PARIS PART DEUX

Saturday, December 21

Nick and I were fortunate enough to get to spend a second Christmas in France with family! We couldn't wait to start our 10 - day adventure. We saw many of our "must see" places the year before, but we still had a fairly long list to cover. There's so much to do and see in Paris. 

We flew out late the 21st and arrived at Orly. First stop...

...Starbucks!! :) 

Nick was a little sleepy/grumpy. This picture makes me laugh. :) 

After a quick pick-me-up, we headed straight to Doug and Claudie's.

Sunday, December 22

Early the next morning we had our first sighting of Doug and Claudie. They surprised us with a delicious french breakfast that included: brioche, croissants, fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee. We were so spoiled!

Next we headed out to listen to Blandine read in church with family. It was a great way to start the trip! 

Blandine, Jan, Annabel, and her boyfriend Thomas, Nick and I all went out to L' Entrecote for steak frite afterward. It has become a delicious tradition. I didn't take a picture of the steak frite because I dove right in without thinking twice about taking a photo; however, I did manage to wait two seconds to take a photo of our dessert before devouring it.

We found that food was one of the many trends of our trip. You can hardly go wrong with food in France. 

One of my favorite photos of Jan during the trip. That is actually a normal-sized car. :)

The lovebirds - Annabel and Thomas.

The "kids" (Annabel, Thomas, Nick and I) went off for our first adventure to climb the Arc de Triomphe to burn off some of the steak frite.

...Just a few steps. (284 to be exact)

This sign along our way to the top made us chuckle. "Extremment" - not to be confused with excrement.  We also had a hard time respecting the "circuits of visits."

A nice view down the Champs-Elysees from the Arc on one of many rainy days.

I think this *might* be the Eiffel Tower.

It's moments like this that make me want to pinch myself. We're really living in Italy and we get to spend Christmas with family in Paris.

Annabel and Thomas got engaged the very next day after we took this photo! We were so excited to be able to celebrate in person with them! Congrats to the sweet couple!

Nick's impression of a statue inside the Arc. 

Pretty good I'd say. :)

Although there are many "Arc de Triomphe's" in Europe, none are as big as this one. It's 165 feet high and 130 feet wide. It was definitely worth the climb and the cost.

Next we bid adieu to Annabel and Thomas and started off on our own adventure to La Grande Arche. From the Arc di Triomphe this didn't look that far away. We tried to figure out how many metro stops down we should go from the Arc. We guessed wrong. We ended up walking over 2 miles from Porte Maillot to Esplenade de la defance. Oy! Won't do that again!

This arch is much bigger than even the picture makes it seem. You could fit Notre Dame under it. 

There were some fun statues around the area. This one is called "La Pouce," (The Thumb) by Cesar Baldaccini. Nick almost blends in.

In front of La Grande Arche was a Christmas market. I thought it was even better than the markets I had seen in Austria. 

"n" for nick!

We bought our first crepe in France, and it sure didn't disappoint. I'm telling you we really ate our way through Paris.

That night we had a delightful dinner at Doug and Claudie's place with some of the most interesting and sweet people I've ever met.

Doug and Claudie served a delicious meal that included: escargot, caviar, vacherin cheese and foie gras. (All of which I tried and loved!) 

Monday, December 23

Monday we were spoiled again with a delicious breakfast and we were off to our first site. During my previous two visits to Paris, I had never been to the Tuileres Garden. It was on the top of my "to do" list.  It connects just about all of the important sites in France.

Nick and I took about a dozen bad "selfies" before a man told us he would take our photo. :)

They had some interesting sculptures in the garden. Nick was showing off his super powers.

Random photo: There were seagulls everywhere in Paris - something I hadn't noticed the year before.

Looking toward the Louvre from the Tuileries Garden

We tried to get into the Orangerie museum, but it was over a 2-hour wait to get in. So we decided to ride the ferris wheel instead that was only a 2-minute wait. :)

Nick was excited. :)

Tuileries and the Louvre from the ferris wheel.

