Paris to Giverny to Normandy

Champs Elysees Drive * Giverny * Bazenville

We left Paris today.  I was sad to leave the city, but big cities are tiring with kids - also our apartment was just a step above the youth hostel and although nicely located, not very pleasant.  I actually had to straddle the dishwasher to load it because the door hit the opposite side to the "kitchen".  Each night we had to move the dinner table to pull out the sleeper couch and the bathroom drains were super slow.  I slept in my silk sleeping sheet just in case.  Oh well, it didn't change our love for Paris.  Tonight we are just outside of Bayeux France (Bazenville) and our new accommodations, a small farm house, more than make up for our small apartment in Paris (two stories, everyone has their own bed, family room with TV, table big enough for 6, private yard with grass, and cows just down the street).

On our way to Normandy we had to say good-bye to Paris in style, so we drove down the Champs Elysees and drove around the Arc de Triomphe - 3 times - just to say we did it.  It was fun, crazy, and Eric proved to be a masterful driver!  12 streets feed into the round about around the Arc de Triomphe making it the biggest round about in the world.

We stopped in Giverny on our way to Bazenville to visit Monet's home and gardens.  He lived in a farmhouse an hour outside of Paris for over 40 years.  He designed and planted his own gardens and used them as his own study in light and color.  It was especially meaningful as we had just seen his Water Lilies in L'Orangerie in Paris.  It was wonderful.  We arrived just after a rain storm and during lunch so there weren't many visitors and because of the rain all the colors glistened.  It made me miss my yard at home - although, my yard could never look this amazing, not enough rain.  (I should point out we were right in back of an LDS family when buying our tickets - it took us about 30 seconds to figure out they were LDS and then about 30 seconds to confirm that when we started talking to them - Mormons are easy to pick out in a crowd)

We are excited to slow down a bit for the next 4 nights in Normandy.  We're watching a UEFA soccer game right now on the TV. France is hosting Europe's World Cup for the next few weeks - while in Paris we saw many soccer fans from around Europe showing their country's pride with flags, costumes, and soccer jerseys.

Arc de Triompeh

Paris - Versailles

Versailles day trip

23,175 steps

We hadn't planned to go to Versailles, but when our children heard our friends talking about how much fun they had at this grand Palace, we decided to go.  Paris has been very reasonable in terms of costs with kids.  Eric and I bought a 4 day museum pass for most things, and the kids have gotten in free - including Versailles. I hadn't done my research of Versailles, so we didn't get to see the fountains running, but it was spectacular nonetheless.  We rented bikes for an hour and enjoyed the lower gardens, more like small roads through a wooded area around a canal shaped like a cross.  We enjoyed just being on a bike and not worrying about getting from point A to point B.

After our bike ride we wandered the gardens and enjoyed the shapes of the trees, hedges with flower beds, and the Orange garden where Louis XIV actually had a portable orange grove he could move inside when it was cold.

Our final stop was the Palace - this puts to shame any Palace we've seen thus far.  No wonder the French wanted to get rid of the Monarchy.  It's gold, fancy, and over the top.  The hall of mirrors is impressive and it's not hard to imagine fancy people in dresses and wigs parading around showing off for each other.  

Tonight we relaxed at an outdoor cafe eating an omelet and Tunisian crepe.  Eric and I finished off our dinner with a chocolate eclair - the kids wanted ice cream (it's their day to buy their own treat, and that's what they wanted!).  We wandered over to Notre-Dame, a short 5 minute walk from our apartment and enjoyed starting up at the beautiful Gothic church.  It has been so nice to be so close to such an amazing church.  Tomorrow we are off to Normandy.

Versailles Gardens

Versailles Fountains

Versailles - Hall of Mirrors

Bridge connecting Isle Saint Louis to Notre Dame

Relaxing in front of Versailles

Notre Dame from the back

Paris - from top to bottom

Eiffel Tower * Musee d'Army * The hunt for backpacks * Sewer Tour * Notre Dame * Louvre

A record 26,173 ft (11.25 miles)

We set a new trip record today with walking 11.25 miles (more than 26,000 steps).  It required a mid-day nap - everyone participated.  The kids really wanted to try again to get up the Eiffel Tower so we left the house by 7:45 to get in line early.  By 9:30 we were on the top of the tower.  It was actually fun to climb up through the skeleton of the tower.  We concluded that the kids had never been on a taller structure - they thought that was neat.

After the Eiffel Tower Lara took Maren and Emma to buy backpacks.  The older girls only brought a purse with them and we are tired of carrying around their water bottles and jackets.  We had to walk 25 minutes to a store we knew sold the specific style of backpack they wanted - a back pack for Sweden.  So, our big shopping experience in Paris was at a Swede store.  While we shopped Eric took Charlie and Sydney to look at the Army Museum, they loved everything boys would love at that kind of a museum (guns, uniforms, etc, etc).

We met up again at the Paris Sewers tour and plugged our noses as we walked around the Paris Sewers for 30 minutes thinking of Jean Valjean carrying Maurice on his shoulders to escape from certain death.  Apparently Victor Hugo had a friend that worked for the sewer and helped him write an accurate description of them.  It was definitely a unique thing to do.

Before we went back to our apartment for our nap, we went to a very fancy chocolate shop and bought everyone a very small piece of very expensive, very good chocolate (I had dark chocolate with a lemon basil fondant in the middle). Afterwards we went inside Notre-Dame.  We pass Notre-Dame every time we leave our apartment.  I love seeing it from every possible angle and hearing the bells ring throughout the day.

