Sacre-Coeur

July 31st--We spent the most part of this morning doing miscellaneous stuff. We went to the post office to get a box to mail some stuff home. Afterwards, the kids and I stopped off at the grocery store and bakery while Mike went to the train station to purchase our tickets to Zermatt, Switzerland. We met him back at the apartment and all the tickets worked out. We are leaving at 7:58 a.m. on Sunday morning. That will be an early morning. We all ate lunch and packed up our package to mail back to the states. After that, we headed to the post office to actually mail our package and then got on the metro to head for Montmartre. It was hear that we walked through a pretty shady part of Paris to reach the stairs of Basillica Sacre-Coeur. It is an area filled with street vendors selling (pushing) stuff. It's hard to believe that such an area has such a beautiful church at the top of the hill. We walked up the long stairs to Sacre-Coeur. The Basillica sets atop the highest point in Paris. From here we would could see great views of the city. There were even a couple of pretty entertaining street performers that we watched for a little while. We then made a tour through the church. It was nice, but at this point, it's just really hard for us to get "wowed" by a church. We then descended back down the stairs and stopped of at a carousel for the kids to ride. We then had a snack of ice cream (for the kids and Mike) and a crepe for me. We enjoyed our snacks on the way back to the metro stop. When we arrived back near our apartment, we stopped of for a while to allow the kids to play at a local playground (very local...bums asleep on the benches and all!). We then went to a sidewalk cafe near our apartment for another great Paris dinner experience. We have gotten spoiled to having great weather where you can enjoy dinner at a table outside. Since Mike and I will be going out tomorrow night for our anniversary, it was our last "family dinner" in Paris.

Versailles

July 30th--We left early this morning for the city of Versailles. Lucky for us, we were able to take a 12 minute train ride from the station right next to our apartment. Our train left the Gare Montparnasse at 8:40 arriving in Versailles by 9:00 a.m. From the train station, we had about a 15 minute walk to the Chateau Versailles entrance. Mike had purchased our tickets on the internet the night before so getting in was fairly easy. The place we got held up in a long line was getting a audioguide, but it wasn't too bad and then we were on our way. We spent several hours making our way through the Chapel, King's and Queen's State Apartments, and the Hall of Mirrors. It was defiently an impressive palace. Then, we exited the Chateau entering the Gardens. The Gardens area is huge. Our first stop in the Gardens was to rent a golf cart. We hopped onto the golf cart for our one hour long drive through the Gardens. We had to follow a map of the route that took us by the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette, but time was not allotted to get out and walk around. It really turned out to be more of a "fun ride" for the kids but it also gave us a good glimpse of the park for us to walk back to. We returned our golf cart back by the Chateau and then walked down into the Garden for lunch. We ate at one of the cafes located by the Grand Canal. After lunch, we headed back towards the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette. This Trianon area was a retreat from reality for the King's and Queen's. We walked through the Grand Trianon which was the king's private residence away from the palace. From here, we went through the Petit Trianon which was built by Louis XV because the Grand Trianon just wasn't a big enough summer home. Outside of the Petit Trianon is the Temple of Love. This is a circle of 12 marble Corinthian columns that support a dome. Further back from the Temple of Love is where the Hamlet (Le Hameau) is located. Marie-Antoinette built this complex of 12 buildings as her own private village. This was an actual working farm with a dairy, a water mill and domestic animals. All the buildings were very beautifully placed out in the beautiful Gardens. After walking miles and miles to see all, we made our way back to the front of Petit Trianon where we got on the tram to take us back to the Chateau. By the time we departed the tram it was around 4:00 p.m. We decided to call it a day in Versailles and made our way back to the train station. We got on the fast train back to Paris arriving a little after 5:00. Mike stayed at the train station to purchase some future train tickets while I took the kids back to the apartment. It was an early evening for all of us.

Welcome to the gun show....

