Paris, Day 3

 

Our last day in Paris was a Sunday, so we decided to attend church at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints right near the Pompidou Centre.  They have so many visitors here on a regular basis, that no one minded we were in jeans, they had translation to English set up, and we sat in the overflow area with about 40 other people from "out of town." We did our best to stumble through the hymns in French.

 

Then we went to the Picasso Museum for our daily dose of art.

Since the titles of the artwork were written in French, Rob decided it would be a fun game to have the kids guess what the subject of the painting was, and then he'd tell us if we were right. Sometimes we got an element or two- guitar, woman- and sometimes we were totally wrong.  I liked emphasizing the evolution of Picasso's work and his total originality.

 

Two still lifes. 

Both by Picasso, both in the same color scheme... totally different and awesome.

 

The building wasn't too shabby either.  Because two floors were closed for renovation, the museum was very uncrowded and our tickets were discounted.   

 

Just around the corner from the Picasso Museum we saw a very fancy chocolate shop.  One of the things I love about Rob is that he also loves chocolate (though maybe not as much as I do.)  We went inside and bought a small box of chocolates, including several salted caramels called "Amelies," and some handmade lollipops.

 

The sign on this jar of caramels says, "Please, don't help yourself."  So perfectly posh Paris.

 

We stopped for lunch at a hole-in-the-wall Lebanese restaurant also in the Marais neighborhood, and had excellent falafel, before taking the metro to Sacre Couer.

 

Sacre Couer is relatively new, as far as Paris churches go,  being just over 100 years old.  We told the kids that if they climbed all the steps and toured around without any fussing, that we would get crepes of their choice when we came back down.

 

The inside isn't all that impressive, but we always walk around the whole church to admire the different angles and the little park that is up there.

 

Food is an excellent motivator.

We enjoyed our crepes at a playground at the bottom of the hill (just across the street from the metro) and then took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe for our Paris finale.

 

Yay for Paris!

 

Ten years ago.

 

 

And in 2019.  

I don't think we've changed that much.

 

Someone had brought sidewalk chalk, and shared it around, so the kids liked each getting to make their (temporary) mark on Paris.

 

And then we decided to go ahead and climb the stairs to the top of the Arc.  Neither Rob nor I had ever done this, and we were all tired, but there was no line and we decided to do it anyway.  This is the view down from the top of the staircase. I don't love heights, but the kids were unfazed.

 

Amelie was particularly happy about this trip as she has wanted to visit Paris for most of her little life. It's pretty cool when you can help your kids make their dreams a reality.  

  

After the Arc de Triomphe, we stumbled back to our hotel with VERY tired feet. We weren't very hungry as we'd had a big lunch and crepes already, so we stopped in a grocery store and bought some cheese and crackers, and drinks, and had another hotel picnic followed by those amazing chocolates from the Meert shop.  

 

In the morning we checked out and moseyed to a bakery for breakfast. I had asked Toby to help me out with holding a bag of small souvenirs, and he accidentally left it in the bakery. We didn't realize until we were at the airport and had some very sad kiddos.  They didn't lose all of their little souvenirs though, and they soon recovered.  Poor Toby, he felt so bad.

 

We had a good amount of time to get to the airport before our flight, and that was a very good thing.  Our RER train stopped 5 stops early due to "sick passengers" and we all had to get off and wait for another train.  That one only took us to terminal 1 at the airport so we had to get off and wait for a THIRD train to get to terminal 2.  It was ridiculous, and time consuming, and Rob and I couldn't wait to leave Paris by the time we got to the airport.

 

Finally at the airport gate, we filled our last bit of time by reading and playing cards.

 

And Rob bought a box of macarons to take a little piece of Paris home with us.

 All in all, it was a tumultuous trip! We're glad we went, but we also don't have plans to ever go back again!  Au revoir, Paris!

Paris, Day 2

 

Every day in Paris should begin with an art museum! At least, in my opinion. We took the Metro downtown and walked across the grounds of the Louvre, but didn't go in.  It is so huge and overwhelming, it just isn't our speed right now.  The kids liked seeing the entrance designed by I. M. Pei though and tried to guess how many bedroom the former palace had. (For the record, I have no idea, and couldn't find an answer online.)

 

Also on the grounds of the Louvre, is the The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. There's a guy kinda standing in the way in my photo, but from here you can look directly to the Place de la Concorde obelisk and see the Arc de Triomphe in the distance.

 

But the art museum we actually visited this day was the Musee d'Orsay. Jake talked me into getting an audio guide and the kiddos took turns listening to info about paintings and sculptures that interested them.

