Visiting A Study Abroad Student

We left from Chicago ORD on an evening flight for CDG Paris.

We arrived in Paris at 10am, took an Uber to the Westin Paris Vendome - incredible hotel, great location. Right across the street from the Tulleries. We spent the day walking given we couldn't check in until around 3pm - we had walked about 15 miles by check in. Did our own walking tour. Cut through the Tulleries, through the Place de la Concorde & crossed at the Pont Alexandre III. Saw the Eiffel Tower (didn't go up), but then walked to the Arc de Triomphe where we had tickets to go up top- incredible views. Even our grumpy tired teenager posed for pics! Walked home via Champs Elysee.

We checked into the hotel, dressed for dinner & walked to dinner at Le Capucine. Incredible & we speak no French. That was the funniest part.

We walked home and stumbled into our all time favorite bar in Paris.. Harry's New York Bar. We found all our college banners had a few pints and closed our first official night in Paris down in style!

We left the hotel early to get to Sainte Chapelle where we had tickets to go in at 9am. This is a must do - incredible, especially given Notre Dame was still closed. We spent over an hour in here and it was just beautiful. We then explored this part of this city and wandered over to the Deportation Martyrs Memorial - wow. We had no idea what we were walking into and the history we would experience as we saw the place where all the Jews were deported from Paris. It was incredibly moving and my son who is 18 was in there the longest - and emerged with a look I have never seen. It was worth the trip. We then made our way toward the Pantheon and to my favorite street - Rue Mouffetard where there were some incredible little shops. We walked to the Musee d'Orsay which we had tickets for. Incredible. Dinner was again amazing. Perfectly French - they were cracking crab legs outside as we walked in. Les Antiquares. Make a reservation! It is beyond worth it. We then ubered to a piano bar which was a blast. Aux Trois Mailletz. A complete find & totally fun!

Day started with a tour of the Louvre. A must do! We are not tour people, but this is a must! 2 hours and you see what you need to see. It was great. From here we picked up our bags and ubered to Charles de Gaulle and picked up a rental car. Off to Amsterdam. It took us about 4 hours to drive, travelled through Belgium, but pretty easy. Toughest part was getting the car from French to English and watching the speed traps!

Arrived in our hotel about 7pm. Great location. Arranged to meet our son at a local italian restaurant after his last final and I could not wait!!!! What a great reunion.

We explored Amsterdam with our son as our guide. What an incredible city! Canals, museums, bikes. We had tickets for the Van Gogh museum at 4:15 which you must get ahead of time - totally worth it. We didn't make reservations for dinner, but we didn't need them - we found local fare and it was great! Shopping was awesome!

We woke to another day in this wonderful city and our son took us to all ends of the city - from the floating Flower Market to Vondelpark to the Red Light District! We took one of the many canal tours. We did the canal tour that was drinks included and it was great - there are so many, you really can't go wrong. This city has more museums than I've ever seen - you really need to pick what you have time for. We really wanted to see the Anne Frank House which you must do. You need tickets and it really is worth it. We missed the Rijksmuseum and the Heineken tour, but we simply ran out of time - we needed at least a week in Amsterdam to see all that it had to offer.

We departed Amsterdam early knowing we would all return - it is such an incredible city filled with so much art & culture. We drove about 3 hours to Bruges, Belgium to stop for lunch. From Bruges we drive to our first stop in Normandy, France which was the town of Rouen. Here we stayed at the Hotel de Bourgtheroulde which was nice and centrally located. We wanted to see the cathedral there, Rouen Cathedrale Notre-Dame which was walking distance from the hotel and gorgeous. We enjoyed a really great dinner at Pascaline.

We departed Rouen and began our driving journey into beautiful Normandy - the drive through the sea towns was spectacular! Honfleur, Trouville-sur-Mer, Deauville, Cabourg. Our destination was Caen to see the Caen Memorial Museum. This was the perfect way to start the trip through Normandy. This museum gave the "big picture" and told the whole story of everything happening globally before D-Day. We spent at least 3 hours in there and could have spent more. We then drove to Bayeux which acted as our home base in Normandy. The hotel we stayed at was Hotel Reine Mathilde - a great find, breakfast was available in the morning. Dinner our first night in Bayeux was across the street from the hotel at La Maison B - decent, probably a little more touristy than any of us would have liked.

This was our big driving day to see the beaches of Normandy and we saw it all. We started at Arromanches les Bains - amazing to see the Mulberries. Beautiful views of the cliffs. From there we drove to the Liberators Museum and the Longues-Sur-Mer Battery to see the German gun batteries. We made our way to the Overlord Museum as we were heading to Omaha beach. But, the most moving place I've ever experienced (and I think our boys experienced) was the American Cemetary and the Memorial Museum of Omaha Beach. Incredible. We then went to Omaha beach, walked the beach and I found this beautiful shell that reminds me of all the sacrifices those men made so we could be here. From there, it was to the highest point between Omaha and Utah beach - Point de Hoc. While driving there, my husband put on a speech Ronald Reagan gave there and it told the story of the men - it was so moving. None of us could speak when we got out of the car. We took a little detour from the beaches to see a place called Brecourt Manoir - which if you've ever watched Band of Brothers was was one of the first places the soldiers needed to take on D-Day. We also went to this incredible church called Sainte Mere Eglise - a must see! Dinner was back in Bayeux at Le Pommier. An incredible day all around.

We left Bayeux early this morning (it was Easter Sunday) and drove to Mont Saint Michel - A MUST SEE! You need reservations/tickets to go to into the Abbey, but it was incredible. We had lunch there after going to mass in French - but this was my favorite part - hearing people speaking all the prayers their native languages. We left after lunch, but we could have spent the entire day there. We drove back to Paris which was about 3.5 hours. We stayed out by the airport, but it was a great final night with our son to recap the entire trip.

We said goodbye to my son which was a both a joy and a heart break - I knew he was thriving, but I also knew it would be a few weeks before he was home. I was so happy to have spent the time with him. He took the train back to Amsterdam and flew back to Chicago. Wow was all I can say...what an adventure.