Happy Anniversary to me

Today is our 12 year anniversary. We never thought 12 years ago that we would ever be in Paris on our anniversary. Awesome. Appropriate to our wedding memory, we were woken by thunder claps and solid downpour. We had a leisurely breakfast with Cynthia of crepes (you buy them in the store like tortillas), jam, more pastries, fruit and coffee. She is full of great family stories, we are just trying to take them all in....We headed out on foot down the Champs-Elysses, headed for the Place de la Concorde. There is a 3500 year old Olbelisk there, (note that it was given to France from Egypt, not plundered), and SO MANY beautiful buildings, fountains, and I am here to say that America really needs to incorperate more gold gilt into its public art and structures. Here is a little photo gallery of that area:
OK, so this building was built as a residence for 4 men. Now it is a car club or something or other. All right.
Even the bottom of the light posts are fancy!!

Obelisk!!

View back down Champs-Elysses.

From here we walked to La Madeleine Eglise, with its 52 Fine Corinthian Columns...

Very impressive. We went inside, and it is overwhelmingly beautiful. Fresco, statues, carving, more columns, gilt and the what-have-you. There is a sign at the entrance asking you to keep quiet, which was not a problem. So much to look at, and it is so ornate, it is hard to think of stuff to say.
We left there, headed for the Opera building and bumped into an entire Henkels Shop!! We went in and bought a cheap paring knife that will last about the 3 weeks we are here. The knife situation in the apartment is totally ridiculous, we consider it part of the rent. I saw the first Starbucks I had seen here, then I saw three more today!! Here is the Opera building we were looking for. Wow. Again.
Just some crummy little thing they slapped up again. We were looking for nourishment and toilets, so we went to the "mall". Here is what the roof of the mall looks like in Paris.
For shame, Northgate, for shame!! Oh and here are the other floors.
Then we hoofed along until we found a cute little brasserie, and got some gigantic baguette sandwiches (shared). Then we came home and rested, because Aunt Cynthia wanted to take us out for dinner for our anniversary. She had a swanky place in mind, right on the Champs-Elysses called Fouquet's. Very popular with movie stars and their ilk and she had been there "back in the day" with some famous film-types she was interviewing. She also told us a story about Errol Flynn helping her to get down from a rock, at a party at a Chateau around here, and commenting that she was too old for him. (he had recently been in trouble for hanging out with a 13 year old, oops).

We had a fabulous dinner, I had a great tomato salad, Nick and Cynthia both had fois gras, we all had the duck entree, and the kids had pasta with tomato sauce and great hunks of parmesan on it. Here is Miles with his wine, a lovely beaujolais, he liked it and drank it all!
Here is Caroline in heaven with her mousse au chocolat dessert!
We had a glass of champagne at dessert to celebrate, it was all delicious, and so rich! I'll be digesting this meal for a while....... We were all so stuffed, in a good way, we rolled home, and went to bed!!

Market Day

We got up slightly earlier today, between 10 and 10:30. There are no clocks in this house, so it is very hard to judge unless I ask Miles, since he is the only one wearing a watch here. We had a FANTASTIC breakfast because Cynthia got up early and went to La Boulangerie and picked up an assortment of croissant for us. Caroline had her dream croissant avec chocolat! She loved it. Cynthia also went next door to talk with the Concierge about the baggage some more, and she had gotten the message that the bags were here!! They should be delivered to the hotel sometime today!! Hoo Ray!!!

After breakfast, we cleaned up and got out of the house and took our first ride on Metro.
It is super easy to figure out, other than the money thing, and we think we will just end up buying a pass since we will probably use it a lot. It was really crowded. We took it down to the 11th Arrondissement to the Bastille Market. We got some fruit, olives, Chardonnay from Chardonnay, and Nick got a hat, because he cannot travel without a straw hat. Here is Miles washing the plums in the public fountain. Caroline said, look, even the faucets are pretty here!! (She loves the ornate doors and decorations on the buildings here.)
Here's the market.
Here is some giant Brie. There is not really any perspective, but they are about the size of a large pizza.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
We then walked over to Ile St Louis, and Ile de la Cite (sorry again no accents, Miles is already in bed)and saw the outside of Notre Dame. It is impossible not to just stand and gawk and say Wow, a lot.

