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Ryan’s brother Jon and sister-in-law Janet were recently in Paris so we went to visit them for the weekend.  This was our first trip to Paris since we’ve moved here!  It is about 4 hours away and we decided to take the train.  Our seats were in the “kid car” where there was a play area for kids, so it was great that Makenna could play and run around rather than be stuck in a seat for 4 hours.  Unfortunately, halfway through the trip we had to stop because there was a storm the night before and a tree knocked down some of the power lines.  We were stopped for about 3 hours and then had to get on another train for the rest of the trip.

We didn’t wind up getting into Paris until after 5, so after we dropped off our bags at our hotel we went to a cafe to meet up with Jon and Janet for a little while before their dinner reservation.  This was Makenna’s first time meeting her Aunt Janet and her second time seeing her Uncle Jon since she was born, so it was great to see them!

Jon and Janet headed to dinner and Ryan and I headed back towards the hotel to find a place to eat.  We were tired from a long day of traveling and Makenna fell asleep on our walk (which was so nice because Ryan and I were able to enjoy a some peaceful time to ourselves for a little while!).

The next day Makenna made sure we were up nice and early, so we headed to Starbucks for breakfast (the hotel breakfast was the typical French meal of only coffee and croissants) and then walked to the Louvre to see how an artist covered the pyramid to make it blend in with the palace behind it.  It was really neat to see!  Then we walked around the gardens for awhile and admired some baby ducks that were huddled around a fountain.  We then crossed a nearby bridge that people have started putting “love locks” on after the locks on the infamous “love lock bridge” were taken down.  Jon, Janet and their friend Frank met up with us and we browsed a farmers market and then headed to lunch.  After lunch we walked around for awhile and visited 3 different macaron shops including Angelina and Ladurée.  Then we stopped for a drink at an American bar, Harry’s New York Bar, which was fun because they had flags from many different US universities including Virginia Tech and Clemson!  I was so excited they had ginger beer, which is the “mocktail” I had when I was pregnant with Makenna.  We were supposed to go to dinner, but Makenna had a long day and didn’t nap, so by 7pm she had enough.  Instead we headed back to the hotel and ate gyros in our hotel room while Makenna played with her magnetic fishing game.

On our last day we decided we would do something fun for Makenna before we headed home since she had a long day of walking around with us the day before.  Our plan was to first get breakfast at an American-style diner, but of course they were closed so we had breakfast at Starbucks again.  It was pouring rain but we bit the bullet and made our way to the aquarium.  Makenna loved seeing the fish but when we got to the tank where you could touch the fish she was scared (to this day she will still randomly say “Kenna touch the fish jamais!” (jamais means never in French).  The aquarium is located across from the Eiffel Tower, so Makenna got to see the famous landmark for the first time.  We then had to catch our train back to Clermont.  It was a nice weekend but we were exhausted and ready to be home!