Throwback Thursday: Monaco, 2001

Thursday, July 16.

As you may know, my little sister Madeleine is currently spending six weeks in Paris as part of a study abroad program through her university. (You can find out more about this program on the JMU Office of International Programs website.)

In honor of her upcoming weekend trip to Nice and Monaco, I thought I'd do a quick Throwback Thursday post to our family's Spring 2001 trip to the South of France.

Check out that pose -- here's to hoping for a similar level of sass in 2015! 

Has Monaco changed in the last fourteen years? (I'm guessing yes.) Head over to Madeleine's blog -- M is for Madeleine -- to see her photos from the trip.

Throwback Thursday: Giverny, 2000

Thursday, July 9.

Would you believe it's been almost a year since I last visited Giverny? It was such a magical day ... one of my favorite memories of my summer in France!

The gardens themselves haven't changed too much. In fact, when I visited last summer, I took a photo of the same lavender lining the main walkway in the photo below! And although the flowers don't seem to have been quite as bright in April 2000 as they were last summer, the tulips sure are gorgeous.

Can you spot my pink raincoat?!

Throwback Thursday: Champagne, 2000

Thursday, May 28.

Although my college graduation was over a week ago, I'm still in a pretty celebratory mood. In that festive spirit, here's a special Throwback Thursday to 2000 -- um, fifteen years ago?! -- when our family took a quick trip to France's beloved Champagne wine region.

Naturally, we had to visit the two biggest names in the business: Moët & Chandon.

Throwback Thursday: Snapshots from Montpellier

Thursday, February 5.

Okay -- so it's not your average Throwback Thursday post. Instead of reminiscing about the mid-90s, I'm throwing it back to 2013 and sharing with you some of my favorite snapshots of Montpellier.

Throwback Thursday: Paris, 1997

Thursday, July 24.

Now that I'm back stateside, I've been having a blast going through old photo albums and comparing our 90s-era pictures of the places I've just come back from visiting. I started scanning them all into the computer and am enjoying sharing all the pictures with friends and, now, blog readers. Remember, you can find all these "Throwback Thursday" posts on the blog!

Here are some snapshots from a family trip to Paris, circa 1997. (If you want to figure out the exact date, you can do a little math ... the numbers on the Eiffel Tower in the photo below are a countdown to the Millenium.)

894 days before January 1, 2000..?

Throwback Thursday: Normandy, 2000

Jeudi, le 10 juillet.

In honor of my upcoming day trip to Caen, this Throwback Thursday is a throwback to 2000, when my parents took us on a family trip to Normandy!

During our tour of the WWII museums and D-Day sites that litter the region, we explored the Point du Hoc ... and I mean EXPLORED! Because when you're five and seven years old, everything is a jungle gym. Especially half-destroyed concrete bunkers.

  

In addition to this site, which was captured by an elite team of U.S. Rangers on D-Day, we also visited Omaha Beach, one of several beaches where other Allied forces landed.

According to my mom, her most vivid memory of this leg of the journey was when Madeleine and I fell in love with the same rock. On a beach full of thousands millions of identical rocks, we simply had to have THE. EXACT. SAME. ONE. (Sorry, Mommy.)

It's easy to forget the human toll of D-Day when searching for the perfect rock on a now-pristine beach, but the American Cemetery serves as a permanent reminder of the Allied sacrifice. We walked around the nearly-empty cemetery and saw the tomb of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. This heroic general and veteran of both WWI and WWII insisted on landing on Utah Beach with his troops, despite being the oldest man in the invasion and the only general to land with the first wave of soldiers. In addition to be awarded the Medal of Honor, he received the undeniable honor of being portrayed by Henry Fonda in The Longest Day. TRJ survived D-Day, but was allowed to be interred in the cemetery, next to his younger brother Quentin, who was shot down during WWI.

  

During our Normandy trip, we also visited the famed island abbey of Mont Saint-Michel. I remember walking around the abbey a little bit, but I'll never forget when my dad told us the car had been washed away. As you know, the tide rises around Mont Saint-Michel, and he was able to convince both me and Madeleine that the rising water had completely covered our car. (Spoiler: it hadn't.)

 

Throwback Thursday: Strasbourg, 1997

Jeudi, 12 décembre.

In honor of my upcoming visit to Strasbourg, here's a quick throwback to the last Bloxam family adventure in Alsace ... in 1997! I don't know what people are wearing in the city these days, but fifteen years ago, the "look" was apparently baggy jeans, raincoats, and sneakers. (Or, in Emily's case, socks and sandals. Oof.)

We even visited my favorite part of the city ... the Strasbourg Cathedral!