mommy might have let one or two slip out.

Once we got to the very top, it goes without saying that we showed Addie & Ellie where Daddy proposed to Mommy nearly 12 years ago. They decided the moment called for a re-enactment, with Ellie playing the role of a nervous Daddy and Addie playing the role of a surprised Mommy.

But it gets better! Ice skating on the Eiffel Tower on Christmas morning? Oh yeah. Life is good.

Follow it up with a kiss or two and a cup of hot chocolate, and I don't think life can get any better.

Eiffel Tower at Night

ELLIE: Daddy? (As we get off the metro yet another time)
DADDY: Yes?
ELLIE: Where are we going now? Are we going to see the Eiffel Tower?
DADDY: Is everything about the Eiffel Tower? We're here to see more than just the tower, you know.  Will you not be happy until we see the tower?
ELLIE: (sigh) No, it's just that...
(Turning the corner and gasping at the view)
ELLIE: WHOAAAA!!!!
DADDY: But yes, we're here to see the Eiffel Tower.

ADDIE: Wow, Mommy! Wow!
MOMMY: Is it what you were expecting?
ADDIE: It's so big! But it's not exactly like I expected.
MOMMY: Why not?
ADDIE: I expected it to be sparkling. You know, with my favorite color. Sparkles.
(cue the sparkles)
ADDIE: Like that Mommy! Just like that!
(pause)
ADDIE: This is a memory that will live in my heart forever and ever!

Though they didn't ask for it, I bought them sparkling Eiffel Towers to bring home.
ADDIE: Thank you Mommy. Thank you so much! I will cherish it!

Sitting on a bench, just looking at all the pretty. No doubt they were soaking in the magic of the moment.

It was silly of Mommy & Daddy to expect to just turn around and return to the metro. The girls would not have it. They wanted to walk all the way to the tower and get up close. Is this close enough for you?

They never shy away from an opportunity for a good photo bombing.

Roue de Paris

Oh here's another something new for Mommy & Daddy. The Roue de Paris! And it's open on Christmas Eve. Perfect.

No doubt the views are magnificent from up top!

It makes me happy to get new photos of the "same old places" from different angles.

The Louvre & Palais Royal

This is the closest we got to the Louvre Museum, though we should get some kudos for trying so much. The museum closed early on Christmas Eve, then was closed the next time we tried (being Tuesday, and all). On our final attempt, the lines were so pathetically long that we gave up (same was true for Musée d'Orsay). Alas, it's always good to save something for the next trip.

The people who make the best spies are those that you would never ever suspect of spying in the first place. It can be tricky to collect different types of intelligence, especially photos, without giving away your true mission. However, these two special agents were up to the challenge. We managed to get a photo of the courtyard from a clever angle without rising suspicion.

La Cité des Enfants

On the way to La Cité des Enfants, a fantastic children's museum, we stumbled upon a playground with an epic slide. Never before have we've seen a longer slide (and the photo doesn't do it justice either). Needless to say, it was a hit with the girls.

A key rule of spying: things are not always as they seem. Pieces of intelligence can easily be altered in order to deceive you.

To practice this skill, Special Agent Huff-A-Lump 29 and Special Agent Penguin pretended to blow bubbles with the enormous La Géode.

And inside the children's museum, there were plenty of activities to keep entertained. Fun stuff.