Bon Voyage?

Next year will be our 20th wedding anniversary.  (I know.  Where did the time go?!?)

In anticipation of this, Mr. ReddHedd asked if I'd like to celebrate our anniversary by taking an extended trip to Paris, France, a city I have always wanted to visit but have never quite gotten to as yet.

Crazy to have been to Moscow in the Soviet days, but never haven gotten to Paris yet, but there you are.

My mother's day gift this year was a Rosetta Stone course on French to brush up my rusty college skills and so everyone else in the family could learn at least how to ask for the restroom and directions if lost.

Thus far, I've wasted away a number of hours browsing rental apartments in Paris and am having a blast just taking a little mental vacation here and there by dreaming about an apartment with a lovely view of Notre Dame or a terrace that peeks out at the city lights...but magically fits within our budget and also has some air conditioning, since we plan on going in the summer once The Peanut is out of school.

This is proving a little more complicated than I initially hoped.  But I will persevere, gazing longingly at luxury apartment rental listings and then moving on to more realistic ones that may or may not have all the amenities a soon-to-be-10-year-old girlie might want as well.

If anyone has some travel experience to share about Paris or a month-long vacation apartment rental, I would love to hear your advice!  Especially if there are rental agencies and/or neighborhoods you think we should avoid like the plague -- or ones that were so wonderful you would recommend them highly.

Whatever we end up doing, just the early planning stages alone have been really, really fun. Nothing like a little mental vacation to give you a much needed break, even if you've only travelled as far as your desktop computer with a cuppa French Roast and a day-old croissant.

(Lovely photo beneath the Eiffel Tower via joeholmes.)