Paris Day 4

Versaille Day!

Many exciting points before we even get to the first picture.

1- We got up early(ish) and out of the house only like two hours after our planned departure time. This is the best we can hope for.

2- We got to ride the train (hooray!).

3- More musicians on the train. This time there was an old guy playing an accordion. So, you know, my dad could work in France when he retires.

4- Hazel spied a McDo and whined and whined for it. But in French.

Because we were in France. In Versaille to be precise.

Hazel was carried a lot. Not just in Versaille. Everywhere. All over Paris. Luckily, we keep her small and easy to carry. Still 35-lbs gets heavy.

Flora did not come with us to Versaille. Instead we took Sparkle-Heart-Pinkie-Pie, (who also apparently appeared at the Louvre. Ninjas are sneaky that way, and I am not that observant) or some such nonsense. Hazel is an erratic and crazy namer. And changes names based on the wind. Or something. Anyway, this ninja was there.
We played a few rounds of zombie tag. Please note: Hazel is too exhausted to walk the 3 blocks from the train station to the château but has plenty of energy to run around and play zombie tag. For hours.
I believe there was a statue in front of us that we were copying. Or maybe we are just dorks. Or both. Probably both.
Marie Antoinette's hamlet is the most adorable thing ever. If you go to Paris (and you should go to Paris), you should go visit M.A.'s hamlet. Especially if you have a young girl, or have ever read a fairytale. Actual thatched roofs. With FLOWERS growing on the top!
Hazel also loved it. Obviously.
This was the best part. These fish were giant, slimy and disgusting. There were hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe. We had a bag full of cereal and fed them handfuls of it and they swarmed (or whatever fish d0). They had giant gaping mouths and made a gross noise and pushed each other out of the way, and out of the water.

It was awesome.
We took a lot of corny family pictures.*
After the hamlet, and a visit to the farm, and some more gardens, we went to the actual chateau. It was packed with tour groups and it was hot and it is huge. Not quite Louvre huge**, but big enough. And did I mention the crowded and hot??

Luckily, there is a lot of repetitious gold decor and ummm... pictures. And chandeliers. We love chandeliers here in the Wilde Manor.

This room is called the Hall of Mirrors. It is fancy and famous and has a TON of chandeliers. Hazel's mouth literally dropped when she saw the room. We recreated it for a picture. She would like her room to look just like this. But without so many tour groups.
We were done with Versaille and the lame crowds and we headed back to the city. We rode the train into town and got off early to find some dinner. First, we happened upon the square in front of the Hotel de Ville. It was reasonably empty and slightly windy and Hazel thought this meant it was time to fly a kite. Keep in mind, she was too tired to walk from the metro station to the square (like a block) but she had the energy to run around flying a kite for about 30 minutes. (See Zombie Tag at Versaille)
We then wandered into our (temporary) neighborhood and ate falafel and shwarma from the falafel shop endorsed by Lenny Kravitz. I will now go on record as saying I will eat any falafel that Lenny Kravitz endorses, because it was delicious.

Then we stopped at a playground.

But not just any playground. This one had a UNICORN! And kids. (not pictured)
I think I already posted a picture of the elevator in our building but this one better demonstrates the teeny-tiny nature of the lift. Geoff had to smush his shoulders in to fit. At least it was tall enough to fit two people in, if you stack them.

More to come???? Yes, probably. But not today.

*Hazel says her most favorite part of all of Paris was, "Spending time with my family." Aaahhh...I love my corny kid.

** I just Googled the size of both. Versaille is 51,200 square meters, the Louvre is 652,300 square feet. So, both giant.

Paris Day 3

I believe this was April 14th, but since I didn't switch the time on the camera (OH! And the two cameras had different times by about 2 hours, so they are not really in order. Anger! It is fixed now. For the future.)

We were going to wake up bright and early today but didn't. Because that is how we roll. Slowly out of bed. Eventually, we got up and ready for our day. Hazel wore some lovely French braids, or as they call them in France, "braids". This shot also demonstrates our less-than-OSHA-standards window railing. We were on the floor 4, which is equivalent to U.S. 5. I think it is something to do with metric. Or because they count the ground floor as 0 and then move up to 1, 2, etc. Anyway, do you see the railing that is two hundred years old and fragile?? That my child is leaning on?? Fancy.

When we finally left the apartment (seriously, I think it was like 2pm), we went to the Louvre. Hazel was extremely excited about this for a few reasons; (1) mummies, (2) this book,* and (3) she really had no idea what she was in for.

First up, the pyramid. Starting off on the right foot for my Egypt loving kid.
And, what's this?? Two more pyramids inside?!?! Awesome. (Have you guessed Hazel's favorite pose of the trip yet?)
We ate some (over-priced, not-that-great) lunch and finally went in to the actual museum. Of course, a huge part of the Egypt wing is closed for....something...probably renovating. Thank goodness not all of it however.

