Les Henards voyager en Europe!

I have been MIA for a couple of weeks because my in-laws came for a visit. It was like Christmas for us!! Not only was it fun just spending time with them, but they brought all kinds of goodies to us that we need and can't find here. They had a whole suitcase full of everything we have been missing. It was filled with all kinds of necessities....lotions, hair products, makeup, brown sugar, magazines, stuff for the dogs (i.e. treats and things for them to chew on), paper plates, a birthday gift from my best friend April, a new pair of work out pants that my little sister Lily sent me, mustard, peeps (from April), some snack bars that are allergy free, bouillon cubes that are allergy free, oatmeal and allergy free chocolate chips, a new GPS since we left ours in a rental car several weeks ago :(, and a Kindle Fire which was part of my birthday present!! Whew....that's a lot of stuff!!

Hopefully this will get us through until August!! Me and Judy (MIL) had the best time pulling everything out and opening it up!! It's not until you have to go without do you realize how much you appreciate things like cotton balls, magazines, and your favorite hair care products, etc.

After we got them back to the apartment (from the airport) and settled David had to go back to work and I showed them around Geneva so they wouldn't fall asleep.

We visited the Jet d'Eau.

Downtown Geneva.

The United Nations.Since my father-in-law is a Pastor we had to make sure and visit
the Saint-Pierre Cathedral
( John Calvin's church).

John Calvin's grave.

and

The Reformation Wall.The next day we headed to Chamonix, France to see the Mont Blanc! David had to work so he wasn't able to go. It was a little chillier than we expected so we all ended up with some awesome tourist sweatshirts and jackets. Once we got to Chamonix we took a cable car up to the Aiguille du Midi which has a beautiful view of the Mont Blanc, Swiss, French, and Italian Alps.

On Thursday we took the train to Paris! It's only about a three hour trip. This was mine and David's second trip to Paris. We were excited to get to do some of the things that we hadn't been able to do the last time we went.







My sweet husband got me a Longchamp bag for my birthday. Apparently, you can't live in Europe without one as it seems that everyone has them. They are a different style than what I'm used to but after seeing how durable they are and seeing people of all ages carrying them I decided it was time to join them..."when in Rome...err..Paris"

One thing that we got see that we didn't last time was the Eiffel tower all lit up. After a certain time, on the hour every hour at night the tower lights up with all these beautiful sparkly lights. Unfortunately the pictures didn't do it justice, but it's one of those picturesque moments that you don't forget.

We also got to see Versailles this time.

Here are David and his parents in front of the gardens. I had no idea it would be so huge.

I manage to drag everyone to the end of those gardens in search of the Marie Antoinette Estate. I thought by Estate it meant house...it didn't. We kept looking and looking and finally realized that it was mainly just the area of the gardens she liked to hang out in....oops :)!! It was quite the hike looking for it though.
There is this bridge in Paris where you buy a lock, write something on it if you choose and stick it on the the side of the bridge. We thought it would be fun to add our locks to the bridge. I think the point of it is to show your undying love for each other. It was dark out but that is where we hung our lock!

Bill and Judy did the same!So Romantic !!

So in the four days we had we saw the Eiffel tower, The Louvre, The Sacre Coeur, Versailles, we shopped, hunted for gargoyles, made our mark on Paris via our locks on the bridge and had a great time!!

I think we were all exhausted by the time we got back but their is no rest for the weary when you have things to see!! So the next day we headed off to Gruyeres, Broc, and Montreux.
Gruyeres is such a cute little town with amazing views. I feel that when you think of Switzerland you think of Heidi and this little village is along the lines of what you think Switzerland should be like. But first we made our first stop in Broc to visit the Maison Cailler chocolate factory...yummy!! The best part about the Chocolate factory is all the chocolate you get to sample at the end!

Checking out the Cocoa beans!

On our way to Gruyeres to eat some fondue!!

After fondue and some souvenir shopping we headed to the Chateau de Chillon castle in Montreux.
On their last day in town, we headed off to east some Tartiflette and tour Annecy, France. Annecy can be so pretty if it's nice outside and while it was still pretty it was overcast and dreary out so we didn't get as many pictures as we had hoped for.

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