j'adore!

xoxo, 

-ivy

europe is my favorite

i don't actually even know where to begin. we had the most incredible 2 weeks abroad, and truly every detail that jon planned was so thoughtful and thorough. i sure could get on board with the european pace of life. 

our first stop was frankfurt, and the girls were living for the in-flight meals and white napkin service ;)

after an overnight flight consisting of both dinner and breakfast, we stayed at the most peaceful retreat in rheingau, germany. it was super modern and felt like a treehouse above the vineyard valleys.

it was so special visiting the village of woppenroth where jon's grandma lived as a little girl... a much quainter town than i'd imagined!

the architecture and medieval charm of the fairytale village, bernkastel-kues, was an absolute favorite

ivy growing everywhere...

we celebrated our 24th meet-aversary in rheingau <3

tastes better where it's made!

riesling fields forever...

riesling on the vine

outdoor mass setup at binger st. rochusbruderschaft dating to 1754

jon's oma lived in the bingen apartment above this little shop until she was 17 and immigrated to america knowing no english. forever grateful to gg!

jon went in and met the grandson of the owner who ran the shop when gg lived upstairs. 

next generation!

st. martin basilica, right by gg's teenage apartment in bingen

casual purse necessities... all kinds of smoker-chic across the pond!

and all the prosecco and kaffee crema my heart can handle

german breakfasts are now our fave

bread decisions...

no speed limits on the autobahn

munich! such a fast-forward city that reminded us quite a bit of nyc

we stayed at the most darling, traditional german family-run inn

and we could not believe these homemade desserts inside a rare starbucks!

i may have left my heart in the bavarian alps...

neuschwanstein castle sits above it all.

walt disney based sleeping beauty's castle at disneyland on this after a visit here with his family in the early 1950's. i've wanted to visit since my freshman year of high school social studies class, and jon went all out on the experience <3 

touches of bavarian design in every detail

she tried her first sip of prosecco and lucky for us, was not a fan ;)

we learned so much about swan legend here! swan lake was inspired by this lake, and the literal translation of neuschwanstein is "new swan castle". swans are on everything in this region- fountains, wallpaper, memorabilia, murals...

hohenschwangau castle, where king ludwig lived while neuschwanstein was under construction. he could see the walls going up using a telescope in his bedroom!

lucy was completely fascinated by the tour and history of hohenschwangau... beaming she said "this is like the best day of my life!" not always easy to get a 13 3/4 year old to say such things...

completely in his element when the porsche tour drove in

betzie <3

inside neuschwanstein ... no pics allowed inside the walls, of course

our swan!

betsy helped pose her and eloise took the pics :) a real family affair happening

and then we were off to beautiful salzburg, austria! we stayed in an air b&b in a surrounding neighborhood with a washer/dryer and just a short bus ride away from downtown- an excellent change of pace at this point in the trip! this was both jon and lucy's favorite leg. 

my musical theatre heart was so full seeing all of the sound of music spots up close and in person! this is the piano that christopher plummer would play late into the night after long days shooting. it's still standing in the lobby bar of the hotel bristol where the adult cast members lived during their time filming in austria. 

we woke up early on our second day in salzburg for what turned out to be the highlight of the trip for lucy... our incredible, 10 mile sound of music bicycle tour. she said it was a close battle, but this tour ranked at the top :)

the interior of the church the real-life captain and maria were married in. the exterior was still used as the outside of the abbey for the movie, but the inside wasn't quite big enough for the wedding scene. 

when in austria, do as maria does :)

the exterior of the back of the house used in the movie... a different house than the front exterior. and the pond the von trapps fell into, all right here behind us!

absolutely loved every minute of it!

mozart's birthplace... definitely a big point of pride for the city!

and next we were off to switzerland! i loved taking the train and much prefer it to airplanes. it was a 6 hour ride through the alps into zurich followed by a long walk with suitcases across cobblestone streets to get to our hotel ;)

zurich! what a fabulous city! our little shoppers were in material-girl heaven.

a swiss miss sipping the real deal :)

and oooh la la! paris!

we stayed in the most incredible paris apartment in the art district dating to the 1600's. 

i'm baffled by the beauty and history. 

the summer i turned pretty shooting location was a must for lu ;)

jardin du luxembourg

saint-sulpice

notre dame cathedral. 

it was packed, but understandably as the magnificence and vastness did truly take my breath away.

one of the big highlights was our macaron class! eloise comes alive when she bakes, and seeing her so at ease and completely in her element was the best thing ever. 

our pastry chef teacher was so much fun. 

loved loved this!

a casual wednesday...

we had an incredible private tour of the lourve, and with kids and teens, i cannot recommend this enough! our guide was so fun, interactive, high-energy, and knew exactly what would keep the girls interested and in awe. this was one-thousand percent the way to go when taking on such an important piece [actually thousands!] of history. 

oui oui! versailles! we had a pre-booked tour, which is great because versailles is about a 40 minute drive outside of paris. having this tour group helped us to get in right away and avoid lines, stay on track and get out with enough time left in the day for croissants and shopping :)

the hall of mirrors was my favorite

thanks to king louis xiv and his red high heels, we now have louboutins!!

marie antoinette's bedroom

lunch with a view

and the jellycat cafe... at the top of betsy cutie's list for months and months and months!

we ended our eurosummer with the most magical night yet. we had family photos taken at the eifel tower at sunset followed by a late night dinner right in the heart of paris. the girls got to see midnight night life like they've never seen before ;)

a core memory for all of our hearts! 

j'adore l'europe

xoxo, 

-ivy