When Caroline turned 10...
Caroline had a really nice birthday celebration! We were sad because Mark was at an offsite training so he was out of town but we made the most of it. We had a great birthday breakfast--chocolate chip pancakes! And then presents! Then we headed over to the Palisades mall where we shopped at the lego store and fuzziwigs and crazy 8 and then had lunch at chili's. Caroline was very patient as we also stopped at Costco to do some Hurricane Irene shopping.
We had a birthday celebration for her with her friends a few days later. A friend came over and did fancy hairdos for all the girls. Caroline planned some water games outside from her AG magazine. We did several crafts while everyone was waiting for their hair to get done. And we had pizza and cupcakes. It was a great day!
So grateful for a daughter like Caroline. On days when I'm exhausted with little boys, I get to do wonderful things with her. She's feeling a bit under the weather so she's home today with me. She's a delight.
School!
Well we have been in school for 7 weeks now. It has flown! Here are some shots of the first day. Sorry Caroline to post one with your eyes closed. We love having a 7th grader, 5th grader, 2nd grader and kindergartener. They are wonderful!
New York is exciting too
Well I decided that I can blog about things we do at home since I really enjoyed blogging about Paris! So keep checking back for pictures of all of our adventures in New York.
Two weekends ago we went apple picking! It is one of our favorite fall traditions. I loved the orchard we went to. Just apples. We literally parked our car and walked into the orchard. No crowds either! Little Thomas loved wandering around.
The last picture is the gang going to the Yankees game over Labor Day weekend. They had a great day and the Yankees won!
Paris-Day Six-Going home
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Friday morning we had a few hours to spend before we needed to leave to the airport. We decided to go for one last walk through Tuilieries and also go back to Angelina for breakfast for one more hot chocolate.
To get there, I thought it would be great to take Bus 69 (rick Steves is a huge fan of this bus). We caught it thinking we could stay on the bus at the end of the loop, which was right by the Eiffel Tower. We had to get off and get back on a different bus going the way we wanted to go. We were out of metro tickets though (since we couldn't transfer.) It was kind of a disaster but a really nice French dad who was taking his daughter to school saw our plight and offered us two bus tickets. We tried to pay him but he refused. We were so grateful.
We enjoyed the bus ride through the 7th and 6th and got off at at Tuilieries near the Arc Carousel. This was a part of the park we had not seen before, we enjoyed walking through it and the light was beautiful. Once again, another perfect day with beautiful blue skies.
We loved our breakfast at Angelina. Mark had an omelet and I ordered the Parisian breakfast which included a variety of pastries and fresh squeezed orange juice (which literally tasted like they put a straw in an orange...so good.) And the hot chocolate was amazing. We then walked down Rue de Rivoli for one last souvenir shopping experience, I got a scarf and we got an ornament and a print of the Eiffel Tower. The whole morning was delightful!
We headed back to the hotel by metro. We took one last walk down Rue Cler, and stopped into a baby clothing store to get little Thomas a french shirt. We checked out and collected our luggage. We got back on the metro to go to Opera so we could catch the Roissy bus to Charles de Gaulle. We made it with plenty of time before our flight. The flight home was on Air France so we enjoyed our last French foods and service. Back to reality.
Paris was wonderful. It was an amazing trip and we loved every minute we were there. Thank you Mark for taking us! Thank you Mom for taking such good care of the kids. Truly unforgettable! Everyone should go!
Paris--Day Five, Part 3
For our last night in Paris (SOB!), we decided to head over to the Pompidou for modern art and great views of Paris.
First we ate dinner at le petit quiotden which is in the Marsais. They had the best baguettes. We enjoyed a quiet dinner. On our way to the Pompidou, we just happened by the Church! We were so excited to see the sister missionaries, who were working in a small visitors center. We chatted with them for a while.
