England and France...September 11-24, 2009

Brad and I went to England and France in September. We first went to England on our own and then spent a week in France with our dear friends Roger and Liliane Gondelmann. It was a wonderful trip full of new sights, tastes and experiences. This first photo is a Beefeater at The Tower of London. They are the official guards of the Tower.
This is the London Eye. It was right next to the Marriott Hotel where we stayed in London. The River Themes runs right through London.

The Marriott where we stayed. While in England we visited Trafalgar Square, Stratford upon Avon (the birthplace of William Shakespeare), the Cotswold's, Christ's Church College in Oxford, Windsor Castle, Eton College, Buckingham Palace, The Churchill War Cabinet Underground Rooms and Museum, The Tower of London (Brad had an interesting conversation with a Raven here), Westminster Abbey and we took a Thames river cruise.

Roger and Liliane's home in Valencienne, France. We had a lovely dinner prepared by Liliane. Their sweet friend Annie came for dinner. She and Brad enjoyed talking golf!

Roger and Liliane Gondelmann

They took us to a favorite crepe restaurant in Valencienne where Brad had his favorite dessert ever...Le pain perdu (french toast with caramel sauce and ice cream)

Roger and Liliane's daughter Delphine, her husband Yver and their adorable children

Elsa and Johan.

While we stayed with Roger and Liliane in Valencienne, we visited the Roman ruins in Bavay and saw the walled city of Le Quesnay (Look-n-nuwa)

First Day in Paris...standing in front of the Avenue des Champs-Elysees

Arch de Triumph
We also visited the Lafayette-Galleria

Eiffel Tower

We found some LDS missionaries on the street who helped us find the church building where Kylie attended classes and church during her study abroad in Paris. We were very grateful to find them, as we couldn't seem to locate the building.

The church entrance...notice there are no marking to indicate that you are at the church facility. The missionaries said that the sign had been taken down for some reason. Let's just say that we felt very grateful to find the elders when we did.

Kylie wanted to make sure that we tasted her favorite Paris treat...Amorino gelato!

Yumm-O!

Overlooking the River Seine

While in Paris we also visited Montmartre, Sacre-Coeur, the Louvre, St. Louis Island or Ill de St. Louis (we loved it there), the Latin District on City Island, Notre Dame Cathedral, and last but not least, we got the hang of the Metro.

Normandy-Omaha Beach

We went to the D-Day Museum in Caen. It was a very touching experience.

Roger and Liliane enjoying their seafood platter

Brad playing with his food...he ordered prawns and

they came out like this....eyes, claws and all

Mont-St-Michel by night

It was absolutely beautiful to behold

Mont-St-Michel by day

Deauville, France

This was a beautiful coastal city where they have an American Film Festival every year.

Honfleur

In Honfleur Brad took this photo of me petting a puppy

because he said it was such a common occurrence on our trip.

This video of Brad was taken at the Satie Museum in Honfleur