Great view from the top! (other than the dirty window)

The Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Elysees. I'm pretty proud that I can say and spell these without having to look it up. :)

You can see the Orangerie Museum to the right in the photo. Hopefully, we'll get to do it next time. :)

We walked a few blocks up through the fancy shop district to St. Marie Madeleine. 

Disclaimer: This story is slightly sensitive and personal...and maybe not for the faint of heart. :)

I left home without my purse that day. I had just taken a few essentials in my pockets. I had forgotten one very important thing: feminine products. Nick luckily ran down the street to a grocery store. In French, he asked a manager where the feminine products were. She looked at him confused. "You mean hosiery or underwear," she asked in French. Nick couldn't think of the French word for period, so he whispered, "period." She started laughing hysterically. She was still laughing when she handed the products over to Nick. When Nick got to the cashier, the cashier started laughing hysterically. He was mortified. I don't think I'll ever live this one down. :)

We stopped for a quick hot cocoa or "chocolat chaud" at a cafe across the street. It was one of the best hot chocolates I've ever tasted.

That night Doug and Claudie treated us to an exhibit in the Jacquemart - Andre museum.

 The museum itself is stunning; it's a mansion that was built back in 1875 for Edouard Andre and his wife Nelie Jacquemart. They spent their lives collecting paintings by Rembrandt, Botticelli, and Bellini to name a few. The walls of the main room could retract enabling the hosts to entertain as many as 1000 guests.

I didn't take any photos of the stunning art, but I did get a few of the main rooms.

For dinner that night, we went to Chez Grenouille around the corner from Doug and Claudie. It certainly didn't disappoint. Their soufflé's were out of this world. 

I had a chocolate soufflé for dessert. Yum!

After dinner we braved the crowds to drive down the Champs-Elysees to see the Christmas lights. The lights up and down the one- mile strip would change in sequence together. 

Monday night is definitely the night to do this because it had the least amount of traffic. 

Tuesday, December 24 Christmas Eve 

Most French have a big dinner party the night of Christmas Eve. For our big party we headed to Bazoche with Doug and Claudie to visit with 20+ relatives.

We took the morning to explore before we left.

First we went up to Rue Lepic to pick out a turkey for Doug and Claudie for our Christmas dinner. I love markets. I didn't pass up the opportunity for an adventure. I couldn't understand most of the conversation Nick had with the meat man selling the turkey, but I heard the word "American" and "big turkey." Haha!

We bought some fresh fruit to bring to Bazoche with us from this cute stand.

After picking up and dropping off the turkey, we took a stroll through Montmarte; one of my favorite places in Paris. There's always artists out painting, and live music playing in the cafes.

Nick's a man of many faces. This is Nick's "I'm cold" face.

I was trying to get a fun photo of me walking into this door that leads no where. Nick wasn't interested in taking a lot of photos, so this is what I got. :) It still makes me laugh even if it's not what I had hoped it would be. :)

I love the graffiti around Paris especially on the street signs.

That night we braved the Parisian traffic to visit with family outside of Paris. We had a delicious gourmet dinner by Blandine. 

After dinner, we had a white elephant gift exchange. I ended up with a soda maker and Nick got a heart- shaped coin purse. :) 

We had such a fun time visiting with family that I actually forgot to take any photos! I didn't even take ONE photo! I keep kicking myself! I'll just have to go back to make sure I get some next time. :)

Wednesday, December 25 Christmas Day

Christmas morning Nick and I journeyed out to the few sites that might have been open on a holiday. I knew I could always take a few photos of the Eiffel Tower, even if everything else was closed.
It was ACTUALLY sunny for a few hours, so we headed there first.

Somehow I didn't think anyone would be out on Christmas day. I was wrong. 

Next we jumped on the subway to head to the Pompidou museum from this cool station.

We loved this fountain and all of the sculptures. Apparently, Emilie fell in this fountain years ago. :)

Pompidou had so many fun exhibits!

