A week in Paris..pt 2

OK, so here we go with the rest of the trip....now where were we?   Oh, we were on Saturday at Notre Dame Cathedral.  It was beautiful.  One thing we were introduced to while we were in line for the tower was vin chaud (hot wine).  YUM!  From that time on we would try all the vendors of vin chaud that we came across.  All were good but some were spectacular.  I must figure out how to make that at home.  As we were walking around Notre Dame, we walked around the Latin Quarter. Now that was really fun for me...lots of street vendors and then we hit the restaurants....greek food, french food and...wait for it...wait for it....FONDUE! The fun part was all of the restaurant "owners" were in front of their restaurant trying to woo you into their restaurant. I love that! It is so fun to see what they will come up with. Now I love fondue. I mean it is one of my all time favorite foods.So we decided that we would head back there for dinner one of the next nights.  Anyways, we headed toward the Eiffel Tower to see it at night and to go up to the top since it was a relatively clear night.  So we got there and we got to see it twinkle.  See every hour on the hour they have twinkling lights on it and for 5 minutes it twinkles...very cool effect.  So we stood in line (only about 30 min) and we headed up.  Remember how I said you can't explain how big it is unless you are there...well we got to the first level where you can get off and see the view and it was REALLY HIGH!  Now I am not scared of heights but I am not a huge fan of them either and I was a little nervous.  I really didn't want to go up to the top at that point but I knew that if I didn't I would regret it for the rest of my life so I went up with Tiana and Wil.  Tabitha had had enough at that level and I don't blame her.  So we went up to the top and guess what...we got stuck in a cloud.  Darn it....but we did it...we went to the top.  Since it was winter time...none of the lines we had to go in were too long.  The weather was like fall.  Not very cold but not too hot.  It really was lovely.

Now I need to interject something I forgot about.  Let's just talk pastries.  The first day we were there the girls and I stopped at a local bakery and picked up some beignets and some chocolate bread and some other yummy chocolate breads.  Well let me just say...all were fantabulous but I fell in love with the chocolate beignets...specifically the mini beignets which are bite size.  I could have one and not feel guilty or over stuffed.  Needless to say we stopped at that bakery almost every day for something, including the morning that we stopped and got Tiana a fresh baguette because one thing she had to do in Paris was eat a fresh baguette.

Sunday we decided to go do some shopping, not realizing that most shops are closed on Sunday in Paris.  Well, we walked around, saw some more of the city and then we decided to head back to the apartment and go for dinner. So we all got dressed up and headed back to the Latin Quarter and see who offered us the best deal on a fondue dinner. We settled on one place (they offered us a free round of drinks for all of us). We had a wonderful dinner (Wil bought us all roses), probably the best cheese fondue I have ever had...a yummy meat fondue, oh wait! We had frog legs and escargot for appetizers....c'mon we were in Paris...we had to try them. So, great appetizers, wonderful dinner..now for dessert. The girls ordered some ice cream desserts, I ordered creme brulee and Wil had chocolate mousse. All very good. At that point, we headed back to the apartment and called it a night.

Monday we headed to the Champs Elysees.  I knew we wouldn't be able to shop really but we could say we were there.  The girls went in enough shops that they realized how expensive stuff was.  We went in the Disney store and found a few presents.  Then they had an area with little wood snow shacks set up that had vendors in them with food are other interesting stuff.  It was fun to see everything...we had more vin chaud....and bought some neat things.  Then we headed back to the apartment.  We stopped and got the girls some pizza (each with an egg on them...a french thing) and Wil and I headed out to find somewhere for dinner.  We found a place, after a bit of walking, and went in and had dinner to celebrate our anniversary since he will be at sea for our anniversary.  (We had a bit of a struggle finding a place that was open because in France you eat dinner around 8 or 9 so nowhere was open at 7 when we were looking, but we found one.)  We had a nice dinner and then went back to the apartment and gathered the family and headed to the Eiffel Tower for one last look.  So we got on the metro and headed to the Eiffel Tower the way that we had gone before and then at one of the transfer stations, Tiana noticed a picture of the Eiffel Tower and an arrow.  We were confused but it was 10 minutes to "Twinkle Time" and we wanted to get there so that we wouldn't have to wait an hour to see it...so we took a chance and we followed the sign.  Well we ended up at the most gorgeous look out spot with a whole different view that was fabulous.  We took a couple final pictures and headed back to the apartment for one last night together.

We all headed home the next day.  We said good bye to Wil at the apartment as we were flying out of two different airports...and that was that.  It was a wonderful trip on so many different levels that I just can't describe it accurately.  I will remember it forever as will the rest of the family I am sure.



A week in Paris..pt 1

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to sit and write up our trip to Paris, but with birthdays and Christmas and illness, it has been quite chaotic around here.  So as I sit and enjoy watching the Broncos on TV (usually I don't get the games but since they are playing the Patriots I get this one) I thought I would go ahead and try to get this written.

Let me start by saying that the trip was fantastic, at points even surreal..but here is a summary of the trip. 

