Sean's birthday cake

Sean and Davis's birthdays kick off what feels like constant celebrations for two and a half months in our family. It can be a lot, but I do love it. I don't normally document Sean or I's birthday on our blog, but I really love this picture of him and I also wanted to remember the cake I made for him this year! I re-made the dulce de leche cake I first made in the spring in a gluten free version. It turned out so well!

I'm so happy it turned out! He deserves an awesome cake. He misses out on a lot of things being gluten free, and I really wanted him to be able to indulge!

Colmar: day 1

We arrived in Colmar in the early evening and set out to find our Airbnb. I was really looking forward to this leg of our trip. I had high expectations and this whole area far exceeded them. We knew as soon as we stepped out of the train station we were somewhere special. I kept looking around not believing how beautiful and charming it was. The colors and half-timbered houses, and SO many flowers! I purposefully planned our trip right after the peak summer season, hoping to avoid heat and crowds, but was really hoping there would still be flowers. There were definitely still flowers everywhere! Colmar is less than 30 miles from the German border, so there is a strong German influence in the area in architecture, food, etc. It's just an amazing place.

Our Airbnb was the second floor of the building on the right and was built in the 13th century! We were instructed by our host to please water the flower boxes every morning, which made me smile. :) This was our least expensive place we stayed, but it was an entire apartment and was really spacious and nice. It also had a washer and dryer (that we maybe didn't quite understand, but was nice for washing everything we had worn thus far since we packed really light). 

After getting settled, we headed out to walk around Colmar. It truly is so beautiful. It felt like a fairytale (supposedly Disney patterned the village in Beauty and the Beast after Colmar and the surrounding towns).

We were walking around this area around sunset and it was unbelievably beautiful. 

As it was getting dark we decided to find somewhere for dinner.  The places our host had recommended were closed since it was Sunday. We did find a cute place that was open and it ended up being one of my favorite meals of the trip. I got some sort of yummy chicken with homemade spaetzle. The spaetzle was my favorite part! We finished with an orange creme brûlée which was so good.

Paris: Day 3

Our final day in Paris was beautiful. We once again enjoyed breakfast on our balcony before saying au revoir and heading to the Museé d'Orsay. We really loved our stay here so much. 

Another beautiful Parisian storefront

And another stop at Pierre Hermé!

Just walking around Paris was one of my favorite things to do. I was struck by just how beautiful it is! The architecture is stunning. I truly love this city.

My favorite storefront of all

We made it to the Museé d'Orsay, which I learned used to be a railway station, now converted to an art museum. I really loved this museum, particularly the impressionist section.

So many Monets! It was fun seeing some of the famous ones, but there were so many I didn't recognize that I really loved. Particularly the one of the building and sunset and the one with all of the French flags.

This painting was insanely detailed. I couldn't stop staring at it. This is a terrible picture, but in person it was unbelievable.

Loved this view from behind the clock face with the Louvre visible in the background. 

After the museum we headed to the Arc de Triomphe. We had driven around it, but we actually climbed to the top and got to see another cool view of Paris.

From there we strolled down the Champs-Élysées to check out all of the shops. When we saw a McDonalds, we had to peek inside because we were intrigued by the dozens of ordering screens! Always fun to see what different things they have on the menu. 

When walking past the Louis Vuitton headquarters we saw quite the car line up. Sean was excited and we made sure to take pictures and video for the boys. There were 5 very expensive cars all lined up.

I don't know who lives here, but I like their grand entrance.

It was time to head to the next stop in our journey: Colmar! I was sad to leave Paris, but definitely want to return again someday. We headed to the train station and very nearly missed our train. We thought we had plenty of time, but the station was confusing and the trains themselves were even worse! We bought second-class tickets and hopped on our train, only to learn we were sitting in a first class cabin. We hopped back off assuming it would be easy to find which cars were for second class, but it was not clear at all! As time ticked on, we were sprinting and we finally had to just jump back on in the wrong cabin because the train was leaving within seconds. We walked through so many cabins after the train left trying to find our seats. We still aren't sure we were sitting in the right spot. The seats were assigned, but there were no indications ANYWHERE which seats were which. They ought to take some lessons from the Swiss when it comes to trains.  I am still confused about it! haha The good news is we made it to Colmar!