It has a great view of the city from the cafe on the top floor. We treated ourselves to some drinks while we enjoyed the view. I had a virgin pina colada for 12 Euro! Yikes! It was worth it though. :) Pompidou was a great place to people- watch too. There were glamorous artsy people, parents trying to keep their children entertained, and young hipsters sitting around us. 

This is Nick's - "I'm getting tired of being in a museum" face. :) He's cute. :)

We finished our trip with the exhibit on the first floor. It was one of our favorites.

What's this you ask?

...A statue with a beehive on it. Yes, those are real bees.

Next we headed to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. I wouldn't normally choose to go to a cemetery, but this one seemed unique. It takes up 100 acres in Paris. A few well-known celebs that are staying here are Oscar Wilde, Frederic Chopin to name a few. You can stay here too one day for a mere 11,000 Euro. Yikes. Unfortunately, we arrived right when they were closing. The guard wouldn't let me past the entrance, so I snapped a few photos.

That night we went back home for a delicious Christmas dinner in Nathalie's home downstairs from Doug and Claudie. They had two turkeys, foie gras, and chestnut puree just to name a few of the delicious dishes. We had a great time meeting all the family!

Thursday, December 26

After a quick two-hour drive while munching on croissants, we dropped our bags off at the Best Western in Trouville. (It's a great place to stay!) We hit the road again and headed to Arromanches.

We were grateful to have a Tomtom GPS available because we could have easily gotten lost on these farm roads. It was so beautiful! I think I prefer French countryside to Italian countryside. 

We wound our way through the tiny town of Arromanches to the bluffs to view what had been Port Winston artificial harbor. I can't hardly imagine what it would have looked like during WWII. 17 ships were sailed here and sunk to create a barrier. A four mile long water break was created using 500 tugboats towing 115 football field size cement blocks across the channel. It took just six days to create it. Now it's hard to tell that this sleepy town was the front door to the Allied troops, and that it played a key roll in WWII.

After desperately searching for a gas station (and finding this friendly donkey along the way) we headed to the American cemetery.

I was stunned to see that most of these soldiers were only in their early 20's. Some of them were still in their teens.

There are 9,387 buried here. The white stone crosses on a sunny day give a feeling of honor and victory. 

Somehow in all of the photos I'd seen of this cemetery I had never realized that it was on the beach. 

On our way back to Trouville we stopped by Bayeux to grab dinner. We realized we hadn't eaten since we left at 9am. The only place that had food at 5pm was a bar. We ate a crappy Croque Monsieur to hold us over until dinner. 

We walked around the town until the restaurants opened. We came across the Bayeux Cathedral. This cathedral is as big as the Notre Dame in Paris.

I love the bright red doors!

Bayeux has a sweet river walk. It's amazing that this town is just 6 miles from the D-day beaches yet it was untouched by WWII. 

We followed our noses to this little creperie next to the Cathedral. I had goat cheese and duck in my crepe. It was delicious! 

That night we decided to warm up by trying out the pool area in our hotel. There's a pool, jacuzzi, wet sauna and dry sauna.  Right when I walked into the pool area I noticed an old man standing in front of me with his "birthday suit" on. Embarrassed, I walked in a circle looking at the ground trying to figure out where to walk next. I quickly moved my eyes to the jacuzzi and walked straight to it and got in. A mother sitting in the jacuzzi saw the man as well, and saw my look of shock. She stood up as he entered the hot tub and told him to put some clothes on. 

Let me recap: I was sitting in a hot tub staring at a naked old man and a woman yelling at him. 

I must have been ten shades of red. I couldn't escape because they were standing in the way of the exit, so I just had to sit there and watch. I tried to focus on the bubbles around me...eventually, she left. He stood there and looked at me. I wanted to just dunk my head under the water. Luckily, he turned and left as well. I would have probably died had he just sat down in the small hot tub with me. Haha! 

Friday, December 27

The next morning around 11 (the sun doesn't rise until 9am up here) we drove directly to the German cemetery. There was one other car in the parking lot. (There were hundreds of cars in the American cemetery parking lot the day before.) The sign as we entered read, "to those who gave their lives for a cause they could not understand." 

