The Rowland Family

These pictures have been posted up here for about two weeks without any detail, so I thought I would finally post something. Brendan and I flew to Paris on Dec. 22 and were there until the 26. The weather was warm the first two days, so we were able to go all around the city and walk everywhere without being too cold. At night everything was lit up with Christmas lights, and there were lots of Christmas markets open. The last two days the weather was really cold, so we had to go in earlier in the evenings. We stayed in the Montmartre district in Paris. Many pennyless artists, including Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, and Picasso lived there in late 19th/early 20th century.

On the 25th it was obviously Christmas, but also Brendan's 27th birthday. We decided to go out and celebrate by enjoying some French cuisine. We were actually really disappointed with our pricey meal that didn't taste very good and left us still hungry. We did enjoy all of the creperies that were on every street corner. The jambon et fromage (ham and cheese) was our favorite.



This is one of the little huts at a Christmas market. They had lots of breads to choose from.





The Arc de Triomphe honors those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars . Underneath is the tomb of the unknown soldier from World War I.


We saw the famous Mona Lisa in the Louvre and of course many other works of art.










Brendan and I went to the evening Christmas mass in the Notre Dame cathedral. We didn't stay for very long. They didn't really seem to mind that everyone just came in and walked around and took pictures during their service.