Day 2 - Paris Museum Day

After a good night's sleep, we were up and at 'em early the next day to begin a full day of taking in the Paris sites with the Smiths.  We got our Paris Pass and we were ready to go.  First stop - The Louvre.

Of course you hear how huge The Louvre is, and how it would take forever to see everything...but I don't think that sunk in until I saw it.  It truly is massive - we spent the morning there and only made it down one Hall.  We, of course, hit some of the highlights - Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo - but I could have sat and stared and continued listening to the history lesson on my audio guide (which was a Nintendo DS, quite interesting to dangle around your neck) in the French and Italian Renaissance Hall for many more hours.  Amazing.

I hate when Michael takes dumb looking candid pictures of me, but this picture kind of makes me laugh.  Maybe it is because I am not a 12 yr old boy, but that Nintendo kept confusing me and getting me lost.  We walked back and forth through this hallway several times as it kept "rerouting" us.  This picture captures my confusion appropriately. :)

The DS led me through the Italian hall and into this large room and began talking about this amazingly large painting in the room - the largest one in The Louvre.  I was surprised the room was so crowded.  I stood there staring at The Wedding at Cana, this amazing painting of a wedding feast with Jesus in attendance, and listened to the description of every aspect of the painting...and, I am sure this is yet another thing I shouldn't admit at the risk of making me sound even more stupid, but I didn't even realize the Mona Lisa was behind me.  I say that mainly bc it was the most unassuming piece of art in the whole room - minus the 200 Asian tourists fighting to take a front row picture.

One of the things that stood out to me while we were there was how many field trips were coming through - we are talking young elementary school age kids, 5 and 6 yr olds.  It is truly amazing that these little French children have access to so much culture at such a young age and can grow up appreciating it.  Our children are so removed from it, taking it in through books...and going to the Coke Museum for field trips.  It was also impressive how well-behaved they all were.  It seemed like there was one teacher with a herd of 10-15 young children, and they all just seemed to follow behind and listen to their teacher explain each piece of art to them.  And no giggling and all the nudity!  I can't imagine signing a permission slip for my kids to go to The Louvre!

View of The Lourve from across the river...

After our morning at the Louvre, we made our way to Sainte Chapelle.  This is the 13th century gothic chapel where St Louis kept the Passion of the Christ relics, including the Crown of Thorns (which apparently is now at Notre Dame and is brought out once a week for viewing...wish I had know that and planned better).  It is small but so impressive.  The amount of stain glass - that tells the entire story of the Old and New Testaments - is incredible.  This is one that pictures just won't do justice.

Then we grabbed a late lunch - street crepes.

Parisian drinking fountain...

Our next stop was Musee d'Orsay.  Not the most efficient order of events, but it was nice to keep to a church, museum order to break it up!  The d'Orsay was filled with iconic impressionist paintings and sculptures - it was like walking through my high school art book.

I loved the view over the river through the clock tower...you can faintly see le Sacre Couer on the hill in the distance beyond the monstrosity of the Louvre...

After that, we had one more stop...Les Invalides and Napoleon's Tomb.

After a long day of site seeing, we bid adieu to The Smiths, changed in to dinner clothes and met The Pavloffs and The Luskins at Bateaux Mouches for a dinner cruise along le Seine. Unfortunately, it was a rainy evening but it was still beautiful seeing the city from the river and an amazing setting for dinner with friends!

And then I got my first glimpse of tour eiffel...the light show at night is magical.

It was a long, packed day...so, after a brief stop at a cafe for a night cap, we all headed to our respective homes to rest up for another full day.

Day 1 - Intro to Paris

It's been about 3 weeks since we got back from our amazing trip to Europe...and, given that we took pictures with two cameras and two cell phones, I have not even finished uploading them all.  I think I have put off going through these pictures, not only due to the effort, but it is also makes me long to be back too badly!  Because every day of our 14 day trip was an adventure, every day will require it's own post...so if you are following along, I hope you enjoy our slide show from our summer vacation! (ha)  So, here we go...

We left on the evening of Memorial Day so we got to enjoy the day with the boys and have a cookout at Mom's house before they took us to the airport late that afternoon...but the anticipation levels (mine) were pretty high.  The boys didn't seem to bat an eye at us leaving, but I don't think they really comprehended how long we would be gone.

We flew Air France to Paris and with all of the flight attendants greeting us with "Bonjour!"'s it felt like we had already begun our European journey.  We had a pretty decent dinner and a glass of wine and got some sleep.  And when we woke, it was time for breakfast and landing in the City of Lights.  Finally!!

Everything upon arrival went smoothly...and we hopped on the Train to get to what was going to be our Parisian neighborhood for the next 5 days.  So here is where things got a little bumpy...we had rented a flat in Paris - partially to save a little money (hotels in Paris are NOT cheap), but also because a co-worker of mine who has done a lot of traveling had told me that it was a neat experience to stay in a neighborhood away from the toursity sections and also to have more space than the tiny hotel rooms of Paris.  So, I had done DAYS and HOURS of research, found the perfect flat, and even became pen pals with the owner (who was in her 30's with two young kids as well).  We emerge from the metro station, luggage in hand, on our bustling cafe and shop-lined street - walk up to our door - and the code doesn't work.  After some interaction in broken English with some other tenants of the building and a run in with a lady outside of her door as I am rummaging around her doorstep for a key, panic set in and we were debating whether or not we had been the victim of the worst and most pointless scam in history on the first day of our vacation.  Fast forward about an hour or so and we finally hear back from the owner who informed me that we had the wrong address.  THANK GOD!  The one good thing that came of that experience is that, while we were waiting and plotting our Plan B, I had the best Croque Madame and cup of Cafe that I had the whole time we were in Paris!

The drama died down and our stuff was settled in to our new Parisian home.  It wasn't the Ritz but it was a perfect little resting spot (we truly were only there for the 8 or 9 hours we were sleeping) on Rue Saint Placide in the 6th.  It was what I had imagined a flat in Paris to be - charming old building with tall open windows that opened up to the street.

Then we headed out to explore Paris...and to meet The Smiths and The Pavloffs at Notre Dame.  On our way, we passed a bar named Tennessee...

I would say that it was so beautiful, but I realize I will probably say that about everything.  We even unknowingly got caught inside as mass was beginning which was interesting.

Then we made our way towards our first bottle of French wine...

We were all tired after our travels so we all called it an early night...Michael and I decided to make our way home by foot.  Paris is a great walking city - however we did ultimately realize how easy the metro was and how much faster we could get places on it! But walking the streets allows you to see so much more of the city.  On this particular night, we strolled past Luxembourg Garden which was, unfortunately, already closed so we only got a teaser view.  And this is why I need to get back to Paris...so many places I didn't get to explore...

Every building seemed photo-worthy...

And we finally made it back to our street....night time street view from our window...

Working On It...

OK...after some backlash I am unlocking the blog (but keeping a close eye on activity).  I have so much to catch up on...mainly Nate turning 6 (yeah!) and my 14 day journal of our amazing European vacation.  But it is taking a LOT of time to load and organize all of the pictures from 2 cameras and cell phones - but I am working on it!  I can't wait to share some pics from our trip so keep checking back!