It was very interesting to see the difference between the two cemeteries. The American cemetery was bright and gave a sense of honor and victory; whereas with this cemetery the sense of defeat and despair was almost tangible.

From there we journeyed on to Pointe du Hoc. It was cold, windy and rainy, so we walked through at a fairly quick pace. There were 1500 tons of bombs dropped on this cliff from April to June of 1944. You can still see the craters. Surprisingly the bombing wasn't all that successful. The Allies needed direct hits to the German bunkers here, and only 5% of the bunkers were destroyed. Ouch. 

Inside the bunker..

As I peered over this cliff to the beach below, I tried to imagine the 225 rangers that tried to climb these cliffs to take over the Germans on D-day. Only a third of the men survived the attack. 

I am grateful to have been looking over the cliffs and enjoying the sound of the waves crashing on the beach instead of what those men must have faced that day.

For a small break from the WWII sites, we made our way back to Bayeux to view the Bayeux Tapestry. The tapestry dates back to 1066 and tells the story of William the Conqueror's rise to king of England. 

I couldn't believe that a piece of fabric has lasted that long and through wars considering Nick gets holes in his new shirts in a matter of days. :):) We didn't see much of the museum other than the tapestry because we wanted to see the Caen Memorial museum before it closed.

Along the way we found a McDonald's. (Shhh...don't tell anyone.) It was hilarious listening to Nick try and order a cheeseburger from MacDo- as they say in France. Apparently, if you say "cheeseburger and fries" in English with a heavy French accent, you'll get what you want. 

When we arrived to the Memorial Museum we only had an hour and a half until closing. Luckily, they gave us a discount on tickets since we weren't going to be there long.

This is the only picture I managed to take while we were there. We walked through a long exhibit that started with WWI and ended with the aftermath of WWII. This museum was thrilling to me since I have a degree in history and studied mostly WWII. I loved being able to see the French side of WWII. I didn't realize just how quickly the Germans had taken over France. 

Even though there was a lot more to see in the museum, we felt like we had seen enough. It's a heavy topic. 

For dinner we treated ourselves to a nice traditional French meal in Trouville. I had some of the best foie gras. Yum.

Saturday, December 28

Saturday was probably my favorite day of the trip. We took a two-hour drive over to Mont Saint Michel. My life will never be the same.

We stopped at Madame Poulards bakery. She was a maid that married a baker. She made quick omelets that were perfect for pilgrims that were in a hurry to beat the quick tides. We didn't have an omelet here because they were 30 Euro for one. (Ouch!)

We did go up the village further later in the afternoon for one that wasn't so pricey.

We decided to skip the main drag and just walk along the outskirts of the island to enjoy the view first.

Nick decided to hide from me while I was taking photos so he could scare me...

...it worked. :)

The tide here is one of the fastest tides in the world. It travels 8 miles in and out each day at a pace of "a galloping horse." It sounded terrifying...so, Nick definitely wanted to go see it. :) But first we hiked to the top of the island.

We did a walking tour of the abbey with an audio guide. The abbey has over 1200 years of history.

Monks built this church on top of a rock to be as close to God as possible. They stayed here 8 hours of the day.

It's probably one of my favorite churches I've been to because it was so simple. You don't see gold arches and paintings or mosaics covering every square inch.

Cloisters

Nick is standing in the one of the two fireplaces in the large Guest Hall. It reminded me of the fire place from Sleeping Beauty.

Hall of Grand Pillars

Ossuary: During the Revolution, Mont St. Michel was used as a prison. 6 prisoners could operate this tread wheel (hamster-style) and bring up 2 ton loads of stone and supplies.

Knights Hall

We asked at the info booth if it was okay to walk out on the mudflats. They said it was too dangerous and that we needed a guide. We decided to see for ourselves.

We walked through some mud to get to this little chapel on the water.