There was a little playground and Miles and Caroline played with the kids there a bit, and then we walked over the Rive to the Left Bank. It was really jammed with people, and we walked down a little street that was solid restaurants. We stopped in a little Greek place and had gyros and beer (well, kids had Orangina). It was built of stone and cool inside and we needed to get out of the sun! It was 91 today, hotter than it ever was for us in California!!
We found our way back to Metro, and were packed in even tighter this time, into a big, sweaty sardine can, and made our way back home. It was super hot, we were tired and needed some down time. We got home, everyone was reading and then Nick got the call!! We got the suitcases!! We all dropped everything, and raced down to the Hotel to pick them up, and merci beaucoup-ed our heads off to the adorable Concierge, and lugged them back home. We relaxed and chatted with Cynthia a bit, and then she went off for dinner with a friend. We were too hot to cook, and still a little full from late lunch, so we had picnic dinner of baguette, AMAZING cheese I don't even know the name of, let's just call it sublime, strawberries, grapes, olives, tomatoes and salami. Trying to get to bed early, but it is TOO HOT to sleep.
Tomorrow it is supposed to cool down and I have endless clothing options.....What a great day.
View from our front window at sunset.

Saturday

This was a full day!! I was up first at 11 AM, Nick at 11:30, and the kids at about 11:45. We were pretty slow and stupid for a while...Nick and the kids ate breakfast, and Cynthia was headed out for lunch with her friend on the Left Bank. (love saying that). Before she left, we went next door to the Hotel Chateaubriand for some help with the luggage situation. We could get nowhere with the number they gave us to call because the voice message was all in French, and not very clear. The extremely adorable concierge there helped up through it, she knows how to talk to these people, she does it all the time. ONE of our 3 missing suitcases is here, we do not know which one, and they said they will deliver it later today. Well, counting blessings, this seems good. We got some coffee made, and loafed around and then decided we needed to see the Eiffel Tower up close, and could just not wait. We walked down to the Champs-Elysses and realized that we do not know where we are going. We noticed that we totally look like tourists and decided to augment our look by buying a map.

We get some money at the Change Bank, hee hee. ( Do you have a 20? I could give you a 10 and two 5s....vintage SNL)
Then we cruise down the Rue, and cross the Seine, getting excited as the Tower gets bigger and bigger. When we arrive there, it is a veritable madhouse, with millions of people on a giant blacktop, absolutely baking....We get some touristy brochures, and plan our return, perhaps on a rainy day, or at least a weekday... Here are some photos:
Underneath! Bet you always wondered what that looked like!!
Yea!! (note about photo that Caroline and I are both sporting the latest fashion that Monoprix has to offer) (I actually love that skirt and if my luggage never arrives I plan to go buy about 10 more....)

We have a frozen treat, which we enjoy on the grass in a park, and then walk home via the Arch de Triomphe. There is a ceremony going on there, which we learn happens everyday. When the soldiers are done with their ceremony, they get to go up to the top, but they can't take their guns up, so they leave them in this pile here. Weird.
We decided to go to the top, as long as we are there, and although we are quite tired and have walked a long way today, we all make it up to the top, up the 284 step spiral staircase.

What a view!! We see all the sights, and I am able to convince Caroline that Paris is, indeed, bigger than Seattle from there.


We get home, pretty tired, and Cynthia suggested going out for Middle Eastern food which sounded a lot better than cooking. So we went a couple of blocks away to a Moroccan Restaurant. The food was delicious, and Cynthia and I were practically the only women there, and Miles and Caroline were definitely the only kids there. All men, drinking their sweet tea and smoking their hookas. Miles and Caroline were not sure what to make of the smoking business, it is not allowed anywhere in Washington, so they are not used to seeing so many people smoking everywhere. I was feeling a little light-headed myself with all the sweet smoke all around us and we were sitting outside! Caroline started to get a headache so she and Miles played in a little courtyard between courses.


