Day 3 - April 13, 2010

For our first full day in Paris, we started with a baguette and croissant at our neighborhood boulangerie and enjoyed our first French breakfast on the canal wall, with our legs dangling over the water.





And then it was off to la Tour Eiffel! The cold wind was whipping through as we waited in line to walk up (we decided we would rather conquer the tower, rather than just visit), and I think our noses were effectively numb by the time we reached the top. Good thing we found wall heaters to warm up against!

We stopped in for a cup of tea and then Cory found a lovely garden on the first level to sit together. Before long, Cory was down on one knee and Molly was lovestruck (by both her dashing fiancee and the beautiful Tiffany ring he put on her finger!). The rest of the day was a happy blur :)




Ooh, plus we had a great dinner on Rue Montargeuil, at a little place that served globally-influenced Wok creations, right out of classic Chinese food boxes. A perfect engagement dinner!

What we learned today: Engagement opens up a whole host of new nickname possibilities: Husband in Training, Wife in Training, Fiance, Forever Bear, Forever Bunny, etc. The entire continent may be left vomiting like an Icelandic volcano long after we're gone!

Day 2 - April 12, 2010

We easily connected through Frankfurt to our Paris flight (but what a weird airport, though we did love that they have bicycles for people to ride through the airport). On the one-hour flight, they served us Camembert sandwiches and free wine – we're not in Kansas anymore! We got on the metro (turns out Cory is an excellent European navigator, especially to get his tired, hungry girl to the apartment after so many hours of travel) and got to our place on Rue de Lancry in the 10th Arrondisment. Our little studio has everything we could need and the neighborhood is a delightful, bustling place! After a short tour by our host, Tom, and a crepe with Nutella (not more than a couple hours after arrival), we napped up to head out for our Hidden Kitchen dinner.



Cory had found out about the Hidden Kitchen on David Liebowitz's foodie blog, which Molly was questioning as we headed out to a Paris apartment on our first night in town, for an intimate, home-cooked 10-course meal with 14 strangers. Almost 5 hours later, we had enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime feast prepared in a small home kitchen (in a stunning apartment). The two highlights of the meal: sliders served on pages of the New Yorker, and caramelized white chocolate cake with lime sorbet.



What we learned today: The French seem to be in a rush to go somewhere at all times, everywhere! Getting run over by a person, bike, scooter or car may be an inevitable part of our time here.

Day 1 - April 11, 2010

We woke up at 4am, super duper excited for our European adventure! After spending an additional hour and a half at the San Diego airport due to weather delays (and had our last stupid-style American croissant in the meantime to get a baseline for the trip), we finally got on our way with only minutes to spare on our connection. Good thing we had the world on our backs because we ran our little hearts out to make our connection to Frankfurt and arrived in the terminal just as they were calling for the very last chance to board our flight. But we made it and were on our way!!

What we learned today: Carrying everything on the plane is the only way to go, but 5 hours into our trip, we already know that we could have taken even less stuff!

Hello!!

Hi and Welcome to our family blog! We are going to try this space out for our trip journals, favorite photos, and keeping our friends and family in the know about our upcoming nuptials.

We hope to see you back soon!!

Lots of love,
Molly and Cory "Sturtebury"