Looks can be deceiving. The mud looks fairly solid, but my foot went right in. They call it quicksand. Nick thought for sure I would fall in. :)...I didn't. :)

We watched a tour group with a guide walk across the river. They only went knee-deep, so I decided I wanted to try it myself. :) I made it!  I had never been more grateful for rain boots. I think Nick was in shock that I just marched out through the river of quicksand. I left him in the dust.

Nick didn't have any rain boots on so he took his shoes off and went for it too!

It was terrifying being out on the mudflats knowing the water could sweep in at any moment, but it was totally worth it!

Nick put his shoes down in the middle of the spire shadow. About 30 seconds later, this is how far the shadow had moved. 

I was ready to head back in, but Nick wanted to write our initials in the sand. You might be able to see the "J" and a heart here.

We quickly finished our sketch in the sand and ran back to the shore.

Nick's muddy feet.

We ran to the top of the abbey to see if we could see our art work in the sand. It's hard to make it out, but it's there!

We were getting hungry after our exciting adventure onto the mudflats, so we treated ourselves to an omelet. 

Doesn't it look more like a soufflé? (Nick had more to eat than that piece of lettuce on the tiny plate in front of him.) :)

We were there at the perfect time! It was sunny the whole morning. Right when we left it started to pour. I loved Mont St. Michel. There's really nothing in the world like it.

We drove back to Trouville after an eventful day, and walked along the beach as the sun was setting. Trouville has a cute boardwalk with tons of games and great restaurants.

I've never seen a beach so littered with seashells. They were crunching under our feet with ever step we took.

After a delicious crepe we went and played bumper cars at a carnival nearby. Nick was so excited he climbed on the anchor in the middle of the town on our way back to the hotel. 

I'm clearly taking this photo from across the street. (I don't know him.) :)

Sunday, December 29

This is the view from our hotel room on our last morning in Trouville.

On our last day up in northern France I really wanted to visit Honfleur.

Right when we got there we got caught in a cloud burst. It was beautiful lighting. We didn't want to get caught in the rain, so we ran back to the car after snapping a few photos.

There was a little pathway in town that lead up to a church on top of a hill that overlooked Honfleur and the port. We drove up for a quick view before leaving to head back to Paris. 

These bells next to the church really impressed Nick. We saw a group gathering to hear them ring at noon. We waited. They went off right on time, and they were deafening! 

Nick realized that the rain was going to miss us so we went back down to Honfleur to walk along the jetty.

Nick was so funny. He wanted to create a new path for the water to flow out to the sea. I can still hear him laughing after he succeeded. ;)

On our walk back into town we strolled through the Garden of Personalities.

This little port was my favorite part of Honfleur.

The houses were built when buildings were taxed based on the width of a house. That's why many of them are so narrow and tall. Most of the homes do not have elevators. Can you imagine bringing your groceries home up 7 floors?

Nick and I felt like we had a true French experience in Honfleur. We sat at a cafe eating a croque monsieur, smelling the cigarette smoke from our neighbors around us, and watching the locals parade through the square with their dogs. We loved visiting Honfleur and trying to blend in as one of the locals.

Before we left, we visited St. Catherines church just up the road. It's one of the oldest and biggest wooden-shingled churches.

During WWII a bomb fell through the roof of the church but didn't explode. Lucky for us it's still around today.

Nick said this is his favorite church we've visited because it smells like wood inside.

On our drive down to Paris, we stopped by the little town of Noisy Le Roi. Nick lived here as a child. He could vaguely remember the town. 

We tried to find his old home. Almost every home we passed Nick would yell, "That's the one!" I don't think we ever found it. :)

Monday, December 30

The last day we were in Paris we started off with the Sewer Tour. It wasn't until after we bought the tickets that we were informed that the tours would only be in French. Doh!

Luckily, they had a pamphlet with English descriptions along the walk.

Here's a few facts for you:

Everyday 1.2 million cubic meters of waste water are collected.

No other town in the world has a sewer network like the one in Paris.

There are over 4,000,000 rats in the sewers in Paris. Thankfully, we did not see any.

It was a bit smelly.

