It looks like I will be trying to restore my body for some time after the poor (but delicious) eating choices I made while in France.  My skin is so dry from dehydrating myself on a daily basis for 6 days, and my stomach is still as hard as a rock.

Today's smoothie includes:
little bit of water
2 handfuls of organic spinach
1/2 of a frozen banana
frozen pineapple
frozen mango
very small handful of organic blueberries (saving them for tomorrow!)

If you have a Vita mix, adding greens into your smoothie is an excellent way for you to consume more nutrients as the blades chop leafy greens into a very fine liquid consistency (this helps your body to absorb more of what the leafy greens have to offer rather than chewing through a salad).  You can barely even taste the greens in your smoothie.  If you are using a regular blender, well, I have no idea how adding greens would come out!  I'm not sure if a normal blender would chop the greens into the same consistency, but it's worth a try!

Au revoir Paris

I'm back.  And all I can say is, WOW.  What a week!  The time flew and I still can't believe that we were just in Paris.
While I did miss my croissant with OJ and tea / or crepe for breakfast, it felt very good to put some healthy food back into my body - oatmeal mush with ground flax, granola, and blueberries.  Bye bye carbs and buttery goodness :(
Our experience abroad was nothing short of amazing.  We saw as much as we could in the 6 days we were there, and were also fortunate enough to have time to leave the city for a day and visit Giverny which is where Monet lived and painted.  That part of our trip was by far my favorite.  We took a train to a town called Vernon, rented some bikes, and then cycled through the beautiful countryside for about a half an hour to Giverny.  Completely breathtaking.
We ran into very few snags on our trip.  Everything went smoothly with our flight and our apartment.  We didn't get robbed.  Hooray!  (We only had a few people come up and try and con us, but we both knew better and continued walking.)  We (meaning mostly Mike) did our best we could with our limited knowledge of French; and while a few people chuckled at our attempts, mostly everyone else was very kind to speak to us in English (or what English they knew).   Bon jour, merci, and  je ne comprends pas (I don't understand) were my most commonly used phrases.
I have to say - we ran our butts of while on vacation.  I didn't realize how HUMUNGOUS Paris is and how much there really is to see.  We spent every day walking and walking and walking.  We really exhausted ourselves to the point where we could barely move our bodies by the last day.  We tried to accept the fact that we could not possibly experience everything that Paris could offer, but we kept going anyway.  I would have enjoyed more nights drinking wine on our terrace, but how could we when there were so many beautiful places to see?
Leaving Paris was sad, but I have to be honest and admit that it was nice to come home to people speaking a familiar language.  It's a little scary visiting a country where you can't read or understand people - especially in restaurants (jk!).
Our last night in Paris ended with a trip up the Eiffel Tower and then a few hours later a viewing of the tower lit up and sparkling at 11:00 pm (it still wasn't completely dark but it was beautiful!).  A great way to conclude a great week :)

Here are a few pictures from the last few days. You will see the Eiffel Tower from our river cruise, crepes with nutella, banana and coconut, the Louvre, and the lily pads and gardens where Monet was inspired to paint.