New Year’s Eve in Paris and Another 10,000 Steps

We left the Grand peeps at the apartment and set out to see all that’s left of Paris for us. First we went straight to the cafe we found yesterday and had an amazing breakfast. We’ve been surprised at the good prices for food here. All of this and scrambled eggs for just $10. Wish I could get the photo to flip....

We found this awesome lock as we walked over one of the many bridges. ❤️ We went straight to the Cathedral of Notre Dame next which means the Lady of Paris. It began construction in the 1100’s and it’s current building was complete in the 1870’s. It’s undergone a lot of transformations and the current state is gorgeous. 

This last shot was Jesus’s Crown of Thorns. What a way to start our Sunday. In church. A glorious and beautiful church. We began our walking tour of Paris by heading to the Pantheon next. It was maybe a mile walk and we loved stumbling upon cool buildings, stores, and parks as we walked.

Seems fitting that moments before this shot of the champagne bottle, we saw a man walking through the park with a full bottle. When in Paris.... Next we headed to the Luxomburg Gardens which is like Central Park in NYC or Golden Gate Park in SF. We saw so many sculptures and gardens that we enjoyed our leisurely stroll through the city.

We find everything here so beautiful and interesting that we have a hard time selecting only a few photos to show you all. As we walked to the Catacombs we realized that advanced tickets would have been a good idea. We skipped that long line and opted for a lovely cafe called Café du Rendez-Vous. We had a cheese and charcuterie platter, drinks, bread, maybe some fries and onion rings to boot.

We had some pooped out twins so Todd and I headed back to the apartment for a quiet New Years Eve. Emily, Rachelle, and Adrianna went to walk around some more and shop. Here are their shots from their evening.
 


We are watching tv in French because we can’t figure out the language on the tv. We come across this channel where it appears to be a magic show of sorts. This man theatrically applied lotion to his legs then proceeded to put those pants on without the use of his hands. There was a lot of leg movement involved. Very hilarious!

All Things Paris and Day 6

Slow start this morning as the Berry’s didn’t get home until after midnight and the rest of the crew was enjoying their beauty sleep. We hit the Metro this morning which dropped us right along the Siene River where we found a lovely cafe where we stopped in for a light breakfast. Croissants are a staple here.

He seems like a happy man, huh? Off to du Lourve we went. We didn’t have tickets so we waited in line which went surprisingly quickly, and we met an American stationed in Germany with the Army. He was from Tennessee and we chatted for a long time about his weekend travels around Europe and over Christmas break since he had two weeks vacation. He said he’s heading back to the USA in a month so safe travels to him, and thank you for your service! One interesting thing about Paris is the presence of the Army. They always have their finger on the trigger as seen in this photo. It’s intetesting to talk with locals as they think it’s so foreign and weird that us Americans have “arms” meaning guns. Of course growing up in America I suppose it would be a bit odd to not be able to purchase guns. Not starting a conversation about it at all, just pointing out how people live differently in different places. That’s the whole idea of traveling right? See new and different walks of life.

We all look pretty happy to have found the Musee du Louvre.

There were a ton of art pieces here that we roamed around for a long time before finding the famous Mona Lisa. Lots of photos and historical pieces here. Not sure what this guy is looking at...

We had some fun reinacting the sculptures. Passing the time, laughing, goofing around. All good for the soul 💕

And then there’s Grandma. She’s always up for a little fun. I suggested this so blame me. 😳

Oh what joy it is to take her places. I laughed for a good ten minutes after this shot. We aren’t sure what happened to this guy, but we are pretty sure he was a hurtin’.

I could fill this entire blog with pictures from today. Go to Paris. Go to The Lourve. It’s worth it. We walked along the Siene for a bit then took a double decker train to lunch where Grandma order the Super Magic Burger. It had bacon. She loved it. French onion soup and Caesar salad were for Todd and me and the twins shared spaghetti (Italian girls all the time). Emily ordered pizza, which I just finished for dinner, and Rachelle and Adrianna got salad and pizza as well. Empty plates mean lunch was good!

Get tickets ahead of time for the Eiffel Tower or else you’ll be waiting in long lines. For a long time. A long  long time. We took a lot of photos for this event. It was really amazing for the 7 of us who had never been here. We spent an hour and a half in line. It wasn’t horrible. Disney trivia, Heads Up. It was like waiting in line for Cars. We powered through. And it was worth it. 

The views of the city were gorgeous. I shall leave you with this photo that we found in the Christmas bazarre that we walked through after the  Eiffel Tower. We are all feeling this way today. 

The twins are I are resting at the apartment while Emily and the other adults are exploring fondue and the Latin Quarter. Looks fun, huh? 

The twins are trading off ibuprofen, Benadryl, antibiotics, and cough syrup. We are trying to keep them going but they need to rest, and rest we shall. Night all! 

Jour Cinq - The Sickness Spreads

Jour Cinq means day 5 and here we are in Paris! You’ll only see some of us in their picture in front of the Siene River because the twins needed to rest after Jessica so graciously shared her illness with Katie. We haven’t gone to another hospital yet, but the pharmacy has been our friend and we are loading them up so that we might get through this trip with our entire party entact.

That’s us. All bundled up and a little wet from the rain. It doesn’t stop us! We had just three hours to explore a bit of Paris and we saw so much. The Notre Dame Cathedral which we will be back for tomorrow. The Latin Quarter was beautiful with a millions ships, restaurants, Boulangeries, and patisseries. We had so much fun just walking and looking at everything. Old buildings. Churches. What seems like ancient houses. Everything is so old.

The funny thing about Paris is that you’re walking and you see nothing, then you turn a corner and voila! There’s a huge cathedral. And on many corners you see the bread and pastry shops. Emily was obviously in heaven. We got chocolate (mine had “butter salt” and it was amazing).

After exploring a bit, we jumped back on the Metro and headed back to our cute apartment to shower and get ready for dinner with a Parisian family. In Jessica’s French language class  her teacher set up pen pals so that students could improve their French and the French students could improve their English. They’ve been writing and communicating for two years now and they want to visit each other but we felt a little more comfortable meeting the family first. They were delightful and we had a true French dinner with snails, scallops, fois gras,  ratatouille, salmon, potatoes, and two desserts. Crepes and King Cake (which involves playing a game with the youngest child in the house and finding a toy in the cake. It was so cool to experience real French traditions and eat authentic food. We hope they come visit America! Here’s a shot of all the kids.

After eating a ton and talking for hours, they drove us home to our apartment, but not before driving to the Arc de Triumph, Champs elyses, and the Eiffel Tower. We are so happy that we got to see these at night. What a sight for my tired tired eyes.

And at midnight the Eiffel tower sparkles...it was wonderful. 

Grams, Papa, Rachelle, and Adrianna went to dinner near our apartment and we heard Papa had two glasses of wine so needless to say they were all passed out by the time we stumbled in at nearly 1am. What a night. This is why we travel. Such cool experiences and exploring new places.