We had an evening visit to the Louvre and missed all the crowds.  We walked right in (absolutely no line) and enjoyed ourselves completely.  Thanks to Maren's AP Art History cards we played a game looking for famous  pieces of art - the reward being a Macaron cookie (limit 2). I've never seen such an engaged 9 year old in a museum.  I REALLY liked the Louvre, it's a beautiful building, the art is wonderfully displayed and organized.  Even the famous pieces (Mona Lisa) managed to be enjoyable without large crowds.

To cap off our day we had a gelato, Paris style, fastidiously made into a lovely flower, and tasting wonderful.  I love all the attention to detail in the Parisian sweets.

Stinky Sewers

Notre Dame

resting inside Notre Dame

Notre Dame side view

Sewers

Charlie, Louvre

Winged Victory, Louvre

Mona Lisa, Louvre

Paris Picnics and Strikes

Orsay Museum * Rodin Gardens * Parisian Strike * Napoleon's Tomb

We've already decided that we need to return to Paris, soon.  Just to much to see, experience, and eat in one trip.  We love that the city isn't overrun by tourists, but seems to be mostly Parisians living their lives.  (Of course there are tourists in the touristy spots - but it doesn't take much to escape that).  We spent 2 1/2 hours in the Orsay today enjoying every minute.  We let the kids pick out a post card of their favorite picture before beginning and then promised them a macaron if they found it.  Everyone found theirs except Eric, his was on loan to a museum in Japan.  We learned another kid museum trick today - let them listen to their music while visiting.  Everyone has their iPods/iPhones with audio guides of the museums, but sometimes you just need to listen to music to pass the time.

After the Orsay we headed to the Rodin gardens - we didn't bother with the museum as we were short on time and wanted to see Napoleon's tomb before heading to our 4:00 appointment to climb the Eiffel Tower.  We had the kids pose in front of the Rodin statues, some were a bit tricky.

After a quick look at Napoleon's tomb - BIG tomb for such a little general - we were off to the Eiffel Tower.  We were SO disappointed when we got there and learned that the Eiffel Tower workers, along with other workers around the city, were on strike today!  No way - I was up until midnight exactly 90 days ago getting these tickets!  What's with the French and their labor strikes.  To pour salt into our wounds, the metro was also closed - gratefully we found one lone bus to take us the 3 miles back to our apartment, noone was in a mood to walk.

We needed something to lift our spirits, so we put together a picnic and grabbed our water coloring supplies and headed to the banks of the Seine River on our Isle St. Louis. We put down a nice table clothe (the one from our apartment) and had a lovely picnic like the Parisians on the banks of the river.  Afterwards we practiced our best impressionist water color painting - an activity that the girls loved and Charlie hated.  We finished off the evening with a crepe - mine was butter, sugar, and lemon - YUM!   The kids want to see if we can climb the Eiffel Tower tomorrow without a reservation, it means an early start!

Eric read us Hemingway

Napoleon's Tomb

Rodin posses

Orsay

Perfect Paris Day and Night

Saint Chapelle *Jardin Des Tuilleries * Musee de L'Orangerie *Champs Elysees * Arc De Triomphe * Seine River Cruise

17,343 Feet

We had such a pleasant Paris day.  The weather dropped from the mid 90s last week to the mid 60s and should hover around 70 all week - yea!  We visited the beautiful stained glass windows of Sainte Chapelle, some are even still originals from the 13th century.  The images and stories in each window were small and a bit hard to decipher from the floor, but we enjoyed the beauty of the colors inside the small chapel.  I should add that our apartment (although the worst we've had yet) is on the Isle St. Louis and about a 5 minute walk from Notre-Dame.

We walked to the L'Orangerie museum today via 1) the bakery where be bought pan au chocolate and baguettes (I've decided we should always be carrying around a fresh baguette; it just seems French) 2) a fancy pastry store where we bought hot chocolate that tasted like divine chocolate melted and then put in a cup - almost too rich 3) the Tuilleries garden where Sydney and Charlie played on the playground and we watched some Parisians play boules (like the Italian ball game bocce that we play at the beach).  As you can see, we were in no rush.

We really enjoyed the Musee L'Orangerie.  It's small, intimate and 2 of the rooms are built specifically for Monet's water lily panels that he did late in his life.  The water lily panels are mesmerizing and we could have sat and looked at them for hours.  The rest of the museum was impressive with several pieces of art from Picasso, Renior, Matisse, Cezanne.  It was enjoyable and everyone gave it two thumbs up.

Our next saunter through Paris was down the Champs-Elysees, we saw fancy cars, fancy shops, ate fancy cookies (macaroons - I won't reveal how much we paid for our fancy cookies), and the kids went on a 4 story covered slide in the Citron store.  At the end, we climbed the Arc de Triomphe and enjoyed the 360* views of Paris.  It's a pretty city - very new compared to Rome (and not as many church domes).  I could come back - next time without the children!  Since we had walked 17,456 steps (7.44 miles), we took the metro home!

After relaxing a bit in he apartment, Eric finishing an hour of CLE, and making a yummy dinner of fresh tomatoes, cheese varieties w/baguette, grilled chicken and string beans we headed out for our evening River "cruise" on the Seine  It started at 10:00.  Since it doesn't get dark until 10:30 we had to go late to see the lights turn on at dusk all over the city.  It was magical.  My favorite part was the many bridges that span the river.

Emma had to stand in the middle of the road for this picture

Macaroon delight!

Maren in front of Ladure

Citron store

Monet Water Lilies

Sainte Chapelle

Monet's Water Lilies

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