We got to the Pompidou which is a strikingly different building than any other we'd seen in Paris. Very modern. The escalators are on the outside. We enjoyed our ride up and fantastic views of Paris, including these pictures of Norte Dame and Sacre Couer. We saw the Stravinskly fountain as well from up top which was good because when we walked past it it was dark so we couldn't see it as well. We decided to stay until 8 p.m. so we could see the Eiffel Tower and the beautiful sunset. We took in a few of the modern art paintings as well.
Paris--Day 5-Part Two--Back to Orangerie
After Versailles, we took the train back to the RER station by Musee d'Orsay. From there it was a short walk across a bridge and through Tuilieries Garden to the Musee Orangerie. We had been there on Monday, but wanted to go back since we had been to Monet's Gardens since then. (This was our last day of the museum pass which gave us unlimited admission to many of the places we went). It's such a tranquil and peaceful place.
The picture above is Mark comparing a photo on his iphone to one of the paintings in the museum. Mark prided himself on his expert iphone photography during the trip! in fact, we joked that he might even write a book on iphone photography.
After that we went back into Tuilieries to get more gelato and sit by the fountain and have our favorite view up to the Arc d' triomphe. It was so nice to sit, watch people, feel the sun on our faces and of course enjoy the delicious gelato!
We headed through the place concorde to Petit Palais to see a Monet and a Mary Cassatt. Best way to spend an afternoon!
Paris-Day Five, Part One-Versailles
On Thursday morning, Mark and I headed out to Versailles. We got breakfast (croissant for him, pain au chocolat for me) at our little bakery around the corner from our hotel and headed by foot to the RER station on the banks of the Seine.
The train ride was only 30 minutes long. We followed Rick Steves' advice about being early to Versailles and it worked! We were literally the first ones in the Palace. Everyone knows I love to be first!!
We had a short walk to the palace from the train station. As you round the corner, you immediately see the palace and it is huge and awe inspiring from blocks away! Then you approach it through the gates and you are even more awestruck!
We picked up our audio tours and headed through the rooms of the palace. The Hall of Mirrors was amazing. We also liked the queen's and king's bedrooms and the dining room where they had family dinners (observed by the public). We loved the view of the gardens from the second floor of the palace. It was an amazing place and we learned so much about French history and the French revolution and of course about Louis XIV, the Sun King himself.
And then there's the gardens! We heard from friends how fun it was to ride bikes through the gardens. So after a bit of a detour we found the bike rental place and got situated. We rode around the whole Grand Canal. It was really fun, we had never been bike riding together. It was the most perfect glorious day, perfect temperature and wide blue skies. We decided to skip Grand Triton, and head back to Paris instead. So we checked our bikes in, had a bite to eat and walked back through the gardens to the palace and then back to the train station.
Paris--Day Four, Part Two
From Norte Dame we walked over to Ile St. Louis. We were on the lookout for the famous Berthillion ice cream. It did not disappoint! Delicious. We enjoyed it from one of the many bridges. We crossed over the river and headed to St. Germaine. We wanted to walk around the neighborhood. We were also looking for a bakery that had been recommended to us called Erik Kaiser. We found the bakery and got lunch and eclairs and ate it at a park bench. We walked through the streets and happened upon a little store were we got the kids some gifts (including a lego calendar). We headed over to Luxemborg Gardens which I felt like was being in the middle of a Babar book! We sat for a long time watching people and enjoying the afternoon. We found the beautiful Medici fountain there as well.
We walked through the gardens and headed back to Ile de la Cite. We wanted to see the Conceirge, which was a prison (that held Marie Antoinette along with many others) you can now tour. After that, we headed to the tip of the island where we sat and watched people and boats on the Seine. We went in search of dinner and ended up with crepes eaten along the bank of the Seine.
It was time for the concert. Mark had wanted very much to go...they were peforming Pachabel's canon and Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It was a definite highlight of the trip. The musicians were excellent and the performace was very moving and memorable, especially in such the beautiful Saint Chappelle! After the concert, I suggested to Mark that we head back to the Arc d'Triomphe for another view of it at night time. I wanted to see the 9 p.m. sparkles on the Eiffel Tower. He indulged me even though we were both so tired. It was worth it! It was a wonderful sight to see all of Paris beneath us sparkling in light.
