Grumpy kids and long train rides...Paris week 7

Last week was amazing, and incredibly beautiful. I couldn't imagine being somewhere more beautiful than Normandy. I'm absolutely convinced that this is the most beautiful country...

After we got home from Versailles, we spent a few days getting ready, doing laundry, and repacking. We were meant to leave Thursday, but changed it to Friday, which made our preparations much less stressful. 

Thursday evening I finally got around to going up Montparnasse tower, and I watched the sunset. It. Was. Breathtaking. Everyone gathered around the few areas that made for good pictures, and watched.

I was tempted to stay and wait for the sky to get dark and for the lights on the Eiffel Tower to turn on, but I wanted to walk home and I didn't want to wait 30 minutes for it to get dark.

I got one on the way home, anyway. 

And then Friday, the adventure started. 

We left at 8 in the morning to catch our train headed South. There had been an accident with a train the day before, but we had been assured that it wouldn't make a difference in our travels. Our train was delayed leaving about 20 minutes, but then we were off. 

Until right after we passed Bourdeaux...and the train stopped. And we waited 2 hours before they kicked us off the train. We took a taxi to Lourdes, which was our final destination, which took an extra 2 hours. 

By the time we got there, it had been 8 hours since we left that morning...and it was supposed to be a 4-5 hour trip. We were exhausted. 

Saturday, we headed into the mountains.

I could show you a hundred pictures of how beautiful these mountains were...

I mean, I love my Sandia mountains, but these were just gorgeous.

We had lunch at a cute place called "ze bistrot", and then we went and visited the Castle of Henry IV. It was really beautiful.

Sunday, we headed back up to the mountains to watch Nicolas, my host dad, in his bike race. 

Fun fact: they do this bike race here every year, during the Tour de France. It's the same trail that they ride in the Tour, but it's the day before the actual tour visits that city. It's actually pretty cool. And since my dad is such a fan of the Tour, it made it a bit cooler. 

We stopped to cheer after the first climb. The kids had these huge inflatable hands and they high-fived everyone that rode past. It was hilarious.

After lunch, we stopped at a Zoo, and they had some of the funniest things...like an insect habitat. I laughed pretty hard at that one.

How cool is it that they let them into the habitat?!

"Hotel Insectes"

It was raining pretty hard by the time the race finally ended later that day, and the kids were exhausted by the time we got home.

Monday there were a few delays in our train, but we finally made it home last night. The kids were exhausted and grumpy.

Tomorrow we head to London! It's crazy to think that I'm more than half way done with my time here...today marks 5 weeks before I go home. I'm really excited to get home(cuz I'm excited for school. How weird is that?!) but I am enjoying these last weeks so so much. The food is amazing, the people are amazing, and I am so so blessed. :)