Guess what we saw?! I still can't believe we paid to see this. :)

The ball behind Nick was used to prevent sand from building up on the bottom. 

After catching some much needed fresh air, we signed up for the Canauxrama boats tour near Bastille at the recommendation of a friend we met at Doug and Claudie's.

Bastille 

We had to wait an hour for it to start, so Nick decided to get on a carnival ride that claimed it went "5.5 G's" 

The ride lasted about 3 minutes. Nick loved it. The more he told me about it, the more I was grateful I didn't ride it. He was skeptical that it was only 5.5 G's. He thought it was more like 4. Haha!

We were excited for our 2.5 hour boat tour...not a "3 hour tour." :)

We hopped on with 100 other people (mostly over 70) and we were off...

The majority of this canal is underground! 2 km to be exact. It was built by Napoleon I.

We came to the first of many locks on the canal. Our boat was bouncing around when they let the water in.

We passed a boat similar to ours on the way up.

It was cold and rainy, but we still had fun!

While we were going through the low canals the boat captain kept warming Nick in French to not stand up over the loudspeaker.

It was pretty cold and rainy that day, so after we got off our boat tour we headed back home.

I love the artistic graffiti in Paris.

Instead of "I Love NY" someone wrote "NY Loves ME."

That night we went in search of some Thai food. The place we wanted to go was closed, so we wound up at an Indian restaurant. It was SOOO good! It's called Restaurant Samrana. It was affordable and delicious. Nick and I are definitely going to go back there our next visit to Paris. 

Afterward, we walked up 200+ stairs to Sacre Couer and Montmartre. I really wanted to hear some live music. This sweet man was playing his accordion, so Nick and I started dancing in the middle of the street. We gave him a few coins. He asked me to sit down and grabbed my index finger. He started to play Jingle Bells while using my finger to press the keys. It was so fun! He was such a nice man! What a great way to spend our last night in Paris.

Tuesday, December 31st New Years Eve

The last morning we were there we wanted to squeeze in the Museum D'Orsay. I had heard good things about it. When we walked out of the subway we saw this...hoards of people lined up for the museum. Luckily, the line moved fairly quickly.

I love that this museum has color on the walls.

This museum quickly became one of my favorites. It's in an old train station. Even without any of the artwork in it, I would have come to see this building. At one point, they had considered tearing it down in the 70s. I'm glad they didn't!

I love that the few museums we've been to in France are in such unique buildings like a palace (Louvre), train station (Orsay) and mansion (Jacquemart-Andre). The French know how to do museums. :)

As we started walking back we were half looking for a restaurant and half looking for a metro to get us back home to pack. We found neither for a couple miles. We did, however,  notice the number of dogs. Apparently, one in three Parisians has a dog. That also means a lot of dog droppings in a city with a lot of concrete. It wasn't long after Nick said, "Stepping in dog poop would literally ruin my day...literally RUIN my day," that he slid through a big pile. We both started laughing. His reaction was to start walking faster as if he could maybe outrun it. Hahahaha! I can't stop laughing as I'm writing this. Eventually we cleaned his shoe, but that memory is burned in my mind. Luckily, it didn't ruin his day. :)

We finally found a great place to eat called Bioburger - an all organic fast food joint. It was good, but still doesn't beat In - n- Out. :)

We made our way to Orly airport through the crowds that were starting to form for NYE. It took us an hour and a half from Doug and Claudie's. We blew through security, (not one person checked our ID in the whole airport) and made it back home on a quick and easy flight.

We had such a fantastic visit with family and friends. Here are a few things I learned on this trip: 

I definitely feel like I know Paris now. 

Rain boots are necessary in France in the winter for the rain, tromping through quicksand, and if you happen to step in dog droppings. 

The French will give you their opinion even if you are standing stark naked in front of them.  

I rediscovered my love for French food. You can never have too much butter. 

I discovered that I enjoy French architecture and countryside more than Italy. (but barely)

I will never get tired of France. It's beautiful even in the winter!

Happy New Year! Bonne Annee!