Paris--Day Four, Part One--Ile de la Cite
Day Four found us on the Ile de la Cite touring some of Paris' most historic and amazing buildings.
We took the metro to Saint Chapelle. We were very excited about seeing this amazing church. It has the most amazing stained glass I have ever seen. It's 12 panels tell many stories from the Bible. We also were able to get tickets to return for an evening concert that night at Saint Chapelle (more on that later.)
We then walked over to Norte Dame. It's so impressive. Our only other views of it had been from the river and from the top of the Eiffel Tower so I was so excited to be there in person. We had about an hour to wait to climb the stairs to the top. While Mark held our place in line I toured the inside of the Church. The climb to the top was well worth the view. We loved seeing the City beneath us and the gargoyles! Amazing! We went into the bell tower and while we were up on top the bells rang at noon. We headed back down (we could have gone further up top but had other things we wanted to do). The outside of Norte Dame was also amazing.
Paris-Day Three, Part Two
So we returned to Paris by train from Giverny and headed straight to the Musee D' Orsay. I was very excited about going here. It was amazing. The architecture of the building was incredible. They have a wonderful group of Van Gogh paintings that I just loved. We enjoyed wandering around. Several parts of the museum (including the impressonist wing) were being renovated so that was a little frustrating because we kind of had to seek for certain paintings, but eventually found most of the highlights.
We walked over to Musee Rodin after that and really loved it. The gardens are so beautiful. We loved seeing the Thinker. The Kiss was my other favorite. We took a coke/baguette break at the cafe as well. From there it was a short walk to the Invalides where we saw Napoleon's tomb. The stained glass inside was very striking. We enjoyed the gardens there as well.
We went back to the hotel for a bit and then headed out again for dinner. Mark's boss had told him about a place near us that had amazing french onion soup. So we found that and Mark did love his soup. We also had steak frittes and a big salad. It was lovely to see Tour Eiffel again at night.
Paris--Day Three, Part One Giverny
Tuesday morning found us happily venturing to Giverny! When I was researching our trip, I weighed very heavily the pros and cons of going to Giverny vs. Versailles for a day out of town. I thought we'd have to choose between the two and the more logical one to do seemed to be Versailles. We scheduled Versailles for Thursday, but by rearranging a few things, we found we had room Tuesday morning for the trip to see Monet's gardens. Mark also had kind of fallen in love with Monet and his work after visiting Marmottan museum on Sunday and Orangerie on Monday. We really wanted to see his home and gardens.
We took the train from Gare St. Lazare. It was great to see the train station in person as I have seen many times Monet's painting of this train station. Getting our tickets was easy enough and the train was super comfortable and clean. Once arriving in Vernon, we boarded a shuttle bus for Giverny. We had a short walk through town and got our tickets to enter. We headed straight for the self-guided tour of his home and found it so charming. Loved seeing his studio. He had hung many many Japanese prints throughout his home and I love that he hung what inspired him everywhere in his home. The picture above is my second time through the house where Mark waited outside to snap my photo from his bedroom window (no photos allowed inside the house.)
We enjoyed a casual stroll through the gardens, which was still in bloom for mid-September. We loved our time around the water lily pond. It was peaceful and beautiful. The Japanese bridges that he painted were also so lovely. It was sort of overcast on the day we went, but could only imagine how beautiful the space would be in full bloom and on a very sunny day. The willow trees were also very striking. As we were there first thing in the morning, it was pretty uncrowded.
We decided to catch the first shuttle back to Paris. So we grabbed some crepes at a pretty restaurant/hotel just south of the home. It was lovely traveling to and from the bus station to see a small town in France. We settled in for our return trip to Paris. It was such a dream to be there.
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