03 June 2017, Saturday

Today was largely dominated by the train journey from London to Paris.  We arrived in the London station early and got a fantastic breakfast at a restaurant in the terminal.

View of the international train station in London.  One of the nice things is you clear customs here, so you don’t have to go through immigration lines on the arrival side. It’s very efficient and handy.

We arrived in Paris and found our rental apartment without much trouble.  It’s absolutely gorgeous and HUGE by AirBnB (and European) standards.  Outside our windows we have a view of both the Eiffel Tower and La Basilique du Sacre Coeur (henceforth known as Sacre Coeur.)  It’s probably the most romantic apartment we’ve ever stayed in. Movies about Parisian romantic entanglements could be filmed here.  Huge windows open up to the street (and also the curious pigeons!)  The building was erected in 1875.

We even have a big dining room!

Modern kitchen with yet another eat-in breakfast table.  We’re swimming in places to sit and eat.

Elaine and I in the front TV room — me on the computer, Elaine perusing one of the many art books in the apartment.

Holden loving his private bedroom.  As everything worked out, he has the biggest bed in the whole place.

Josie and Isabella sharing a room, once again.  They both feel cheated because our family had two girls and only one boy.  Holden ends up with the privacy when we say teenage boys and girls need space from each other.  At least the girls don’t have to share a bed this time!

Elaine and I both loved this fireplace grate in the front room.  It’s bronze and is really heavy.

View out our windows.  In the photo below you can make out the Sacre Coeur (rainbow in the middle of the frame — gorgeous and magical! — and the Sacre Coeur snugged right up to the side of our building just about in the center-right of the frame.)

The Rome stop of the Metropolitan subway train station is directly across the street from our place. Here you can see the stairs leading down to the trains. I adore the “Metropolitan” signs they use.  According to the internet, almost all of them were designed and installed between 1900 and 1912.

From wikipedia:  The simpler type of entrance is framed by a “Métropolitain” sign held between two ornate, sinuously curved lampposts. These are designed strikingly in the form of plant stems, in which the orange lamp is enclosed by a leaf (resembling a brin de muguet, or sprig of lily of the valley).

The apartments on the adjacent street, view from our window.

We can even see the Eiffel Tower!  They light it up at night and it’s gorgeous.

A slightly better view of the Sacre Coeur (again, view out our window.)

Everyone was quite tuckered out from the trip, which actually wasn’t too bad all things considered but did eat up an entire day.  The train ride from London to Paris is less than 3 hours but it takes a lot of smaller train stops to get to the main international station, waiting in lines, checking in early, clearing custom, etc. —  much like airline travel.  Navigating the international train hall on the Paris side and figuring out how to buy tickets on the local Metropolitan trains is a bit tricky until you get the hang of it, and the French Metro system isn’t quite as easy to use as the London system, but still it’s not too bad.

We arrived at our place, met with the guy to take possession of our keys & etc., found a grocery store and bought provisions for dinner (bread, cheese, fruit, orange juice, milk, yogurt, cereal, eggs, wine, whiskey, chocolate treats) and stayed up marveling at the view until nearly 11:00 p.m.

Our one bit of ill fortune today was that Josie’s phone got liberated by a pickpocket on the Metro train (we think).  She noticed it was missing almost immediately and we went looking for it with no luck.  Adam got online and discovered that someone was attempting to hack into our accounts with it, so he shut down her number and alerted the phone company.  They shut her account off on their end and changed a bunch of our passwords.  Josie spent quite a while in tears over it because we don’t have any way of determining the last time it backed up to the cloud.  We did a back-up before we left home, but there is a good chance all the pictures she took in London are gone.  She is super bummed and mad at the entire country of France right now.

04 June 2017, Sunday

We woke up this morning to a gorgeous day in Paris and horrific news about another terrorist attack on London Bridge last night.  We spent some time reading the news and then headed out to do our day with slightly heavy hearts.

Our apartment is within walking distance of the Moulin-Rouge.  We headed that direction … it’s the red(ish) light district and the streets are lined with sex shops.  The kids were giggly and grossed out.

Found the Moulin-Rouge!

Hanging on inside the train car. We’re headed for one of the Sunday art markets near the Sacre Coeur.

French recycling drop off point.  Lots of wine bottles.

Walking up the hills to Sacre Coeur.

Here it is.

Around the corner, a Sunday art market.  It’s similar to the art market in New Orleans around Jackson Square.  This market in Paris was quite nice, but doesn’t hold a candle to the one in New Orleans.  (I’ve yet to see a better one anywhere.  Nothing compares.)

