Paris trip approaching!

Our trip to Paris is officially within the 10-day forecast! Not that the forecast is necessarily anywhere close to being right, but here's hoping it is (as it currently stands, it's supposed to be a sunny day here in Chicago). We're leaving early afternoon, with a short stopover in Washington DC, then jetting off to Paris. Hear that weather?? NO SNOWSTORMS that might delay either flight! I'd appreciate your cooperation.

(Photo from my youngest sister's trip to Paris last summer)

My boyfriend and I have so much planned, and it'll be amazing if we get to see everything we want to. First, we've got two day trips. One to Caen/Normandy. The city still has a lot of the same buildings that were there during the French Revolution. Even street names haven't changed, meaning? I know exactly where Charlotte Corday spent a few years of her life, both while living at Le Gran Manoir and the Abbey Aux Dames! While there, we're also planning on going to the Normandy beaches to see where my grandpa landed during the D-Day invasions. Anything else we see in Caen will just be icing on the cake.

We've also got a day trip to Aachen, the furthest west you can get in Germany. The boyfriend is planning this one (as he's fluent in German), but even though it means time away from Paris I'm looking forward to it, if only because I've never been there (and I hear it's gorgeous).

And then there's Paris! The city of light! With the two day trips, we've got about 6 days in Paris. One of those afternoons (or days), we'll be going to Versailles, for sure. I want to see the palace, but even more so, I'm looking forward to checking out the Musee Lambinet, the only museum in France to have an entire exhibit devoted to paintings of Charlotte Corday and Marat.

The other days will be spent exploring everywhere possible. From Montmartre, to Marais, to the Latin Quarter. I must, must, must see the catacombs and the Conciergerie and Sacre Couer and the Chapelle Expiatoire and the Picasso Museum and the Tuileries and... well the list goes on.

I've asked a version of this before, but I'll ask again:

If there was only one thing you could see/do in Paris, what would it be?

Once I'm back, I absolutely promise to post about the trip, along with pictures, of course.