 

I love seeing the kids enjoy beautiful art, and also ask questions about the subjects, artists, and styles.  It makes my nerdy heart happy.

 

We spent all morning here, and didn't quite see everything.

 

We did go upstairs and visit the clocks though.  This building used to be a train station and is just a neat setting on its own.

 

And even though I KNOW the full beauty doesn't shine through in a photograph, I couldn't stop myself from taking pictures of some of my favorite pieces.  I'm glad I got to see them one more time in real life.

 

About ten years ago (2009) we took this photo of Charlotte in front of the Musee d'Orsay posing with a "mean face" with a sculpture from the Six Continents series in front of the Orsay.  All of our kids have seen it over the years, so before we left to find lunch they all wanted to pose here too.

 

Charlotte posed, ready for battle again, with Africa. 

What a difference a decade makes.

 

Jake chose Europe.

 

Amelie chose Asia.

 

And Toby chose North America.

 

We walked from there to the nearest metro station to head to lunch in the Latin Quarter.

The train was PACKED, but we managed to get on. We had to transfer at a station, and in my distracted concern to make sure the kids all got off before I did, my wallet was stolen from my purse. I noticed as soon as we got on the platform that my purse was now unzipped (when it had been closed and in my sight the entire metro ride.) We decided to get above ground to re-group and decide what to do.

 

Rob checked his phone and saw a McDonald's nearby so we headed there to feed kids and take a moment.  On the way there we ran directly into the yellow vest protestors. The Mouvement des gilets jaunes follows the long French tradition of protest marches that sometimes turn violent in clashes with the police.  And we really didn't want to be anywhere near that. We finally got to McDo's and settled in for lunch. Rob went to a nearby ATM and took at as much cash as he could. We then called the numbers on the back of his cards and reported mine stolen. The cash got us through the rest of the trip. The main hassle of having my wallet stolen has been in replacing everything else- ID, driver's license, cards, and so on. From McDonald's second floor we could see the protest in the street below and hear the fake cannon they had along with them.  There were also SO MANY police cars. We decided to hit the road again when the McDonald's also began to fill up with yellow vest protestors.

 

So after lunch and taking care of business, we headed over to one of my favorite spots in Paris- the Shakespeare and Company English language bookstore. Being in a quiet, though crowded, bookstore improved my mood from being burglarized immensely.

 

Rob couldn't resist playing the piano upstairs just a little bit, we bought a book about Monet and had it stamped, and we even got to see the bookshop cat, Aggie, awake and accepting pets from gentle kiddos.

 

Then it was on to Notre Dame.

We discovered here that our kids have never seen the Hunchback of Notre Dame movie, so we'll have to check that one out of the library soon.

 

The cathedral was relatively quiet on this Saturday in January and we walked around the interior and enjoyed the stained glass, candlelight, and Gothic ambiance.

 

They still had nativities set up from the Christmas season, so we enjoyed looking at those as well.

 

I feel like every time I am here I take a photo of Saint Denis holding his head, but it's just so great. I also love how the angel next to him on the left is looking at him like, "oh, hey, your head came off there, that's cool."

 

As a last minute decision, we decided to make the short walk over to Sainte Chapelle. Security here was also much tighter than three years ago and there was a bit of a line.  But it is totally worth it.  The kids thought it incredibly unjust that the common people were only allowed to worship in the lower room and the royalty kept this incredibly beautiful upper chapel to themselves.

 

I told Toby I'd like a ceiling like this in the house he is designing for us to live in someday.

 

We headed toward the metro from here but made a couple more unplanned stops.  The first was at this random pirate themed bulk candy store.  The kids each picked what they wanted and we bought about 100g each.

 

Then we stopped in an awesome comic bookshop that Rob saw on his phone.  They also had lots of Harry Potter, Princess, and Lego themed action figures and nerdy collectibles.  The kids had a great time browsing, but most of the stuff here was out of their price range.

 

We took the metro back to the neighborhood our hotel was in, in the 19th Arrondisement.  And went looking for a restaurant that Rob saw online that looked great.  However, the restaurant was no longer there.  Bummer.  We stopped in the local library branch to use the bathroom and look up some other restaurant options nearby.  Libraries are awesome. Where else in Paris could we go use the Wifi and clean bathrooms without having to spend any money? 

 

We finally settled on a Moroccan restaurant for dinner.  It was small and not fancy, and we were the only people there.  The cook came out to take our order! But the food was good, and plentiful, and it was a relaxing way to end a very crazy day in Paris.