Castles and Towers and Cathedrals, Oh My!

We have arrived!

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What a day and a half! 24 hours of travel and a not-so-happy start to the trip but God was faithful and kept us safe and we are finally in Riga, Latvia!

For those who do not follow on Facebook, I started out our day by leaving my passport at home. Admittedly, not the smartest thing I have ever done, but we all make mistakes! We had spent the night with our son north of Indianapolis and I did not discover it until we were on the way to the airport. Our plane was to leave in less than two hours and home was an hour and a half away!

I called my sister-in-law and she ran to my house, retrieved my passport from my bag (I had decided to change purses at the last minute because that is what we women do!) and she started up the highway as we started down. We met in the middle and thankfully walked right on the plane as they were boarding. She saved my sanity and saved us several hundred dollars, thank you Sue!

We had a ten hour layover in Paris, France!

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With traveling an hour into the city and back, that left us with about six safe hours of site-seeing. We took a river tour down the Seine River to see as much as we could of the beautiful city. We were not disappointed! We were able to “see” the Louvre Museum, which is home to the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and many other famous works. I never dreamed it was so big, it is over 652,000 square feet!

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We also were able to see the Notre Dame Cathedral, the famous Lock Bridge, (the Pont des Arts), which is much bigger than the one in Latvia, but not nearly as beautiful. We passed by the Musee’ d’ Orsay and the Place de la Corde ( not on the cruise of course), it is one of the public squares.

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I was so fascinated by La Conciergerie, a former royal palace and prison in Paris. Hundreds of prisoners of the French Revolution were taken from La Conciergerie to be executed on the guillotine at a number of locations around Paris! Gulp! One of its most famous prisoners was Queen Marie Antoinette.

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We ended our short little excursion with lunch in a quaint French cafe. Love!

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I had tried my best to experience some genuine French beignets. My sweet DIL, Rachel, her mother makes the most delicious beignets and I was determined to see if the French could top them. Would you believe they were out?! What?! The one place I stop they were sold out and I was so disappointed! I settled for a delicious hot crepe with strawberries, we shared it and it was wonderful.

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Now we begin our visit with our treasured friends here in Riga! We met with Missionaries Mark and Robin Shutes and some of our “kids” last night, Martins and Konstance Steinbergs, at the airport. My husband had the privilege last August of coming to Riga to “marry” these two wonderful people! They are so precious to us. Today and tomorrow I will be able to meet up with many more friends and hopefully recover from our trip.

Oh, did I forget something? They have this big tower there…the Eiffel? We saw that too…

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Thank you all for your prayers, they are much appreciated!
Much love,
Nannette

Sharing with Essential Fridays, Fun Friday, Faithful Friday, Friendship Friday, Faith Filled Friday, Fellowship Fridays, Let’s Be Friends Blog Hop, Let’s Get Social Sunday, Super Sunday Sync, Diana Wrote, Motivation Monday, The Gathering Spot

18 thoughts on “Castles and Towers and Cathedrals, Oh My!

  1. Pingback: God Will Restore! A Fasting Series…

  2. Candace Jo Post author

    Thank you Angel! I was already following you on Twitter and Pinterest and now Bloglovin’. I love your site! And loved the “Whine” post 🙂 Awesome… Blessings friend! ♥

  3. Candace Jo Post author

    How sweet 🙂 So happy Malone enjoyed it too! A short field trip! The crepe was delicious for sure. We are now in Riga, Latvia, in the Baltics for their General Conference. We lived here for a year in 2011-2012 and are happy to be back for a couple of weeks to be with the church here. ♥

  4. Angel

    Hi Nannette
    what beautiful photos. I so wish I were there to see the sites too. Thanks for sharing you wonderful post with us at SSS Hop. I’m also your newest Bloglovin follower and can’t wait to read more of your blog. Hope you will come visit me too.
    Angel

  5. NJ (@acookieb4dinner)

    That looks so pretty! Malone (the preschooler) adores everything about Paris even though we’ve never been! That crepe looks out of this world. I hope you had a great time!

  6. Candace Jo Post author

    Thank you Marcia! I will follow back! Love making new friends in the blogging world. God bless!

  7. Marcia Shaw Wyatt

    Found your site via the Super Sunday Sync and just entered myself for the first time. Love your site and you now have a new Bloglovin & Facebook fan. My blog is at Blogitudes.com. I also have Facebook & Twitter fan pages under the name of Blogitudes. God Bless! Hope you have a great day!

  8. Sue

    Dear Nannette,

    I am so excited for you and your husband. God is great! What a truly great gift from the Lord for the both of you to go on this trip.

    And with the photos that you post, we all get to come along. How great is that!

    Blessings sweet friend.

    Sue

  9. memoriesbythemile

    Great trip through Paris. How wonderful for the both of you. Enjoy every minute. New follower from Let’s Get Social Sunday. Thank you for joining us. I am sharing this on fb.
    Wanda Ann @ Memories by the Mile

  10. Rosey

    Such a fun trip you’re on, and it sounds like you have a mission too, while you’re there. 🙂 So happy you had someone to meet you in the middle with the passport. Must be a good mission if there’s things trying to block your way.

    Have fun!!

    I’ve found you today from Let’s Get Social Super Sunday.

  11. Candace Jo Post author

    Wow! Didn’t know that! At least you were able to actually “see” things, lol! We just glimpsed! But at least we were there, ha. Love ya!

  12. Candace Jo Post author

    I sure hope you get to live your dream Joy 🙂 It is beautiful over here! Blessings to you dear friend! ♥

  13. joy

    wow! It is my dream too to visit that place one day. Thanks for the pictures:) Dropping by from” Spiritual Sundays

  14. Amy Kelly

    Oh! I am so jealous!! I was blessed enough to travel to Paris in college… Oh how I wish I beer with you!! You two look so happy!! Enjoy your stay and your visit! Be safe! Love you!!

  15. Candace Jo Post author

    Lol! Thank you! I looked long and hard when we booked our flight for Latvia for a long layover somewhere beautiful. I was excited to see Paris after hours of searching! And it didn’t change our ticket price! On our way back we have on 18 hour layover there so we will get to spend the night. It will be short again but, hey, it’s Paris!

    The bicycle tour sounds amazing! I hope your wish comes true! Thanks for visiting today!

  16. bluecottonmemory

    I want to do a bicycle tour through the Loire Valley – the valley of the castles:) Wishing you many blessings on your trip – I won’t pinch you – LOL – but am so excited for you!

  17. Candace Jo Post author

    Hi Kim!! I wish you were here too!! We would have a great time together! We are here for their General Conference and I am so excited to be back in Riga. It has been a year and a half for me, too long. It is like coming home! Anxious to get out and about today and see the city. We will hook up with many of the church people tomorrow and the rest of Sunday! Yay!! The conference actually starts next week with a few more coming in from the States as well. We are here until October 7. Appreciate your prayers dear friend for a mighty outpouring of the Spirit! Love you too! ♥♥♥♥

  18. Kim Phillips

    Wow what a blessing! Nannette it sounds like such a beautiful place and God ordained mission that I wish I were there with you! I’ll keep reading and following your blog so at least I can kinda feel like I’m living this blessing with you! Love you❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

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