midnight in...

Before moving to North Carolina, Aaron and I heeded Leslie Knope's advice:

"In times of stress or moments of transition, sometimes it can feel like the whole world is closing in on you. When that happens, you should close your eyes, take a deep breath, listen to the people that love you when they give you advice, and remember what really matters. And if you have the ability to go to Paris, by all means, go to Paris."

So, we went to Paris:

Our teeny studio Airbnb was right by the Louvre, so we walked past it every day. And one of those days, we went inside it and saw beautiful Winged Victory. We also saw the original painting of a 9000 piece puzzle that Aaron had put together, which neither of us realized was actually a famous Renaissance painting. Surprise! Paris, you're a thrill!

I don't think I appreciated how beautiful Paris was when I first visited when I was in college. Philly helped adjust my expectations for beautiful cities and MAN Paris is beautiful. I couldn't stop taking pictures of ordinary streets and buildings.

One of my favorite things we did was take a food tour of Monmartre, which culminated in us eating a meal of bread, cheese, meats, chocolate, and pastries in this cute little room, overlooking the street in the picture below. It was educational and delicious, my two favorite things!!

The other cool thing we did was take a macaron cooking class at a little cooking school near city hall. Once again, educational and delicious. Macarons are notoriously tricky, so it was awesome to have a professional show us what to do and what to look for. We came away with a box of ~40 cookies, which we snacked on the rest of the trip.

It was fun to show Aaron all the places I loved the last time I was here. Sainte-Chapelle was high on the list. While we were there, a boys choir was visiting and performed just one angelic song. We were so lucky to be there at the same time and get to listen to that little piece of heaven.

Couldn't pass up going to Versailles, even if it was chilly and rainy.

The opulence of Versailles was a sharp contrast to the elegant simplicity of the Mormon temple we walked over to afterward (of course our trip was during the two weeks of the year it's closed for cleaning, so we couldn't actually go inside. But the grounds were lovely!)

On our last morning, I made Aaron go to one last art museum: Musee de l'Organerie. I'm happy to report walking into that rotunda ringed with Monet's water lilies was just as moving 8 years later.

This is us in front of the I Love You Wall loving Paris with all our freaking hearts. Hope we'll be back someday <3