July 29th--Since it was the middle of the week, we decided that it would be a good day to go to some of the museums around Paris. We were hoping to go through them fairly quickly and avoid a big crowd. We headed out toward the Rodin Museum, but first stopped at the Cafe right next door for lunch. We had what is becoming our standard Paris lunch fare....hot dogs for the kids (Paris style - in a baguette covered in cheese and toasted), Croque Monsieur for Mike (grilled ham and cheese sandwich) and salad and onion soup for me. After lunch, we went to the Rodin Museum and were pleasantly surprised when we all got in free. We only wanted to go to the Garden of the museum (where the Thinker is located) so that, combined with having children with us, got us in free. Can't beat that! The Rodin Museum is filled with works by the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo, Auguste Rodin. We immediately entered the Garden to see the Thinker. Abby and Austin were especially excited to see it because they recently saw the movie Night at the Museum 2 with the Thinker in it. We all enjoyed posing like the Thinker and doing "welcome to the gun show" poses (that only makes sense to those who have seen the movie). We continued walking through the Garden to see more of Rodin's greatest works. From the Rodin Museum, we walked for a good while before reaching the Orsay Museum. The Orsay Museum is filled with 19th century art including Europe's greatest impressionist collection. The museum used to be an old train station so that in itself was impressive. We imagined what it was like when trains came into the station for a minute before heading upstairs to the Impressionist rooms. Upstairs we saw paintings by Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh before heading back down to exit the museum. We were able to get through the museum fairly easy and quickly. Since we still had some time in our day, we decided to head for Notre Dame Cathedral and climb the tower. The kids still wanted to see if they could find The Hunchback. On the way to the cathedral, we stopped into some shops to get a couple of souvenir type items. Upon arriving at Notre Dame Cathedral, we stood in line to make the 400 steps climb to the top of the tower. Luckily, there were breaks along the way to the top. At the halway mark, we got to see the gargoyles. It was great to see them that close. Our final climb was up the bell tower to actually get a close up view of the big bell that was rung by Quasimodo (The Hunchback). The kids were still looking for him, but couldn't understand why he wasn't up there. After our quick descent down the tower, we decided to go to Sainte-Chapelle since we were close by. Unfortunately, we arrived at 5:30 and that is when the ticket office closes. So, we just headed back to the apartment for dinner, baths and a lot of blogging.

Normandy

July 28th -- Today we decided to take a day trip to visit the D-Day beaches in Normandy. We opted for a car so we would have the ability to drive between the various towns and beaches. Luckily there was a Hertz location directly across from our apartment. We picked up our car about 8:30am this morning and headed north. We successfully navigated our way out of Paris and onto the highway. It was a fairly non-eventful drive with the normal potty breaks and food stops. We decided to stop first in the town of Caen, which houses the Caen Memorial Museum. By the time we arrived at the museum, it was lunch time. We headed upstairs and had lunch in the museum cafeteria. In addition to being considered the best WWII museum in the area, they also offer free childcare. So after lunch, we dropped the kids off in the playroom and then Amy and I headed into the museum. It begin with a walk down a long spiral walkway that traced the path Europe followed from the end of WWI to WWII. The bottom level of the museum provided looks at how WWII was fought. It was a very detailed and interesting museum. One could spend an entire day inside looking at all the memorabilia. However, we navigated the space in about 1 hour just in time to catch the 1:20 showing of the movie Jour J (D-Day). It was a powerful movie that showed the build-up to D-Day, the landing and then the march towards Berlin. After the movie we quickly visited the wing that covers the Cold War era. It was neat to retrace some of the history that we also explored in Poland and Germany, 20 years after the end of the Cold War era. From here, we picked up the kids and began to make our way to the D-Day beaches. Given that it was already mid-afternoon, we decided to head straight to the American Cemetery. After a few wrong turns, we finally made it to the cemetery about 4pm. It was a beautiful, sunny day, so it made the cemetery, with it's white crosses and Stars of David headstones, seem to glow. The cemetery is set up on the cliffs above Omaha beach, so you also have some great views of the ocean below. We also visited the memorial that has a semicircular "Garden of the Missing" with the names of the 1,557 soldiers who were never found. We left the cemetery and got back in the car to drive down to Omaha beach. In addition to being an important historical site, it is now a fun, family beach where the kids could have some fun. It is a little weird that this beach, that was a place of such tragedy 65 years ago, is now no different than one of many beaches you would find in Florida. Other than a memorial statue and the flags flying around the memorial, you would not know this was an important historical location. From here, you could also see Utah beach, with its steep cliffs. Seeing the area gave me an even greater appreciation for the difficulties of the two locations the American troops had to conquer. We all changed into our bathing suits and enjoyed some good quality sand-beach time. The kids played around in the sand and water for a while. Amy had fixed sandwiches before we left this morning, so this kids had dinner on the beach. We then cleaned up and loaded back up in the car for our trip back to Paris. We left a little after 6 and finally arrived in Paris a little after 10pm. It was a great day with a good balance of historical perspective and fun!

Moving day in Paris

July 27th--We sadly said our goodbyes to the Jaye's as they left Paris around 9:30 this morning. Luckily, we didn't have a lot of time to be sad because we had an apartment to get all cleaned up and our bags to pack by noon. We had rented a bigger apartment up until today. We had decided that we didn't need a 4 bedroom apartment for the 4 of us. The family we rented the 4 bedroom from had a 1 bedroom right next door. So luckily, we didn't have to move far at all. We got settled into our new apartment a little after noon and decided to go find something to eat for lunch. After lunch, we went to the grocery store to pick up food for the remainder of the week. It was after 2:00 by the time we got back here. The kids settled into watching a movie while Mike went to Hertz to see about renting a car for tomorrow. It didn't take him that long before he was back. The kids and I left him here working on the blog while we walked over to the Galerie Lafayette, a local shopping mall. We weren't gone that long because it was just a mall. I certainly am not shopping for clothes. Today was a good day to take it easy because it rained off and on; plus we needed a day to rest.

