We just came back from our almost two months long honeymoon. It was the best trip ever! We visited France and Italy. Originally we were going to London also but we got a bit lazy, and so we decided to stay in France longer so Minh Chau can really experience what it is like to live in France.
Paris was awesome. Parisians smoke a lot more than people here in the States so it took us some time to get used to the smoke filled cafes and restaurants. We stayed at Hotel Avia. It was a charming begining-of-the-century-old hotel with a lovely crepe stand right outside the lobby (we had crepes every day =) ). It is located next to the Pasteur subway station so it was really convenient for us to get around Paris. Of course we visited all the touristic locations like the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre, Hotel des Invalides… Minh Chau loved all that is the essence of Paris: the glorious food, the grand architecture, the magnificent art and of course, the endless shopping =).

After visiting Paris, we flew to Italy. We stayed at the Nova Domus Hotel located near the Vatican. Being inside the Vatican was an experience that we could not describe in words. We attended Sunday Mass in Saint Peter’s Basillica; the choir was the best we’ve ever heard. The Vatican Museum had many sculptures and paintings that we have always wanted to see in person like the Laocoon and the Sistine Chapel. We also visited Rome and its historic monuments and architecture.

After a week in Rome, we flew back to France and stayed in the city of Angers, Vinh’s hometown. Angers is a small and lovely city that is not invaded by tourism like Paris and other large cities, but it is certainly not any less beautiful with its magnificent castle, cathedral and charming downtown. And, unlike large cities, Angers is absolutely clean! We stayed in Angers for almost a month, and every day was a pleasure!
One unfortunate thing happened during our honeymoon was that Vinh’s laptop’s hard drive failed so we lost lots of good pictures but we were able to recover some nice pictures from our flash card.