Keown Family-Life in Belgium: Trying to get caught up......Brussels & Paris

As I'm sure many of you are aware, I am very far behind on my blogs. I have a lot to catch up on so I hope you can bare with me on my short descriptions and probably lots of grammatical errors :)

Continuing with Renae and Shayla's visit... I decided to take them on the hop on hop off bus in Brussels. I had never done it and neither had most of my friends. After it was over, I kind of figured out why. I don't know if it was just the driver that we had or the system itself, but it was fast (because he never stopped at a stop long enough to even get off the bus) and the commentary really didn't go with each location. So, if you only have an hour to see some sites in Brussels, then I guess it's a good deal...???

Shayla at least got to snap a quick picture of Cinquantenaire Park. We still have not been there as a family (crazy, I know) but hope to soon!

After our whirlwind bus tour, we headed into Grand Place. This is one of Emerson's favorite poses!

This artrist was pretty cool. He was doing paintings with spray paint that he was kind of scraping around.

Have to hit up the famous bar!

E loves hanging out at the Belgian bars....;)

And Shayla was of drinking age...I finally got her to try a beer! I think it was coconut or banana flavored :/

I was glad Renae and Shayla had decided to visit because I just needed another trip to Paris (and they were a great excuse to go)! I found some cheap train tickets and coaxed a few friends into joining us as well.

Claire, Wendy, Me, and Ericka
Claire was leaving us for Mexico and we were lucky to have one last girls trip together!

Renae and Shayla in front of Notre Dame

I hired a private guide for this Paris trip so we could all see some things that we haven't before...most of us had been to Paris many times. She took us to some neat places and told some good stories/facts...and she also let us goof off a little too :)

Flower Market

Claire is taking the time to smell the hydrangeas :)

This was some building (I think the police station). It had bullet holes still in it from some event....sorry, that's all I got. I'm pretty sure there is a nice, historical story behind it but... I think I've realized that even without my children, I halfway listen to my guides....sad, I know.

I wish this sign was all over Europe! We see way too many people on the side of the road taking a leak...uck!

This is one of two main bridges in Paris that are covered with "love locks." Lovers come here and put there lock on the bridge and throw the key in the river Seine. Romantic?? Not sure about that...it's kind of an eye sore covering up beautiful bridges. Our guide said that they remove tons of locks every year because the weight is too much for the bridge plus most the French can't stand this touristy tradition.

It was Tuesday so the Louvre was closed, but we were still able to walk around and feel the enormity of this palace museum.

This was my "try" at getting a pic of the Arc du Carrousel with the Arc de Triomphe in the distance right under the arch. This was a little secret our guide told us about. She showed us the perfect spot to capture it but I didn't bring the right lens!

Our guide took us to Galeries Lafayette, a very nice mall with a spectacular view of Paris from the outdoor restaurant. It was a bit of a gloomy day (and I'm an awful photographer) but it was just a great place to see the whole city.

Sacre Coeur is at the center of this pic and that's where we were headed next!

Sacre Coeur was one of the places I requested to see on this trip because I had not seen it yet. After getting there I was a little glad I had not tried to visit it with kids. It was a metro ride and then a LONG hike uphill! The little town around it was very quaint (but touristy) and cute. I got a lovely painting of Paris and Ericka got an adorable sketched picture of her daughter. The area was full of talented artist.