Paris was really amazing...
even in freezing weather and gray skies.
I can only imagine what it would have been like if we'd gone in June
...and kind of wishing that we had.
Notre Dame
The kids enjoyed the stories about the history of the church. The coolest one is about the row of priests wearing crowns that you see in statues above the kids heads. During the revolution the revolutionaries believed these statues to be of the royalty/kings of France. To show their disdain for royalty the chopped off all of the statues heads and left them there in front of the church. A local teacher saw the heads there and buried them in his back yard. In the 70's they were found by someone who came along to renovate the house/yard that they were buried in.
Shakespeare and Company Bookstore
This is a famous English bookstore in Paris.
It was the hangout of Ernest Hemingway and a few other
famous English writers of his time.
True Story:5
30 minutes before taking this photo I discovered that I had left my wallet on the train with $400, all my credit cards, ID, Georgie's passport inside and on and on and on. We were completely sick as you can imagine and I felt, once again, like the biggest idiot to grace this green earth. I reported it to officials in the train station, gave them my cell phone number and the address of our apartment, canceled my credit cards, hoped for the best but settled into the worst that, at best, I would get it back in the mail from the US consulate 6 months later with the money completely gone.
Here we are at Versailles
And on with the story:
I was told to report the loss to a city police as well so the next morning I tracked down the police station closest to our apartment and walked over there to make a report. As I range the bell and attempted to tell them that I didn't speak French my cell phone rang. It was a French number. I answered, "Bon jour," "Ahhh, yes!" the voice replied in al french accent, "Is this Ashley? Are you still in Paris?" I began to get excited, "Yes I am and this is..." "I have your wallet!" the voice replied! "I found it on the train and I must be the first one to find it because all the money is still there, it is fine and I have been searching and searching for you!"
This beautiful soul had searched facebook for my name, contacted my friends, sent me emails (that I never received somehow), searched my wallet and called every phone number that she found written in there (there were three) and one just happened to be mine. We had planned to go to Versailles the next day and this kind womanm just happened to lived two stops on the metro away from Versailles...how positively providential! She met us that morning (she also happened to be out of work that day!! ha!!) at the train station and as we approached her, with a huge grin, she said, "I recognize you and you and you, " pointing to all of us. She had seen all our pictures on Facebook (I thought I was private...ha!) I kissed her cheeks and thanked her profusely. I am still looking for the perfect gift to send to this generous, honest woman! Any ideas?
Across from our apartment was this awesome park:
Park Belleville
Which was quite convenient for the kids.
This photo was taken just outside of the Louvre,
the most "Paris as you imagine it" area of Paris, we thought:
We loved the Louvre but it only made Joey and I more excited to visit the Orsay (French 20th century art) and, for me to visit the Pompidou (modern art) both of which we never made it to. Even if you're not an art buff, art museums are still so very interesting. I guess we have to go back!!
Juliet is posing in front of a real, live, (no wait...dead) mummy. Joey took the kids to see this stuff while I toured some of the Louvre by myself. Then I took the kids to the gift shop to spend their allowance and to eat some lunch in the gardens while he toured the museum. Its pretty necessary to do the bulk of an art gallery sans kiddos;)
French history is intense (but I thought that about Budapest and Germany/Austria too...all history is intense I guess. People do crazy things) This was the exact spot where Marie Antoinette was beheaded after three years of imprisonment.
Our rays of sunshine, The Kuehne family met up with us for our last three days in Paris. We're grinning from ear to ear in this photo because we had just walked out from our table at the Hippopotamus restaurant (the Chilis of France and one of the only places said to be kid friendly in Paris) for this place, Chez something or other (recommended by Bryant!!, Thanks Bryant!) to eat a good, authentic Croque Monsieur. They sat us at Hippopatamus, we looked at the menu, didn't like it and then snuck out two by two to find something better and no one even noticed us! But don't worry, we left a 5 euro tip;)
Isaac was a king in a sea of beautiful ladies!
The Kuehnes have 4 beautiful, sweet girls
Here they are climbing the Eiffel Tower without complaint! It was long, exhausting and freezing cold and these kids played "Paper, Rock, Scissors" in three different languages all the way up. The Kuehnes speak Chinese (they lived there for 2 years and take lessons to keep up with it) so they showed each other how to play in Italian and Chinese and, of course, English.
I should have edited this picture...you can't even tell who they are!
Gay Pari!!
At Luxembourg Gardens (another favorite area of Paris) the kids ate the biggest, puffiest, swirliest cotton candy I've ever seen!:
Georgies face!!
Arent' they cute!
Get it Ju-B, get it!
This photo is from our first morning at the bakery (delicious) just down from our apartment. It was so cold it was uncomfortable taking our gloves off to eat these but once we put the first bite in our mouths we forgot about being cold.
Paris really does have the best croissants in the world. I am not a croissant person but these...yes I am one of these persons.
YUm!!
Joan of Arc in Notre Dame...a great female role model for the girls, cool;)
At Versailles we rented bikes and tooled around the HUGE (did I say huge?) gardens.
The best thing about Versailles is, by far, the gardens. Spend hours their.
This little beauty is the thing I dream about at night. It's called Tarte Citrine and its a lemon tarte with the most marshmallowy meringue (in a good way) I've ever had. We loved them so much I think we bought 4 before we left the city. This bakery, on the top of the hill in Belleville is exactly what all pastry places should be. Cute chubby grandmas working behind the counter, bread of all shapes, sizes and crustiness coated perfectly in toasted flour, exposed brick walls, stone fire places and the most delicious bread and sweets you'll find anywhere. I owe my finding it to David Liebowitz, the official American officionado of Parisian food delicacies. If you're going to Paris anytime soon don't go without downloading his Paris Pastry App. Best. Thing. Ever.
A marzipan easter cake and a chocolate eclair
Falafel...yumm...
Another great Paris legend is of the headless bishop you see (second from the back) here. Here the kids are holding their own decapitated heads. The story goes that back when Christianity was trying to establish itself in this Roman city the Romans chopped off the head of the first Parisian bishop. The story goes that he picked up his head, washed it off in the fountain and kept on preaching and converting the people. This statue is on the outside of Notre Dame in his honor.
We love Paris...
The kids loved the Eiffel Tower and the playground outside our apartment the best, so they say. They weren't impressed with Mona Lisa and if they ever come back they want to do it with the Kuehnes! And I agree, they make great traveling buddies!
xoxo
Ashley