I bought a small watercolor of a watermelon slice. (Isabella and me on the left looking through paintings, Josie’s back, Elaine in the front.)

Artists discussing important artist things … or perhaps just deciding where to go for lunch.  It was all in French, so I have to guess.

The kids love the French street art (“it’s too good to be called graffiti.”)  Isabella especially liked the message of the piece “The urge to destroy is a creative urge” (below.)

Back on the train, headed to another Sunday market … this time a bird market.  We don’t know what to expect.  Do they really sell live birds?

Yup!! And fish and baby bunnies, too.

The vast majority of birds for sale were finches, canaries, and parakeets.

This market is immediately off the train stop.  You come out of the station and are right in the middle of a bird bonanza.  Perfect for me!

Canaries.  They seem to come in 3 colors:  orange, yellow, and (more rare) white.

The Seine.

Holden, being incredibly bored while I spend more time than he’d like looking at birds.

The Pont des Arts bridge used to be the one with all the “love locks” on it.  The weight of the locks  — apparently 45 tons — was destroying the bridge, so they were removed and the bridge was given a face-lift with a new design that nobody can put locks on.  They appear to have created a new area for the love locks that sits over the ground and isn’t suspended over the water.

We found an appealing cafe.  Sitting down feels fantastic after being on our feet all morning.  Their onion soup was delicious.

Next up: Notre Dame.  The line was too long so we didn’t go inside.  Adam, the kids and I have been here before.  During the winter we had the whole place to ourselves. Summer is a very different story.

  

05 June 2017, Monday

We’ve been to Paris a number of times now and never seen the Louvre.  The lines always scared us away, but we figured this time we needed to suck it up and stand in the line no matter what.  It’s the only way you’ll ever get to see it.  The Louvre opens at 9:00 a.m. and we showed up around 10:00, hoping that the first rush of people who got there right at opening time would have had a chance to get through.

The wait wasn’t too bad — a total of 35 minutes to stand in line, get through security, and purchase tickets.  The line for people who bought their tickets in advance (online, I assume) was much shorter.  We didn’t think to do that, but in the future it looks like a better way to go, if we ever find ourselves wanting to do the Louvre again.

A fashion shoot to watch as we waited.

Inside the giant pyramid.  John and Elaine are standing beneath the spiral staircase (John in greenish shirt, Elaine holding a brown hat).

Adam:  The place is huge. There are large portions of the museum that are practically empty. There are also halls that are so crowded you can hardly walk through – everyone crowds at the “popular” exhibits – Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged victory of Samothrace, etc.

I didn’t take very many pictures of the art itself – we all have the internet for that. I more enjoyed taking pictures of people taking pictures with their crappy iPhones.

I was so irritated by people using their phones to take pictures that I became a fan of banning phones outright in the museum.  You couldn’t see a darned thing without someone shoving a phone in front of your face, blocking your view.  People would also suddenly stop walking right in the middle of a big, slowly moving crowd because they decided they needed to take a selfie right now!!! causing a massive pile-up in their wake. The rude behavior associated with phone use was enough to ruin the experience.  As Adam mentioned above, every piece of art in there can be found on the internet with much higher quality images than anything these crowds are getting with their phones.  Put your phone away and look directly at the art, please.  If you want to look at photos of the art later, find professional pictures online.  If you simply must take a selfie, stand off to one side and get out of the way!  (It’s worth noting that very few people with a real camera behaved this way. Photographers serious enough to bring proper equipment also used proper etiquette. Mostly.)

It doesn’t take long for the kids to get their fill of paintings.

Although they did perk up when they spotted this one…. by Joseph Ducreux called Self portrait in the guise of a Mockingbird.

It has become an internet meme along these lines:

and this (updated to Steve Buscemi):

The kids were delighted to find the original painting.  It made their trip to the Louvre worth it.

And then on to see yet more regular, non-meme art.

Interior courtyard under a dome.

Back outside.  The lines to get in are even longer now.

Adam: After we had exhausted ourselves walking through the Louvre, we left and ate a great lunch (duck confit, etc) at a nearby restaurant.

Re-energized, we walked through the Jardin des Tuileries, along the Seine and over to the Eiffel Tower. By that point, we had reached almost 8.5 miles of walking and everyone wanted to catch the Metro back home for rest and wine time.

Taking a quick rest break to enjoy the nice weather and the examine the ship (behind the trees.)

Giant public hammocks for people to play and relax in. All three kids piled into one.

We finally made it!  The Eiffel Tower.

Guy making bubbles, and behind him four extremely well-armed police guards.  Machine guns, hand guns, tazers, etc.

Paris, to be continued in the next post…