Sunday, February 22, 2009


It's Mardi Gras season around here. This is the painting that now sits on the easel at my back door. Of course you can probably figure out what "Trouver la joie" means...."Find the Joy" of course! It hasn't been much joy around here this week. I went to a training session in south Louisiana earlier this week and came home with the flu. The training session was great and well worth the looooooooooong trip. I even brought back the "famous" king cakes that my sister has discovered for us. Unfortunately, I didn't get to enjoy them, but glad everyone else did! I hate being sick.....it's a waste of time!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Favorite Rome Pictures

When I first realized I was really going to the Vatican I couldn't wait to see Michelangelo's Pieta. It was even more stunning than I imagined.

This is one of my most favorite pictures of the trip. It was part of a group of frescoes in the Vatican Museum. I think it would make a beautiful Christmas card.

This is the balcony where the Pope greets the crowds at St. Peter's Square.

We had a private guided tour of the Roman Forum. It was well worth it. Fasta was also our guide through the Vatican. She gave a wonderful history lesson both days and it was very rewarding to see the kids hanging on to her every word!
After the Roman Forum we walked over to the Colosseum. It was amazing. We saw the large cross near the floor of the Colosseum where the Pope begins the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday. That was very interesting.







Saturday, February 7, 2009

Favorite Paris Pictures

These are some of my favorite shots from Paris*. This first set if from The Louvre. Of course The Louvre is any art teacher's dream! It is unbelievably huge and of course in the few hours that we were there we only saw a very little bit of it. The last picture in this set is of the Arc de Triomphe.






These were pictures taken at Notre Dame Cathedral. It is gorgeous. It's amazing how something so architecturally beautiful could have been built so long ago.







These are from the Eiffel Tower. It's just as the French people claim---a big chunk of steel! Seriously, it really is beautiful. We only made it to the 2nd level. It was extremely windy that day and the 2nd level was plenty for us!

The last pictures is the clock in front of our hotel at Gare de Lyon.
















Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Trip of a Lifetime

This is the first time I have had enough time to sit down and update this blog. As you all know by now I took 5 of my high school students, along with 3 mothers and 3 grandmothers, on a trip to Paris and Rome. We went through an educational travel company, but I custom designed this trip myself. I wanted this to be a "true" art trip. So, I started by choosing the greatest art museums in the world----The Louvre and The Vatican Museum---to center our trip around.


The trip was for 8 days and truly by the power of prayer, was an amazing trip. 8 days/12 people and no major drama speaks for itself! We learned quickly how to use the metro system in both Paris and Rome. We even took a train to Versailles with no major problems. Of course we got lost a couple of times, but we looked at it as just another adventure! Austin and Ethan were great navigators!


The day we returned we didn't realize that we would have been up for about 24 hours by the time we all got back home. I didn't realize that I would feel so bad the next day. It took me about 3 days to snap out of it. The funniest thing is that on Tuesday we had to travel about 45 miles away to take a picture for our church directory (we missed the date they were taken here because I was on the trip). While taking the pictures, the photographer said something goofy that made me laugh and for some strange reason after that I thought...OK, I'm back to normal. The picture was funny because I'm looking at my husband cracking up and he's laughing but still looking at the photographer. Believe it or not, that's the picture I bought. I will put it in my trip scrapbook with a note that was the moment I felt like myself again!

Here's a quick summary of our trip:

We left Saturday morning from an airport about 50 miles from our hometown. We flew to Atlanta then on to Paris. We arrived in Paris at about 5:00AM Sunday morning. Like I said earlier---we lost 7 hours. We stayed in Paris until Wednesday. While in Paris we had a private city tour with our own tour guide, Claire. She was also our guide for a private tour of The Louvre. We also visited Notre Dame Cathedral, Musee D'Orsay, the Eiffel Tower, and took a night cruise of the Seine River.

In Italy we visited The Spanish Steps, The Pantheon, Piazza Navona. The Vatican including The Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's, The Colosseum, and The Roman Forum. We had a private tour of The Vatican, Colosseum, and Roman Forum. Fasta was our guide and she was AMAZING!

I will update again with more details and pictures of each place. It has taken me over a week to get caught up. I'm still trying to get back into a routine. I took over 600 pictures and have finally gotten them all developed. That was an ordeal for a later post!