Back in the Day: Visiting Paris

Last spring, as I watched the news coverage of Notre-Dame burning, I started thinking about my visit to Paris. It took a while, but I finally managed to find a few pictures from that trip. It seems funny now, but I remember building money for film developing into my budget - enough for 10 or 15 rolls of film. At the time that seemed like so many pictures, but I took almost 1,500 pictures during the two weeks I spent in Iceland this past summer.

The summer I was 16, eight girls from my Girl Scout troop spent a month traveling around Europe. (We spent time in London, England; Paris, France; Munich, Germany; Venice, Italy; Salzburg, Austria and Adelboden Switzerland.) Our troop operated a Gift Wrapping Booth at the local shopping mall and believe it or not I managed to raise the $800 I need for the trip working there. (The trip actually cost $1,600 but my parents agreed to split the cost with me. I earned my $500 spending money by babysitting. Babysitting at $2.00 or $3.00 an hour no less.)

Nerdy uniforms, I know. But we only wore them on border crossing days. Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Gallagher traveled with girls every summer and they learned quickly that uniformed Scouts moved through customs much quicker than run-of-the-mill teenagers did.

I remember loving the gargoyles  up on Notre-Dame. My daughter is super envious of this picture. When she went to Paris a few years ago with my mom, they weren't allowed to touch them. 

As I look back on that trip, I feel pretty darn lucky to have gotten to visit before the fire...