Paris, 7 (Friday)
Our last day in Paris. Boo, hiss. I went out and got pastries this morning, and then Andrew went for a run. After we all got showered and dressed, we took the Metro to the Champs Elysees so we could see L'Arc du Triomphe and walk around on the Champs. I bought myself a souvenir, a classic Longchamp shoulder bag.
Then we walked to the Boulevard Haussmann and just strolled for a long time, taking it all in. When we got tired, we hopped on a bus until we got to Printemps and Galleries Lafayette. Both stores have their windows decorated for Christmas already, so we looked at all the decorations before walking on, to lunch.
We ate lunch at Le Boullion Chartier, one of my favorite spots, and though I haven't been there in over ten years, it did not disappoint. We ordered with abandon and drank an entire bottle of wine. To finish off the meal, L&G each ate a gigantic profiterole while Andrew and I had three kinds of cheese. It's such a bustling restaurant, with as many ordinary locals as tourists. The man sitting behind us was reading a book when we arrived and continued reading for nearly our entire meal as the waitress sat other diners with him at his table.
Somehow we managed to walk to our next stop, the Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature, the Museum of Nature and Hunting, which we'd heard about from several different sources--a few of Andrew's French co-workers recommended it, I'd read about it in several articles, and so we decided to check it out. It's very small but each room is filled with curiosities--lots of taxidermied animals, trophy heads, guns, and hunting paintings. This sounds ghoulish, but it was all oddly beautiful and interesting, and we all loved it. We went through the whole thing in less than an hour, and went on our way.
We walked back to Notre Dame and tried once more to find the boquinista selling cat figurines, to no avail. It seems our discovery of her stall was a one-time thing. This is probably the one thing the kids will remember about our trip--not being able to buy more cat figurines.
We were all pretty tired after that--we walked miles--so we went home to relax. While we were there, Andrew casually checked our flights, and to our horror, Air Canada had changed our flight so that we had a five-hour layover in Montreal, not getting us home tomorrow until 10pm. Clearly, this wouldn't work, so Andrew had to spend an hour on the phone getting it all sorted out.
None of us were very hungry after our huge lunch, so we ate the cheese and salami we had in the fridge and then went out for a final round of Nutella crepes. We made a final stop at Shakespeare & Co so I could pick up a book I'd seen, a memoir about the insanity of renovating an apartment in Paris. (This touches on a lot of my interests, obviously--property acquisition, home renovations, Paris, expat life.)
And that's our trip. We're cleaning up our apartment, and everything's packed. This week went so fast. With the exception of our first night here, we had an amazing time, and we're pretty amazed that the kids kept up with our intense days without complaining. They never complained about walking, even when it was miles; as long as we kept them fed with Paris treats, they were tireless. They didn't love every museum, but they were game for all of them and loved many of them (esp Centre Pompidou and today's hunting museum), and they really loved the Eiffel Tower and the Seine cruise and all the carousels. They were drawn to the millions of souvenir stands, but we didn't buy too much; they each got a prism with an Eiffel Tower etched inside, two Eiffel Tower keychains, a book each from Shakespeare & Co., and an enormously expensive Calico Critter from Au Bon Marche. A pretty good selection.
We've succeeded in our first big trip with the kids. We waited a long time to take the leap, and it seems 7 and 9 are the right ages to get the traveling started. Where to next?...
Then we walked to the Boulevard Haussmann and just strolled for a long time, taking it all in. When we got tired, we hopped on a bus until we got to Printemps and Galleries Lafayette. Both stores have their windows decorated for Christmas already, so we looked at all the decorations before walking on, to lunch.
We ate lunch at Le Boullion Chartier, one of my favorite spots, and though I haven't been there in over ten years, it did not disappoint. We ordered with abandon and drank an entire bottle of wine. To finish off the meal, L&G each ate a gigantic profiterole while Andrew and I had three kinds of cheese. It's such a bustling restaurant, with as many ordinary locals as tourists. The man sitting behind us was reading a book when we arrived and continued reading for nearly our entire meal as the waitress sat other diners with him at his table.
Somehow we managed to walk to our next stop, the Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature, the Museum of Nature and Hunting, which we'd heard about from several different sources--a few of Andrew's French co-workers recommended it, I'd read about it in several articles, and so we decided to check it out. It's very small but each room is filled with curiosities--lots of taxidermied animals, trophy heads, guns, and hunting paintings. This sounds ghoulish, but it was all oddly beautiful and interesting, and we all loved it. We went through the whole thing in less than an hour, and went on our way.
We walked back to Notre Dame and tried once more to find the boquinista selling cat figurines, to no avail. It seems our discovery of her stall was a one-time thing. This is probably the one thing the kids will remember about our trip--not being able to buy more cat figurines.
We were all pretty tired after that--we walked miles--so we went home to relax. While we were there, Andrew casually checked our flights, and to our horror, Air Canada had changed our flight so that we had a five-hour layover in Montreal, not getting us home tomorrow until 10pm. Clearly, this wouldn't work, so Andrew had to spend an hour on the phone getting it all sorted out.
None of us were very hungry after our huge lunch, so we ate the cheese and salami we had in the fridge and then went out for a final round of Nutella crepes. We made a final stop at Shakespeare & Co so I could pick up a book I'd seen, a memoir about the insanity of renovating an apartment in Paris. (This touches on a lot of my interests, obviously--property acquisition, home renovations, Paris, expat life.)
And that's our trip. We're cleaning up our apartment, and everything's packed. This week went so fast. With the exception of our first night here, we had an amazing time, and we're pretty amazed that the kids kept up with our intense days without complaining. They never complained about walking, even when it was miles; as long as we kept them fed with Paris treats, they were tireless. They didn't love every museum, but they were game for all of them and loved many of them (esp Centre Pompidou and today's hunting museum), and they really loved the Eiffel Tower and the Seine cruise and all the carousels. They were drawn to the millions of souvenir stands, but we didn't buy too much; they each got a prism with an Eiffel Tower etched inside, two Eiffel Tower keychains, a book each from Shakespeare & Co., and an enormously expensive Calico Critter from Au Bon Marche. A pretty good selection.
We've succeeded in our first big trip with the kids. We waited a long time to take the leap, and it seems 7 and 9 are the right ages to get the traveling started. Where to next?...
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