So on Monday, we left Ottawa and flew to Montreal and then had a small layover and flew to Paris.  We had no problems with our flights or security and we were on our way.  Our tickets said that we would get breakfast so we ate in Montreal and then when we got on the plane, we got dinner....oh well, we ate again.  It was an overnight flight so we tried to sleep.  Now all seasoned travelers know that you don't sleep comfortably on planes but this was Tabitha's first experience with it.  Needless to say, we all slept but not very well.  But we did sleep.  We did get breakfast and then we waited to land.  We rented an apartment in Paris and the lady we rented from helped us arrange for a taxi driver, Mr. Patrick, to pick us up at the airport.  So the girls thought it was cool to have someone waiting for us with a name sign at the airport.  All our bags were there and off we went.  We got into Paris on Tuesday morning and began driving to the apartment at morning rush hour and man the traffic was crazy.  I was super glad that we weren't driving.  We got to the apartment and then took some time to settle in and even took a bit of a nap.  Then we got up and walked around the neighborhood a bit, checked out the shops, stopped at a bakery and got some groceries.  Then it was back to the apartment, we made some dinner and went to bed and slept well.

Wednesday, we slept in a bit and had some breakfast and then did a bit of shopping.  We were in Bolougne which was about 10 km west of the Eiffel tower.  It was a lovely neighborhood with some neat little shops.  We walked and walked and walked and enjoyed looking at the differences in types of shops that we are used to.  Tiana also noticed that all the locals were bundled up as if it was really cold.  They had their mitts and hats and scarves on and coats buttoned.  Now it is winter time but it was about 10-15 degrees every day, so we had our fall coats on unbuttoned most of the time.  We headed back to the apartment to wait for Wil.  His flight got in around 5 pm and he was taking the metro so we figured he would be at the apartment around 7 so we waited anxiously.  He arrived safely and we had a lovely evening watching him open his Christmas gifts and receiving some gifts he brought us and just catching up.  Then we all fell into bed and prepared for the days to come.

Thursday we figured we had to go see the Eiffel Tower so that was where we headed.  We had gotten glimpses of it including one from the plane that was very cool but this was going to be fun.  So we headed to the metro and got going.  The metro in Paris was very cool.  It took us every where.  We bought 5 day unlimited passes and we got our monies worth.  As we walked up to the Eiffel Tower, I can not express how big it is.  It is huge and I was awestruck.  We walked around it, took some family pics and Tiana and I played tribute to the Broncos....can you guess what we were doing?

We decided not to go up to the top that day because it was foggy so we headed to the Louvre.  We walked to the Louvre and the girls got their first experience of a scammer.  A guy asked us if we had dropped a gold ring, when we said no, he "gave" it to us as if being nice then as we walked away, he asked for some money for food and when we said no...he suddenly wanted the gold ring back...hmmm.  Anyways, it was a good experience for them to see.  So we got to the Louvre and with no lines, got right in.  Again, I can not express the enormity of the Louvre.  The building itself is amazing.  You walk into one hall and you just see how big it is and I think my mouth stayed open in awe the whole time.  We of course saw the Mona Lisa and as we were looking at it, Tiana asked "why is it so famous?".  I said I have no idea, great question.  What was astounding is that it is a normal sized painting, not too big, not too small but in the scheme of the grandiose painting that we saw, it is tiny and do I dare say it??? not that impressive.  Still we saw it and it was lovely, but we saw some astonishingly gorgeous art.  We didn't plan it well and we ended up at the Louvre on a day when it closes early so we only had about 4 hours and we didn't even get 1/2 of it done.  It is absolutely amazing.  We ended the day by heading to the Hard Rock Cafe.  Tiana has eaten at 1 in 3 countries so we thought we would make it 4 but they were having a private party so we got a souvenir since we were inside it and we went and had dinner at a nearby restaurant and headed back to the apartment.

Friday we headed to the Arc de Triumphe first.  It was here where we witnessed our first accident at the huge roundabout surrounding it.  Not surprised with all the crazy driving but the Arc was beautiful.  We went up to the top and had a beautiful view of the city.  Then we went to the Moulin Rouge and were a little disappointed.  We thought the windmill would be bigger.  Then we went to Luxembourg gardens to search for the Statue of Liberty.  After getting some bad directions from a gardener, we did finally find her.  There is another one by the Eiffel Tower and I saw her but we didn't get a chance to get back and get a picture.  Then we headed to the Crypts of Paris.  If you get a chance it is a great story about them relocating thousands of bones to these crypts.  It was quite sobering to walk through all of these bones and see the amount of work that went into relocating them.  We then headed back to the apartment.

Saturday we started our day by having some French crepes.  Ok, I have had crepes at local eateries in the states but those are mini crepes.  As you can see by the picture, I think those are big enough for a family but we each ordered one and enjoyed them fully.  Then we headed to Notre Dame Cathedral.  What a gorgeous old church.  We decided to head up the tower first to see the bell and the view and then go inside.  So we did.  287 steps up and we felt every bit of it especially after all the walking we had done the last couple of days, but we did it.  The view was yet again fantastic and the bell was huge.  Then we headed 287 steps down and went in to the church.  I got a bit emotional as I thought about the fact that I am sure my dad had been in this same church at some point during his travels and he would have loved it as did I.  It was so beautiful with all the stained glass and sculptures and artwork.  We went and saw some of the religious artifacts, including a piece of the cross of Christ and a picture of the actual crown of thorns which is kept in the basement and only comes out once a month.  The artwork was phenomenal and told such stories from the Bible in a new and fantastic way.  The pipe organ was huge and made me want to come back and go to a service to hear it play.

OK, I got interrupted by a sick daughter, we ended up at emerg and are recouping.  I will post this now and finish the trip in another post later this week.  More to come.