Our trip to Paris

 

By Daddy, with input from Nora and Nathan

In honor of Nora’s 9th birthday, the three of us went to Paris this past weekend. We had a great time and wanted to write all about it.

We left early on Friday morning and took the bus to the airport. We got some breakfast at the airport.

We took a plane from Madrid to Paris directly. Once we arrived there (to Orly), Nora’s ear was hurting because she was still getting over a cold. We were ready for lunch and so took the train called OrlyVal to Orly Sud (the South terminal; we arrived to the West terminal) to go to a restaurant that was recommended to us by the woman at the tourist bureau. It turns out that it was a very yummy restaurant. Nora and Nathan had hamburgers (of course), but these hamburgers were great – as good as we get in the US – instead of the iffy burgers that we get in Spain. The fries were great too. And they had amazing Dijon mustard there as well – Daddy and Nathan loved it. Daddy had a piece of fish and a potato dish that were both so good. We ate lunch at about noon and, to our surprise, found that other people (including French people) ate lunch at that time – good to be off the Spanish eating schedule for a bit!

Then we got back on the OrlyVal train, to the Paris RER (sort of like Madrid’s cercania and Boston’s commuter rail) and took it to the actual Metro, where we caught a train to the stop near our hotel called Bossiere. Our hotel was about 5 minutes from there. We were in the 16th arrondissment (these are sections of Paris) and very near the Eiffel Tower. In fact, we could see the Eiffel Tower from the balcony of our hotel. In this first picture, it is a bit of a cloudy afternoon on Friday and it is hard to see the Eiffel Tower from our balcony, but more better pictures are coming in a minute.

We unpacked and then set off. Daddy promised us that we would only see 1 church and 1 museum per day – we thought we could handle this. (And they did!) Our church-du-jour for Friday was the Sacre Cour, one of Daddy’s favorite sites (and now Nora’s and Nathan’s too). Even though it was a bit cold and cloudy, it was still a great view. We rode a funicular trolley thing up the huge hill to the top to see the church and then walked back down.

 Then we caught a bus and went down to the center of Paris and went to the museum du jour – the Louvre (pronounced kind of like LOOVE-rah, although we didn’t quite get the hang of French). This is also one of Daddy’s favorite places (and now also Nora’s and Nathan’s). We focused on paintings and saw the Mona Lisa, some of Monet’s paintings, some huge ones by David, and some sculptures. We also had a chance to pull out our museum sketchbooks and do some sketches.

We also explored the pyramid at the beginning section of the Louvre and also a mall that is attached. Here we are at the Pyramid. We got some dinner at the Louvre. (Daddy always tries to have a meal at these fancy museums in memory of his grandmother Iny – Daddy has fond memories of eating at museums with her after visits there.) We then caught a bus home and had our first real glimpse of the Eiffel Tower at night. And here is a better picture of the Eiffel Tower from our hotel room balcony.

We had a good sleep on Friday night and awoke ready for a new day on Saturday. We meandered a bit as we walked from our hotel down to the Seine River where we were going to have a boat cruise. We first stopped to get a quick bite of breakfast, having our first (but not our last) pain de chocolate. We then found a nice bread store and got some baguettes, which we ate as the rest of our breakfast. We then happened to wander in to an amazing outdoor market on Woodrow Wilson St. – Daddy (who is a big fan of outdoor markets and has been to a ton of them in lots of cities) felt that this may have been the best outdoor market he had ever been to. Things that we saw that were a bit unusual and special included: lots of different kinds of mushrooms, tons of cheese, lots of fish, sheep’s brains (Nora thought this was the grossest thing in the world), snails, lots of breads, very fresh fruits and vegetables, and last but not least, an amazing crepe stand. This was Nora’s and Nathan’s first exposure to the real French crepes, and they were blown away. Nora watched the crepe guy making crepes for awhile. We ate butter and sugar crepes right off the griddle, which were amazing. Here is a video of Nora enthralled by the crepe guy as he made some savory crepes. As you can see, he expertly ran 4 crepe griddles at the same time.

 It was hard to drag Nora and Nathan away from watching the crepe guy, but we eventually made it down to the river for our river cruise. We enjoyed going up and down the river and seeing the sights. Most amazing was a lady who introduced the cruise in like 7 different languages – French, English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, German, and Portuguese. She only said a sentence or two in Russian, German, and Portuguese, but we were impressed with her fluency in 4 languages.

 After the boat ride, we took a bus back to the center of Paris and went to Notre Dame.

 It was amazing because of its window, says Nora. It didn’t look like a stained glass window from the outside, but once we went inside, it was a huge stained glass window that was very pretty. Nathan thought it was pretty cool too.

Then we walked from the island where Notre Dame is to the other, fancy and smaller island. On the way, we had one of those Paris moments. On a street corner, we happened upon a wonderful jazz band:

http://www.myspace.com/thebuddydicolletteband

We listened to them for a while. Here is a video from youtube taken a few weeks before we saw them – this seems to be a regular place that they like to play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovmz7KVDY_k

Then we went and got gelato which, despite the cold, was great. Nora had vanilla and caramel, and Nathan got chocolate and vanilla. 

 Then it was time for our museum of the day. We went to the Musee d’ Orsay. This museum had lots of impressionist painters. Nora’s favorite was Van Gogh, especially his self-portrait. It was a bit crowded and we didn’t have time (or a place) to sit and sketch, but it was a nice museum to explore.

On the way back from the museum, we walked by the Place de Concorde, where there was a huge ferris wheel. Nathan all by himself came up with a great pun, calling this the “Paris wheel.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roue_de_Paris

We rode it and got great views of the city, just as the sun was going down. 

 

And finally, our day ended with dinner. We went to this restaurant called Frog XVI pub. There are several Frog pubs in Paris, and this one was close to our hotel. They had good beer (for Daddy) and great hamburgers for everyone. And as part of their kids’ meal, Nora and Nathan got a really dessert – a chocolate brownie with whipped cream on top. Plus there were TVs there and we could watch good soccer. And they spoke English. Nora decided she wanted to go back there to eat on Sunday night again!

Hard to beat a day like Saturday! But on Sunday, we got up, got our pain de chocolate and baguettes, and walked down to the Eiffel Tower. We went all the way to the top! It was a long ride up. At the second floor, we had to change to a new elevator. But then we got all the way to the top and it was a great view.

 Then we walked down the river a bit and saw the small version of the Statute of Liberty that is nearby. Then we went into the center of Paris and went to the Marais, which is the old Jewish section of town. Daddy had heard that there was this amazing falafel stand there, and for Daddy this turned out to be true. Daddy said it was the best falafel sandwich he had ever had. We walked around a bit and looked briefly at the Jewish Museum of Paris. (Since we didn’t do a church on Sunday, we ended up doing two little museums.) Then we caught a bus over to the Orangarie museum where we saw the Money water lily rooms. Then we walked around a big holiday (Christmas) market that was on the Champs Elysses near Place de Concorde, and Nora and Nathan got another crepe. Nora said it wasn’t as yummy as the first crepe but was still pretty good. Nathan lucked out because the guy making the crepe messed up and gave him a nutella crepe instead of the sugar crepe that Nora got! And then we went back to the hotel for a bit to relax, followed by another dinner at the Frog.

And finally, we catch our flight home (today)! Overall, it was a really great trip.