Thursday, July 4, 2024

Goodbye Paris, Hello Venice!

We had watched a YouTube video and written down some restaurants and bakeries we wanted to try, and one was Du Pain et des Idees. Matt humored me on our last morning and went with me to pick up goodies for brekkie. 

We had to take the metro and walk, but I think it was worth it. 

We got flan, escargot, croissants and chocolate croissants and then juice from the Intermarché and took them all home to wake up kids with. 

We opened the windows and cut up our goodies and it was so magical. 

Aaaand then it was go time to pack up and leave the apartment with all our gear. We said goodbye to Lu and Damian since they were flying out of Charles de Gaulle and we flew from Orly, and headed out to the Paris temple in Versailles 

It took an hour and a half and several metros and busses to get out there, but it was a beautiful ride. We just stared at the Eiffel Tower out our window, so amazing. 

I had tried to make baptism reservations, like I’ve done for lots of other temples, but that’s not available for Paris. So I tried to email them several times to no avail. So we showed up with faith and prayers that it would all work out. 

And at first, it didn’t. We talked to the temple matron, who spoke beautiful French and Spanish and a little English, but Matt was able to speak Spanish to her. She said their morning shift had already left and they didn’t have anything till the afternoon, but maybe she could talk to the temple president who happened to be her husband. He offered to let us talk to one of his counselors who was in charge of the afternoon shift, and he pretty quickly told us there was no way because he didn’t have any workers. 

That’s when that beautiful temple matron talked quietly to her husband and told him he needed to make this happen for us. I don’t know for sure that’s what happened, but being a wife to a wonderful husband who always means well but doesn’t always get it right, that’s what I think happened. Because after we talked to the counselor, the president came back and said he would be willing to stay and help us and he’d go see if he could get someone else. He told us to go out and meet him outside the baptistery doors. 

And he found someone!

I was so happy and thankful I had tears in my eyes. And I gave her a big hug and told her how thankful I was. Because that transfers no matter what language you speak. 

Matt baptized and she and I were the witnesses and it was just so special. Then when the girls were done she made sure to give each of us 3 names so we all got to be confirmed. The temple president came in and confirmed Matt. 

We have been so blessed with amazingly generous temple workers going out of their way for us and our girls. In Frankfurt the couple that helped us were there right before Christmas and just for us. We can’t wait to be temple workers and help cute little families like ours. It means so much. 

We took pictures quickly and then hustled across the street to our bus, and then waited for 20 minutes. 🤣

We ate our leftover croissants for a snack and getting to the airport was a little bit of a fiasco because somehow even though I knew we needed a specific bus to orly to be able to us our weekly metro pass we got to the point where we had to take the special orly metro for $11 each. So frustrating. 

And then our flight was delayed but we got food and napped and finally our flight left and was quick and easy and we got to sit together. 

I thought we might have time to see the gardens or palace of Versailles, but no luck. 

And because Matt and I never get solo pictures:

We’re traveling, and tennis shoes and dresses go together when you’re traveling. 

We took so many different metros and busses. 🤣

Delaney has been using one of my old phones to take pictures and videos and would like to start a vlog, she’s loving documenting our trip. It’s both adorable, and annoying. 

We walked a million steps to the water taxi, rode 45 minutes in the dark, walked in the sprinkling rain for 15 minutes and finally made it to our Airbnb in Venice. 

We were trying to be quiet since it was late, and at one point Matt was navigating us and a man poked his head out from one of the doors and said something about night in Italian. I said sorry and ushered the girls away, and when Matt looked back he recognized Frey. 😂 I thought we were being asked to keep it down and it was dark and I didn’t recognize him, it was pretty funny. We walked together for a late pizza dinner and got to bed for our first night in Italy. 🇮🇹 

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