Bonjour! I have returned from France, so naturally I have pretty pictures to share. 😀 Hope you’ll enjoy the visual highlights of the trip.

In Paris, we stayed in a small apartment around the corner from Saint Michel:

The apartment was on the top floor overlooking a courtyard, and was amazingly compact. I was particularly fond of the kitchen, which was smaller than my bathroom here at home, but managed to contain in a fridge, two stove elements (above the fridge), a sink, dish and utensil storage, microwave, and a washing machine:

We were just a couple minutes walk from the Seine, which made for particularly lovely scenery on our walks home after dinner.

We did an awful lot of walking–the apartment was well-located enough that we could easily walk to most of the main attractions (Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Centre Pompidou), and make it out to others, like the Eiffel Tower, after bit of a hike:

The six days we were in the city, the weather was almost uniformly gorgeous–warm, sunny. It was overcast the day we went out to Versailles, but that didn’t stop us from being awed by the gorgeous buildings and particularly the gardens:

After Paris, we headed down to the tiny town of Les Eyzies to see one of the few remaining caves where you can see actual cave paintings, not just replicas. The tour was fascinating, though no pictures were allowed, so I cannot share it with you! But I highly recommend making time to see Font de Gaume if you’re ever in the country.

While there, we took a side trip to the medieval town of Sarlat, which was full of winding streets and beautiful old buildings:

As well as somewhat peculiar structures like this, one of a series of towers located near graveyards and churches around this area of France, which no one is quite sure the purpose of (the guidebook suggested it may have been a sort of lighthouse for wandering spirits):

Finally, we headed north of Paris to the town of Arras, to visit some sites and museums relating to World War I. The town itself was very pleasant–this is the sight that greeted us when we arrived the first night (the Petit Place):

And then it was time to come home, where the cats were very happy to see us. 🙂 Time to start planning the next trip!