20th Anniversary Trip

 Charlie and I recently returned from our 20th anniversary trip to France.  It was a fast and furious trip as we did not want to leave the kids for too long.  We had a blessed trip as we visited a few Paris sites, went to the French Open, and took a train to the west coast of France.

We were pretty jet lagged after not sleeping on the plane, but we managed to walk around Paris a good bit.  We saw the outside of Notre Dame and walked across bridges over the Seine river.  We went to the base of the Eiffel Tower.  We were there when PSG won the Champions League game.  It was cool and a bit crazy to see everyone celebrating.

Charlie and I had both been to Paris before (separately) when we were teenagers, so for this trip, we didn't care to do all the city attractions.  Rather, we spent our main full day in the city, at Roland Garos watching the French Open.  I especially just loved the grounds and the venue.  We were not on center court, but rather the second main court.  We watched part of a women's match and almost all of a men's match.  I told Charlie it felt like a casual, yet classy environment.  We both really enjoyed it!

After spending most of the day at the French Open, we took an evening train to St. Malo on the coast of Brittany in western France.  We stayed at the hotel Chateaubriand.  It was right by the water and the fort in the old part of the city.  You could walk along the city's ramparts right outside our hotel.

If you know me, you can guess that I am always going to be looking for hike to go on.  The next day, we were blessed with great weather so we headed out to hike along the coast.  We hiked along the coastal path labeled GR-34.  We hiked from Fort La Latte to Cape Frehel.  It was approximately 6 miles round trip.  With pleasant temperatures and no elevation gain to speak of, it felt like an easy hike.  You can pay to tour the Fort but we chose not to do that so we simply hiked between the two landmarks.  It was beautiful, and we even saw a pod of dolphins!

For our final full day in France (we kept the trip short to not be away from the kids long), we decided to visit the small medieval village of Dinan and Mont Saint-Michel.  Dinan is such a charming medieval village that sits along the Rance river.  It's full of cobblestone streets and half-timbered houses.  We walked along the main street (Rue du Jerzual) and the ramparts.  We walked by the river and I enjoyed a coffee as well.

Our final stop before returning to St. Malo to take an evening train back to Paris, was Mont Saint-Michel.  Mont Saint-Michel is a tidal island with an abbey dating back 1000 years.  It is one of the most unique places we have ever visited.  Our visit coincided with low tide, so it was neat to see people walking in the tidal flats around the island.  Touring the abbey was a bit of a climb but it was well worth it for the views and the architecture.