Paris, je t'aime

Let's just start off by saying that being reunited with Andrew was wonderful. We had two days in Amsterdam before we left for Paris. This shot captures the family.

We had a fun time on the Thalys train that left from Amsterdam Centraal train station to Paris Gare Nord. Andrew had never been on a train before and we both agreed that they are quite comfortable and efficient. 

I studied abroad for 2 months in Paris during the Summer of 2007. I was so excited to get to go back and use everything I had learned in the past 7 years of my French learning and teaching. This was a culmination of my craft in a way. What other reason to learn a language and culture than to go and experience it first hand? I also studied teaching, but my love for the language and culture is actually the driving force behind it all.  My triumph came when I received feedback from 3 or 4 french natives that my French was very good and they weren't even positive if I was American. Bam! That's all I wanted to hear. Compliments like that are not just handed out by the French. That gave me confidence that I really can raise a bilingual child.

This trip was perfect. I got 4 days with my husband and we were able to go and do whatever we wanted in my favorite city. I was so excited to show him why I love it. He fell in love with it too. He especially loved how art-centric the city is. You can just find an art exhibit on the side of the street. There is lots of nice street art, museums, art stores, art schools, beautiful architecture, and an overall appreciation for the way things look and are presented.

Let's just show some of the food we consumed.

Crême Brulée

a Baguette sandwich

a Croque Madame (open faced grilled cheese, ham, and egg sandwich)

Angelina's hot chocolate is the best and thickest hot chocolate you will ever drink. Scrumptious.

Some other photos from our trip: We used the trusty metro system 

and I had a more detailed map on me

The first site we actually came across was this famous cabaret. We walked to our hotel from the train station and it was up the street a ways from the Moulin Rouge.

We visited Place de la Concorde but we didn't ride the Ferris. When I was there, there was a Ferris wheel that was only 2 Euros to ride. This one was 10 euros and the line was horribly long. I was surprised at how busy with tourists the city was during Christmas.

We saw superb French parking at its best.

We found lots of street art but this was my favorite.

I have this fascination with the shutters here and how they actually use them and the windows and trellises are just so gorgeous.

We visited Place du Tertre (the artist square) in Montmartre (where our hotel was) many times. Andrew loved watching the portrait artists.

He was inspired to draw me and so we sat on the ground and joined the artists. 

We obviously visited the Eiffel Tower and took this picture from Trocadero. Andrew was surprised by the color of the tower, he thought it was darker or blacker for some reason. Surprisingly, that stop was not the most interesting part of the visit.

We loved the little things that we stumbled upon in between what our plans were. Many times the experiences we had from being immersed in the culture were what brought us the most pleasure. Whether it was the public space toilettes, or having hope for the future when we saw a sexy older European man dressed well, or taking in some music from the metro performers.

I loved the Christmas decorations up in Place du Tertre mixed with the  cafe lights and the cobblestone streets (what were we ever thinking when we decided that asphalt was a better way to pave the roads?). We saw this on our way to Sacré Cœur, that huge white basilica that sits on the hills of Montmartre. 

We decided to go there and attend a Midnight Mass. I have never attended a Catholic mass so I was excited. They played organ music for an hour and then there were 2 hours of singing scriptures to melody-less songs that sounded a bit like they were made up on the spot. There was a short sermon by the bishop? and then lots more reading and standing and sitting down. The standing and sitting down thing got really old and there were times when we read in Latin and that was hard. I liked when we sang Silent Night and Angels We Have Heard On High. We left at 1:15 a.m. when they were inviting the baptized to come forward and partake of Communion. There were still a good 30 minutes left probably. This was our program that we read from and followed.

We had crêpes for dinner and bought little Bûches de Noël which are cakes decorated to look like yule logs, a traditional dessert for Le Réveillon Christmas Eve dinner. These have little saws in them to cut the log.

We visited my favorite park, Luxembourg Gardens, which has this beautiful grotto that we spent some time at.

This is Andrew. He is cute.

This is the Palace of Luxembourg

We stopped to watch the old guys playing Pétanque. They were really good.

We went to the edge of the Seine

One of the first things we did was take a boat ride along the Seine to get a look at all of the lovely sites along the center of the city. I love this picture I snapped because it can be a bit confusing to people at first. There is more than one Statue of Liberty in the world. Ours happens to be the final product and biggest.

On the boat ride

It rained one day so I was forced to put on my head covering so I didn't get too wet. Paris is beautiful in the rain but winter rain is not as exciting.

There are so many statues in the parks and streets of Paris. This is one funny site we found.

Andrew liked all of the beautiful mirrors in the restaurant bathroom.

We obviously went to the Louvre

I told Andrew he had to get a shot of my belly so we could remember how big I was during the trip. It was probably the perfect timing because I am not too big and not sick.

We found these fantastic shutters and I had to get a picture in front of them.

This fancy, old European car came down the vine-covered, cobblestone street we were walking up.

A shot down a street

Inside the metro

A decoration on the wall of a building

We checked out the multi-level shopping center of Galleries Lafayette and this is the dome at the center.

We went looking for childrens' books in the Galleries Lafayette shopping center and found some well illustrated ones. We realized that we are entering a new world where we have to own good looking kid accessories. Being an artist is a gift and a curse. Every book, clothing item, or accessory with typography will be chosen based on good graphic design and illustration, etc. We had to compromise since I wanted a book that had awesome educational functions but was not Andrew's favorite when it came to aesthetics. 

We bought some books for Colin. One book is about shapes and was the most pleasing to Andrew's eyes. The others were an encyclopedia, a bilingual vocabulary/picture book, and a book with nursery rhymes, gestures, and a cd. I am so glad that I have this foundational library for teaching him French.

We also bought him a onesie that says "Aussi irrésistible que Papa" (as irresistible as Daddy). We left having spent no money on presents for ourselves and a lot on our baby. We then realized that this will probably become a new spending trend we will need to get used to.

We also visited my favorite building, the Opéra Garnier which was right down the street.

My favorite artistic movement is Art Nouveau. This is a random house door I found in Montmartre. 

We went to the Musée d'Orsay and saw lots of Art Nouveau furniture on display as well.

Andrew loves their logo. I keep telling him that maybe a French graphic design company did it so that we have hope for finding a good company in Paris that he could work for. 

One of the most wonderful surprises was when we visited Notre Dame on Christmas Eve. The Organ played with a choir and it was a beautiful Christmas symphony. The organ was so loud and the choir voices echoed through the grand hall.

We also visited the church building that we had classes in when I was a student there. It is in a beautiful courtyard of an old building right across from the famous Pompidou Center of Modern Art. Since I had been there, the church has added a small visitors center at the entrance to the courtyard. 

Our trip was the perfect amount of time and such a relaxing experience with my husband. I loved being able to speak French and see the beauty that this historical city has to offer.