‘Cept for this stuff, ’cause it’s in ‘Merica.

Such a cute family shot!

Paris (in case you couldn’t tell from the French sign…)

The heigh of the tower is surprisingly imposing.

One of our (except for Cara’s) favorites? Walking up Miss Eiffel’s leg.

We wanted to visit museums, but weren’t interested in spending entire days in them or bank accounts on them just to see a ton of nads and nudes. Don’t worry, we saw plenty…just not so much that we were overwhelmed at every viewpoint. 

The Musee de la Musique was magnifique, even if we didn’t enjoy the longish Metro ride. The kids got really into their headsets. They punched in the instrument number and they could hear what it sounds like. This kept them busy for a very long time!

Musee de l’Orangerie was serene. Monet’s magical brushstrokes are showcased in multiple large format canvasses that wrap around the room. Incredible.

I know there’s a metaphor here about small, individual brushstrokes contributing to a stunning masterpiece, or how a masterpiece is made up of individual brushstrokes…

but I’m too tired to come up with something brilliant or spiritual so I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

A street corner in the town of Fountainbleau.

Here’s Troyes, a very cool little medieval town. The kids couldn’t believe people used to throw buckets of poop out the windows into the little gutters that we were walking in and thought looked so cute.

Germany

Don’t get me wrong, the tiny towns are cute and some were better than others…but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that a lot of them were just cute-sified malls. Think Park City Main Street. 

We still really enjoyed the structures and took plenty of pictures to prove it!

Other than the windmills at Kinderdijk, there wasn’t much, architecture-wise, that stood out in The Netherlands.

Belgium
Antwerp had a nice city center square. The architecture is spectacular!

Ghent was really cool, especially all lit up at night. It has won the most “Beautiful City at Night” awards.

Bruges was so great. We could have walked amongst the buildings, shops, and houses forever.