Giverny (and the most perfect weekend ever)

Without a doubt the best weekend of my life.  I'll keep this one short.  After having the (perfect) ring in my possession for over a month now, it was burning a hole in my pocket.  I didn't have a grand master plan of when or where, but Friday marked the end of Riki's teaching days in France, so to celebrate I thought we would head to Paris for the weekend.  I was scouring for perfect places in Paris when Riki mentioned we should stop by Giverny (aka Monet's gardens) on the way to Paris.  Done deal!  

"Everything I have earned has gone into these gardens."  - Claude Monet

The place was stunning.  I could not believe the color spectrum...my eyes were melting.  Monet personally chose this place and spent the last half of his life painting and living in the gorgeous gardens.  If Giverny was a good enough place for Monet to die, it was good enough for me to pop the question.  She said yes, but I'll let the pictures do the talking.  Warning: color overload.  Hit play and enjoy. 

This is not Photoshop.  Just dragged the shutter for a bit.

Monet's house.

After the "proposal" we realized that I had not actually asked the question, and she has not actually said yes.  We remedied that, but it was pretty funny.  Riki actually held her cool throughout the entire process, but when I asked a stranger to take our picture together, she completely lost it.  I loved it.

Side note:  I am so grateful for these pictures.  We got so lucky.  I asked a random couple walking by if they could take our picture, and the girl immediately volunteered.  "I got it, I'm the artistic one," she said.  As Riki burst into tears, then laughter, (have you seen the PBA commercial?) this girl captured the whole thing.  Most people would have probably been scared off, or at the very least have taken a bunch of pictures that were out of focus.  She captured it perfectly, and I wish I could thank her for that.

"So......what do we do now?"

That's one good looking ice cream cone.

This is not Disney land.

We would spend the rest of the weekend in Paris, completing the most perfect weekend ever.

Yes, this was really happening.

This is a real place, and it's called Parc des Buttes Chaumont.  We could've spent all day there.

Seriously, this is a real place.

Any birders out there no what kind of crazy bird this is?

Great looking cup of espresso. 

I just don't know if it gets more beautiful than Paris in the spring.  We kept having to remind ourselves that this is real life.  We completely realize how insanely lucky we are for this experience and we are truly grateful, but at the same time we are planning to take full advantage of it!  

To our all NOLA family and friends, we'll be back at the end of the summer and the celebrations will begin!  Needless to say, we are very excited about the future.  Until then...Au revoir!