When Chad and I were planning our wedding, we started talking about what the future would hold for us. We talked of a family, of dogs, of a new home, and of travel. We both decided we really wanted to travel before starting a family; and so we set the goal to visit Europe three years in a row. Our trip last summer to France & Switzerland was trip number two, and this coming July we’ll be heading back to France (this time to photograph a wedding), and will then be heading to the UK afterwards. Tears come to my eyes as I think about how fortunate we’ve been to travel to these beautiful countries, and how after July I will have crossed off my “must see’s in Europe”. Anything after this is a total bonus to me, so I’m completely thrilled.
I was completely over whelmed when we started planning our honeymoon the year before, so I turned to a travel company to help me. This time around with no wedding to plan, planning a trip to Europe was a lot easier. In typical Chad and I fashion, we jammed as much as we could into our 13 days away and decided we’d visit both France and Switzerland.
The first leg of our trip was Paris. We rented an Air Bnb for the first time in our lives, and I was an anxious wreck until we arrived at the magic blue door and there was a man waiting for us with a key. We dropped our bags and got our tooshies out to the door to begin our exploration of this gorgeous city.
So we all know Europe is stunning. But what got me was at how beautiful even something as simple as the “metro” signs were, LOL! ^^
The Louvre will likely always be the most amazing museum I’ve ever seen. We are not museum people AT ALL, but this one is just too amazing to miss.
Versailles. Wow! We went on a tour with Fat Tire tours and loved our tour guide. He was full of zest and whipped through the tour at an awesome pace. I regret not snapping a photo with them, but we met a wonderful Australian couple on this tour and head out for lunch with them afterwards.
If you’re heading to Paris and are visiting Montmartre, this restaurant was one of our favourites from the whole trip! It was the best french onion soup and caprese salad we had.
Montmartre was our favourite neighborhood in all of Paris, and if we go back we’d definitely stay closer to this part of town.
I spent my entire time in the Luxembourg Gardens wishing I had a beautiful couple to photograph here. Add that to my bucket list!
We loved the location of our little flat we stayed in Paris through AirBnb. It was small but mighty and had the perfect location. It also had the most comfortable bed with an amazing skylight!
We rented a car to drive from Paris to Bern Switzerland. It took us longer then we anticipated but we love driving so it was worth it!
One thing that is very different about Switzerland then both France and Italy, is that you can’t get dinner after 8pm. Luckily, a super expensive visit to McDonalds saved us, lol!
Once we arrived in Grindelwald, we hopped on a cable car to get up to First. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and took a zip car ride down. If you’re looking into doing this go early or prepare to wait. Chad and I waited for over an hour and stupidly didn’t bring warm enough clothing to keep ourselves comfortable during the wait. If it’s a windy day they have to close the lines for safety; so plan accordingly! {Link for First}
A last minute suggestion was made to us to visit the Aare Gorge and it was an amazing experience!
We wanted an authentic experience when we stayed in Aix-En-Provence. We really regretted not staying in Tuscany when we travelled to Italy, and didn’t want to make that mistake again. When we arrived in the french countryside and pulled up to La Bastide De Boulbon, we could not get over how perfect it was. It was even more beautiful then it appeared in photos and was exactly the quaint B&B I had dreamt of.
Finding a lavender field wasn’t as easy as I had imagined it would be. We didn’t stay in the most ideal location to find the big sprawling fields of it, and everywhere we did see we couldn’t access. The only regret I have from this trip was not looking into where the sprawling lavender fields were. After two hours of driving, we stumbled upon this field on the side of the road and I REJOICED!
We absolutely fell in love with this called Gordes. I’d highly suggest visiting it if you’re visiting Aix-En-Provence.
We said farewell to Aix-En-Provence by visiting the infamous Avignon, and got on our merry way to the final leg of our trip; Nice!
The market is Nice was absolutely amazing. I closed my eyes and dreamt of being a local and having access weekly to such a beautiful array of foods and flowers.
I’m dying to have a mini olive tree of my own. When I saw these little potted guys my heart swooned and ached knowing I couldn’t bring one home with me!