Photo of hookas will arrive later, did not turn out, but the pile of them was really impressive so we are going to go back and get a photo--check back!!!

We came home and were so exhausted that no one could sleep. Nick had to go to the Monoprix at about 11:00, to replenish our underwear supply. (suitcase never came) We started some laundry, and tried to sleep. Caroline and Miles both took a long time to settle, we are still a little "off."

BLOGGER IS IN FRENCH!!

Uh, yeah, good thing I have all the buttons memorized, although I am pretty good with the tech French, as I switched my cell phone over to French a couple of months ago. It was pretty funny except it did not help with my days of the week knowledge, because ever since I did that, my phone keeps resetting the year to 2048. Luckily I don't count on my phone for the days of the week, usually. OK, that was a bit too long of an aside, since I may have mentioned, I AM IN PARIS. And Blogger is in French, how does it know? Right now I am in the "creer" heading. There is and accent acute over than first e, but I don't know how to type in French yet, though Miles has promised to set my keyboard to French tomorrow, so sticklers will have to wait for that. OK that just extended that aside.

I decided to start a new entry for a new day which is Friday. OK, we left off at our adorable cobbled street, where we find #4 Rue de Chateaubriand.

we punch in the passcode, get in, and run into the Concierge, an adorable woman in a full cotton apron running an old hose vac on the stairs, I thought I might be in a BBC drama for a minute, and expected Judi Dench to come down the stairs after her. (another aside, I must have jetlag), and we got another crash course in French pantomine as we described Aunt Cynthia, and established that she was "pas ici". We went up to the apartment on the 6th floor to see if she had left out a key. OK, the elevator is nuts. There is a spiral staircase that goes up all the way to the top, with an elevator that is about 2 feet in diameter and round.
We actually had to send the suitcases (the ones we have)up by themselves, and the kids up by themselves, because it is so small, only 2 Americans can fit in it at a time. Probably 3 French people, though. We got to the top, the elevator only goes to floor 5, you have to walk to 6 as it gets very narrow up there. The apartment is on the top floor, and when Aunt Cynthia and Richard bought it in 1957, it was 6 different rooms that were the maid's quarters on the top floor. They knocked down the walls, took out fireplaces and made it one giant apartment. I am ahead of myself here, because we are not yet in. We dump our stuff in the hall, determine that Cynthia is indeed "pas ici", and decide we are starving. We walk to the street, find a shop with a baguette on the sign and get some sandwiches and cold drinks. We saunter on down to the Champs-Elysses, and sit on a wall and eat them and watch, literally, the world go by. Every language imaginable is being spoken on that street. We cruise back to the house, go up and wait about 5 minutes and then Cynthia showed up!! We go in, drag in all our luggage, and the apartment is about 5 times the size I thought it would be. Nick and I have our own room, Cynthia has a room, Caroline has a room, and Miles is in the living room, but he may move into Caroline's room. There is a view of the Eiffel Tower top from my room, if you stand right in the "sweet spot".
Yep, there she is, The Iron Lady.

The apartment is shaped like a U so here is the other side:
That is Miles peeking out the other side. I do feel like the luckiest person on the planet with only one pair of underwear to her name. We get a bit oriented, loaf around a bit, and decided to cook dinner for ourselves tonight. We go down to the Monoprix, which we discover is a Parisian Fred Meyer!
We get food for dinner, underpants for all involved in luggage snafu, some shirts for the same ones, glassware for the apartment, which seems to have mostly been broken by previous tenants, and are pretty pleased with ourselves. We also go to cell phone store, since we cannot live without phones, apparently. We come home, cook spaghetti, have some wine, and Miles and I promptly pass out. I wake up for a few minutes to put kids to be at I think, around 8:30 or 9, I tried to read Caroline a book, but she fell asleep before I could get back with the book. The Eiffel Tower is lit up at night, BTW.

