Paris, Day 3

Our last day in Paris was a Sunday, so we started with Latin mass at Notre Dame Cathedral.

Beautiful Gothic Architecture!

The sign partly cut-off notes that Notre Dame is celebrating 850 years

 We then walked to the other side of the little island to enjoy another beautiful (though now non-working) church, Sainte-Chapelle, built as a private chapel for the king to house Christ's crown of thorns. The chapel is surrounded on all sides by tall stained glass windows telling the stories of the Old and New Testaments. So, so beautiful!

We then walked through the Latin district of Paris (look at the blue skies--it was almost warm...).

Then off to the Musee d'Orsay, full of Impressionist paintings (my favorite!). Lots of Van Gogh and Monet, among others. I especially liked seeing the Impressionists up close and in person because of all the rich textures found in the paintings.  A number of the paintings from our well-loved Mini Masters board books are from that museum.

The museum was converted from a train station

And then the plan was to walk to dinner...but the address was wrong, so we eventually took a taxi and got to our dinner location (courtesy of Groupon).

And then it was late, but we still hadn't been to the Eiffel Tower, so off to our last Paris stop.

We flew home early Monday morning, but not before going to Angelino's for very delicious hot chocolate and macarons (French, so almond based rather than coconut) and chocolates to bring back. A good finish to a good trip!

Paris, Day 2

For our second day in Paris, we chose to take the train out to Versailles. The palace did not disappoint! Everything said about its opulence was true. If a bit of wall or ceiling could be painted or gilded, it was. And it was so huge.

The gardens weren't in their full glory since it was still cold, but they were expansive and filled with fountain after fountain (20+?). We found a little place to enjoy a crepe (yum!) and then toured the gardens, watching the fountain shows set to music.

Just a "little" fountain set off to side full of huge statues

We headed back to Paris and enjoyed a boat ride on the Seine and seeing some landmarks. (And enjoying the fact that the lower level was enclosed and a nice warm temperature.)

We finished the evening with a delicious dinner at a lovely, local French restaurant. The waiters were nice and bi-lingual, so ordering food wasn't a complete mystery (true of all the restaurants we went to). My one disappointment with French cooking is that serving butter with French bread is apparently not standard...

Paris, Day One (updated)

 Updated to add the fabulous restaurant we went to---this is why I try to take lots of photos; it really helps to jog my memory.

I'm still pretending that catching up is something that will actually happen (totally doable at the rate of two posts a month, right?), so here are pictures from our first day in Paris back in April.

We started off the day by taking the TGV Eurostar through the Chunnel. A bit anti-climatic after all of our underground train riding--no signs informing you "now you are entering the Chunnel." The boys spent the last two years ensuring that Dustin was well-educated on our train; we felt a little guilty taking such an exciting train ride without them.

And then we were in Paris! We dropped our bags at our hotel and headed off to Dustin's carefully chosen restaurant L'Atelier Etoile de Joel Robuchon, the chef who has the most Michelin star restaurants in the world. We went to his more casual bistro (only two Michelin stars) for a very delicious lunch, beautifully presented. A good introduction to French cuisine!

We then headed out to spend the rest of the day and evening at the Lourve since it had extended viewing hours on Fridays.

Still cold, but not as cold as London

The Lourve was absolutely huge! Tons and tons of things to see and lots of space for displaying it. We did lots of walking!

Winged Victory

Mona Lisa

We studied the below painting last year in second grade (the past eight years of artist and picture studies and the kids' board books paid off! There were so many specific pieces of work that I enjoyed seeing on our trip.). This was hanging in a long, long hall of floor to ceiling paintings.

Leonardo da Vinci's Virgin on the Rocks

Venus de Milo

Assyrian Art

Code of Hamurabi: note how not-crowded the background is--way to many other famous items to see!

Monet

We were just amazed at the wealth of items contained in the Lourve. So many spots were not crowded because there were simply too many other wonderful things to see in other places. You could be in a room entirely filled with Rembrandts and only share it with a few others--no need to patiently wait your turn to get to examine a piece more closely.

After learning that my attention span for a single location is longer than Dustin's (but Dustin has more stamina for going to multiple places in a row), we headed out to find an inexpensive cafe for dinner. That was a fail, so we stopped at a tiny grocery store and brought bread and cheese back to our room.