Tour de France

July 26th--We spent a good part of this morning mapping out our game plan for the Tour de France. Once we figured out the route and the time they would be coming into the city, we left the apartment to go eat lunch. We decided on the pizzeria right by our apartment because it would be fast and we would be able to avoid the crowds. After lunch, we made our way down to the Louvre area. We had pretty much decided that we would stay off the Champs-Elysees due to the crowds. We walked up Rue de Rivoli to Rue des Pyramides, the street right in the middle of Tuileries Garden. After walking around for a little while trying to find a spot, we finally decided on a spot where we could see the bikers come across the bridge, Pont Royal and go down the hill into the tunnel under Tuileries Garden. This was a great spot also because they would make 8 laps around and we would be able to see them. I was so determined to have a good view that I stood in the same spot for over 2 hours. I got there about 2:20 and the bikers finally came about 4:30. I was actually highly entertained though because there was a pre-parade type event. The sponsors had there own floats that came by playing lots of music and dancing. While I waited, Mike walked up toward the Champs-Elysees to take pictures. Brent, Shanda, and the kids played in the gardens. About 4:30, everyone was standing by me and the race came through. It happened so fast that it was a good thing they came back around 8 more times. We had a lot of fun cheering, taking pictures, and trying to figure out where Lance Armstrong was located in the pack. They would come by so fast that it was really hard to focus on an individual, but we finally found him about halfway into the 8 laps. It was at this time that Brent and Shanda took all girls back to the apartment with them. Mike, Austin and I stayed until the race was completely over. We weren't sure if it was over until we saw the camera crew packing up. We figured that was a pretty good indication. It was about 6:00 at this time and we made our way back to the apartment while fighting the crowds. The crowds didn't bother me though because I was so excited from the experience we just had. It is up there on my best sporting event list...probably at the top. It was just so incredible how I've grown up always knowing about the Tour de France, but never would have imagined I'd actually see it live. We arrived back at the apartment to get the kids ready for another babysitter. The day just kept getting better with another adult night out. We went to eat dinner at La Coupole. It was another recommendation and near our apartment. When we first walked in, we almost didn't stay because of the atmosphere. It looked like a cross between Luby's and a cruise ship dining room, but then we saw some of the food and it looked wonderful. It was definitely a French dinner experience. Mike ordered escargot and I had a shrimp dish with Ratatouille. We all had wonderful French food, service and conversation for our last night with Brent and Shanda.

Saturday in Paris

July 25th--We left the apartment about 10:00 this morning and headed toward the Pompidou Center. We decided not to go inside, but to just let the kids run around and play outside in the huge plaza. From here, we walked over to the fun fountains in the square next to the Center. The kids enjoyed seeing the colorful sculptures within the water and having room to just run. The adults grabbed a table at a French cafe within the square. We all enjoyed a French lunch while being entertained by a break dance duo. After lunch, the Jaye's wanted to go to the Orsay Museum, but we opted not to go on a Saturday. Before leaving, we saw an interesting scene. There was this cute dog that was allowing the kids to throw a ball for him. Well, there was a young boy that had a Nerf soccer ball. The boy had the soccer ball in his hands, but the dog kept jumping up on him trying to get the ball away. The dog finally managed to get the ball and immediately jumped into the water of the fountains. Smart dog because no one could get the ball from him since he was out in the middle of the water. The owner of the dog wasn't doing much to get the ball back and the Dad of the young boy was not happy. The dog eventually bit a piece of the soccer ball off and started chewing on it. The owner finally rolled up her pants and climbed in the water to get the dog and ball back. We all just stood there like we were watching a scene from a movie. It was definitely something different and funny to see. We left there and headed to Luxembourg Gardens. The kids got to play for a couple of hours before heading back to the apartment. We passed a Subway along the way and since we had a babysitter coming tonight, we picked up dinner for Abby and Austin. When we got back to the apartment, the kids ate dinner and got ready for bed. The babysitter came around 7:00. We had gotten her through a babysitting service. The adults left a little after 7:00 and walked to eat dinner at a outdoor restaurant nearby. It was a cute little cafe overlooking a tree lined street. Shanda ordered a gizzard salad. I'm proud to say that I actually tried gizzard, but still really enjoyed my onion soup and chicken entree more. After dinner, we took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower. We stood in line for a little while to go up to the Eiffel Tower. We had every intention of going to the top, but it closed before we got to the ticket booth. So, we headed up to the second floor a little after 11:00pm for a wonderful view. It was definitely an awesome experience to see Paris from the Eiffel Tower at night!