Americans in Paris

Paris. One of our favorite cities.

With one last free weekend before the girls' started school and before the arrival of Baby #3 brings to a halt (hopefully temporarily) of our world travels, we decided to take one last trip as a family of four. Between being home to EuroDisney (highlights coming soon), our girls' obsession with the Eiffel Tower and it being an easy train ride from London, Paris as our last hurrah was a no brainer. As we were planning the trip, I thought it would be fun to get some family photos taken in Paris so I reached out to the photographer who captured us so perfectly in London last year. Wouldn't you know it, she was going to be in Paris for a wedding the same weekend as us. Bingo! You can see my favorites below from the magical city.

Now to the much more exciting part of the trip:

While photographing on a bridge over the Seine River near the Eiffel Tower, I carelessly left my purse/bag on top of the hood of our stroller. As the photographer snapped away and I tried to make sure the girls didn't run into the street in between poses, the stroller sat about 20 feet away from where we were. Geoff was keeping his eye on it from a distance and saw a man walk nearby it. However, he didn't see anything happen and thought nothing else of it. However, a few minutes later as we walked back towards the stroller, with a sinking feeling I instantly noticed that my bag was gone.

Knowing he had just seen the culprit, Geoff dashed down the bridge in the direction he saw the guy walking. When he got to the end of the bridge without spotting the man, he quickly turned on the "find my phone" app on his phone that is linked to my phone which was in the now missing bag. He's such a smart guy. It showed that my phone was moving along a walking path down the middle of the river which connected the bridge we were on to the next bridge down. Geoff took off after the guy while the girls and I nervously waited on the bridge with the photographer.

At Sacre Coeur Basilica

Geoff spotted the guy ahead on the pathway and at some point, the guy noticed Geoff chasing him because he started running to get away. Unfortunately for him, he picked the wrong guy to try to out run. Geoff is fast. Like really fast. And he has marathon endurance. After chasing him for nearly a mile down to the next bridge, the guy got off the pathway, darted through a busy intersection (picture cars screeching to a halt and piling up into each other as they dashed across...not sure that actually happened but it sounds more dramatic) and into a Sephora beauty store with Geoff close on his heels. As soon as Geoff got into the doors of the store, he yelled "Stop Thief!" in French (thank you, French lessons!) and the store security guards pounced on the guy. The security guards opened up the his backpack and sure enough, there was my bag with the all contents still there: a phone, two credit cards, no cash, a big wad of dirty tissues, lipstick and a candy wrapper. He had almost hit the jackpot. Not only did they find my bag in his backpack but another lady's bag too! Geoff...saving the bags of damsels in Paris one thief at a time. :)

The French police showed up and took the guy away in handcuffs. In the meantime, the girls and I were still waiting on the bridge without a clue what's going on. Eventually, the police drove Geoff over to where we were waiting at and we all squashed into the back of their car so they could drive us to the police station to give a statement. To the station we went, flashing lights, siren and all! Olivia was a bit confused by the events as she asked if Daddy had to go to jail. I quickly cleared that one up.

Once we got to the station, we had to end up waiting a couple hours while they found a translator for us. (Geoff's French isn't that good.) Eventually we told our story, pressed charges against the guy and got a good admonition to be more careful with our belongings. Lesson learned!