Travel Day

OK, this is a post that covers about 24 hours, much of which is a blur, so bear with me. We left eeeeeaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrlyyyyyyyyy on Thursday morning. That is, we meant to leave at 5:40, ouch. We left closer to 6, but that is why we had a half hour buffer. So lucky we have the world's most adorable neighbors, Tom and Jenny to take us to the airport, and yes, they both came...We showed up at SeaTac with the 5 million other people traveling at ungodly hours of the morning, stood in hundreds of lines and got to the gate at 7:50. Perfect..... our flight leaves at 8:15!! Oh wait, no, it is delayed until 9:00.....well we had time for coffees and a paper. Flight to Toronto uneventful, movie was Spiderman 3 which both kids thought was dumb and stopped watching. We had a huge layover in Canada, slightly lessened by delay, but ate the sandwiches we brought, found working plugs and WiFI, and hung out. This plane left on time, we were served a MEAL with WINE, totally civilized I tell you, watched "Blades of Glory" which Caroline refused to watch, and was too off-color for Miles' sensitive palette. We all tried sleeping, and in the race to get the most sleep, the places are: #1 Caroline-- 3 hours, #2 Elise --2.5ish tied with Miles, and Nick in last with "hardly any". The Cappy wakes us up at 8 am for breakfast, (yes, 2 meals) and we land around 9:30. In a daze we get off the airplane, go through customs, find baggage claim and learn that three (THREE!!) of our suitcases are still in Canada. The drama continues. Nick talks to the desk where they assure him they will come in tomorrow, because, why? "Monsieur, this happens all the time!" (Note to all Air Canada employees who read this blog: please get it together on this issue, nothing brings down a person's lifelong dream trip to Paris like the prospect of no underwear.) We must be stoic, as we must figure out what to do next. Get money! Nick goes and gets some Euros, some coffee, and we stumble down in the direction people keep sending us for the Air France Bus which is how we are getting into town. Here I will note that Charles de Gualle is the Biggest Airport I have ever been in and it was a zoo! Holy cow. We find the bus, with the world's nicest driver,

**photo will go here***

and we get on the road and drive round and round the airport picking up more people. Now I realize that CDG is a GI-normous airport, Holy Cow!! The bus ride was smooth and went right where we needed to go. We get off the bus at Etoile, next to the Arch de Triomphe, and stand around awestruck. It is overwhelming to see this place I have only seen in pictures.

The Arch is about twice as large and grand as I thought. Nick said I would have a better idea of how big it was if I watched more WW2 footage of Germans marching through it, but really, don't think I'll start. We set off the wrong way around the roundabout, of course, but then got oriented by the EIFFEL TOWER, yes we can just go on ahead and use it as a landmark, get going the right way, and find our way down adorable cobbled streets to our apartment.

PASSPORT, CHECK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So FINALLY,the passport office decided I was good enough, and granted me with that special booklet, so as of 2:00 this afternoon, I can leave the country. I guess they enjoy the drama and tension of stringing people along who have thousands of dollars of airline tickets on the line...

OK, I'm over it. I went to the passport office at 8am today, the kids went to work with Nick, and I was there for 35 minutes waiting to turn in my Birth Certificate, then they said, OK, come back at 2pm. I rode the elevator down with Ron Sims (no joke!) who I cracked up by running and leaping onto the elevator because I thought it was going to leave without me. So I came back to the Federal Bldg at 1:45, and GOT my passport. I was on such a high I almost bolted out of the elevator on the wrong floor. (hey-these elevators are confusing, they go a lot slower than you would expect). Then I SKIPPED to the car, did the "I got a passport" dance, and we went out to lunch to celebrate. (still not buying groceries).

Came home and packed, and had dinner with Grandma Meredith, Matt and Zoe, Thomas and Amelia, Kristina and Roy, Avery and Asher, Beth, Isabella and Naomi. Then we came home, Nick mowed the lawn, finished packing, and went to bed!! Tom and Jenny are taking us to the hairport BRIGHT AND EARLY tomorrow. Really Excellent Neighbors.

***family photo will go here******

July 31,2007

Home again, home again....
We had to sit in the VERY LAST ROW to sit together, but it was fine. No one kicks your seat that way. We arrived home, immediately located the cats. admired the children's passports, and just enjoyed being here. Out for dinner so to not shop for food, and off to bed. Whew, tired. (I went and had a beer with the ladies, since I won't see them this month...)