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.
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