Hello friends and Family!  

  As we continue on our Journey through Europe we have finally come into France, one of my most anticipated spots because I took French for so many years. It has definitely come in handy. Not that I am good at speaking French by any means, but I can get by.
    Our first stop in France was Monaco, just to add another country to the list. Then we headed to Marseille. It is a beautiful city on the French Riviera. Its popular but not quite so as its near neighbor the city of Nice (Hence the name ha ha!). Marseille is probably best known for the Chateau D'If, which was made famous by the book, the Counte of Monte Cristo. It is the oldest city in France, and it was amazing! It was first used as a defense in the 1600's or something like that, and then during the Napoleonic years they used it as a place to imprison those who opposed the emperor Napoleon. It was awesome and you will have to take a look at my Facebook photos!
     After Marseille we dipped down into Barcelona. We decided to camp out here, to save some money. But it wasn't so bad, the public transit is easy and we were right across from the beach! Barcelona is the capital of Gothic Architecture in Europe which makes for some very intriguing cathedrals!
     Next we headed to one of my favorite cities, Paris! I was so excited to see such an iconic city. The Louvre was awesome, seeing the Mona Lisa was definitely a highlight! The Eiffel tower of course, and climbing the 41 flights of stairs was a fun workout. Finally the Notre Dame, but we were sad but Quasimodo wasn't there! And just to clarify, from what I can tell,  some French like Americans, some don't. I used French everywhere I went. Not that it was perfect, not that my conjugations were always correct, but if I did a bad job people were nice about it. Paris was different. Not so many nice people, and some downright mean. So not my favorite people group, but they do have a great country.
       We met an English man in our travels that told us that God gave the French some of the best countryside in Europe, but then to make it fair, He put the french people there ;) We had a great time anyway! Miss you all!