A Whirlwind Week in Paris

Well, we are leaving Paris tomorrow and tonight is my first opportunity to sit for an hour or so and blog. Paris reminds me of NYC in so many ways, but the architecture and the food here are so much better and there are many, many, more parks than NYC.

My first adventure in Paris was going to mass Sunday at Sacre Couer Basilica. A truly stunning church, and A very young building (only two hundred years old). I got there thirty minutes early, did the whole mass, amd then waited another twenty minutes before taking pictures (without a flash) and found myself accosted and almost thrown out for doing so! I left church rather rattled! We had a horrible lunch after mass before going to the Salvador Dali museum. I loved the Dali museum and learned a lot, but he was a lot stranger than I thought. After the museum, we took the kids to a playground, and just let them play and run around.

We did a few really touristy things the next day. We went to Notre Dame and Sean and Leonardo climbed up into the bell towers. Tiff and I did the indoor tour and caught a daily mass (a great nap moment for Jasper). Most of my pictures didn't turn out because flash photography was not allowed and there isn't as much light in there as Sacre Couer. Now Notre Dame contstruction began in 1146. So I am sitting there pondering the millions of people who have sat in this church over the last eight and a half centuries, mesmerized by it's beauty. It is stunning. And after reading "Pillars of the Earth" I can't look at flying butresses the same way! (thanks, Paige):) After Notre Dame, and the park behind it, we walked to the Louvre, and looked around and took some pics. Didn't bother going into the Louvre with small children. We sat around Les Jardins de Tuilleries and rested before going to the Eiffel Tower. Sean, Tiffanie, Claire, and Leonardo all went to the very top of the Eifell Tower. I was perfectly content sitting at a lovely playground with the littles, enjoying the brisk weather. Then we had to haul butt home to get ready for the Moulin Rouge. I will provide a comlete review of the Moulin Rouge in a separate post!

Wednesday we took the train to Versailles. I used to wonder what the difference between a castle and a palace was. Well, now I know. Castles have large, beautiful gardens, Pallaces have acres and acres and acres of gardens. Castles are large. Palaces are several large buildings put together. Castles have beautiful rooms with wood paneling and painted ceilings and walls. Palaces have fabriced walls, marble panelling, painted ceilings and sculptures on the ceilings and walls. You can walk through an entire castle and its' grounds in one day. You need a golf cart to drive around the palace grounds in a day. There are no metal detectors and security staff at a castle. You have to go through the same level of security at a palace that you go through at the airport.

Thursday was my favorite day. We went to the Jardins de Luxembourg with the kids. It's an amazing park with a wonderful playground, and we let the kids just run around like crazy. We finished up with rides on the carousel.

As you may have noticed, we didn't do a lot of the traditional touristy things. We didn't go into the Louvre, or the Orsay, or any of the museums except the Dali one. We didn't walk the Champs Elyees, or see the Arc de Triumph either. But I told Sean (and Tiffanie), the littles were really loud, restless, and ill-mannered in places like that. I figured out early on, that keeping them outside and in child-friendly places really brought out the best in them, which made me more relaxed. I feel very blessed to have seen a lot of parts of Paris that most tourists never see, which is a shame, because we saw a lot of really cool, wondrous stuff! So I thoroughly enjoyed my kid friendly tours:)