This sarcophagus is in the Louvre Up Close book (please note: we just borrow it from the library. If an actual trip to the Louvre is cheaper than the book, I am not buying the danged book). Hazel was VERY excited to find it in Real LIFE!
And, holy cow, an actual. real.live.mummy. The best thing ever! I wish her cute little face was in focus but you can still see her genuine excitement at seeing a mummy.**
This vase, also in the book. We tried to find everything in the book, including Hazel's favorite mosaic. But, have you been to the Louvre? It is huge? And we only had like 2 hours until it closed. And it.is.huge. HUGE! We found like 5 things out of the book.
And then we saw this lady. Flora thought it was an awesome picture and wanted her picture by it.
As did the Hazel. Okay, she actually didn't care for the Mona Lisa at all. She in fact questioned why all the people were there and "don't they know about the mummies?"
After the mummies, and a lot of pictures of princess and horses disguised as unicorns***, we got a little silly. With all the fabulous art, we took pictures being ridiculous. In my defense, when you visit museums with a five-year-old, and want to see much of it, you have to make it fun for everyone. Or it is fun for no one. No.One.

A terrifying sculpture of a dragon.
Hazel loved to pose like the sculptures and have us take her picture. Every single time, she would mirror it, instead of copy it. Eventually, she would get it right.
Geoff was also adequate at statue copying.
Okay, I have a lot of these. I will not post all of them. But I like this sculpture and her "whatever" pose.
Yahoo for the tripod and family pictures!
Hazel and Flora on a bridge. If I was a good blogger, I would figure out what bridge it is, but I am not. It is the one by the Louvre. On the way to the Orsay.
What up, Orsay? (which kind of sounds like "horsey")
Oh yeah, we have three of these basically identical pictures. I like the angry faces. Because, of course, they are posing by a rhino.
Elephant.
My two funny (to me) stories from the Orsay:

1- When you first walk in there is a hallway of sculptures (it used to be a railway station, so there is a huge open area, the building is fantastic), after looking at a few Hazel asked me where Grandma Anne's stuff was. I explained she didn't have any in the museum and Hazel wanted to know why not. I said she hadn't been around long enough and Hazel accepted that as a good answer.

2- We had a backpack with us for snacks and water and jackets and whatnot and they guy didn't want to let it in, until he was Hazel. He said, "No bags, but for the sake of the child you can take it in." FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILD! I love the phrasing.

All over Paris, we were cut slack because of the kid. Utah tolerates kids, because they are everywhere and a million of them. But other places seem to cherish them (perhaps not the right word), they are more of a novelty and less of a commodity. They don't really cater to kids, but they do realize that kids, and parents, need a little help and understanding. I don't want to eat at a "kid" restaurant but I do want to have smaller portions, served quickly.

Costa Rica was similar, when the cops saws Hazel in the back seat they sent us on our way posthaste, instead of (probably) sending Geoff to jail, or giving him a ticket, whatever.

Blah blah.

And then we probably ate some food and headed home. Or headed home and ate some food. And watched Nick Jr.

Day 4 to come....

*Nice that they call it a "bargain book". Ha!!!

**Next year, Egypt! Hopefully.

***Seriously, Hazel was able to spot a "unicorn" from a mile away. Most of them were just horses in armor. She also loved pictures with babies and moms.

Paris Day 2

Even though we meant to wake up early and getting going with our day, we did not. The eight hour time zone difference is hard. But, we got up eventually and left the house. We might have had breakfast, I don't remember.

Today we started out with the Catacombs! When we arrived we found friends! In Paris! My friend, Amy's, sister Lisa and her family were in Paris for the week too and, amazingly, we found each other. And they were going to the Catacombs too. They were even kind enough to let us cut in line, probably saving us a good hour of waiting. It was great to see them and Hazel loved to play with the baby. It was one of her highlights of the trip.

Moving on. Flora the Ninja wanted a picture with the bones, she was very brave, but a little nervous.

Hazel also touched a skull. A shiny one.
Skulls arranged in the shape of a heart. There are a lot of bones in this place. Six million people's bones. Walking down into it was a little creepy but you quickly become immune to it and don't think of them as people. Or bones.
Geoff picked up a skull. This was presumably allowed as the guards did nothing to stop people from playing with bones. I think it is a little icky, however.
After the Catacombs we went to lunch. Hazel ate at McDo (I am ashamed) and Geoff and I ate some delicious galettes, shared somewhat with the Hazel. Then we rode the Metro. The Metro is awesome. Hazel loved the folding seats and pushing the button to open the door. Honestly, I think the Metro was probably her favorite thing in Paris. She loved every part of it.
Oh, playgrounds might be her favorite thing. We stopped at a lot of them. The cool thing about Paris playgrounds is that they are each made for the park. Each one was unique and had slightly different equipment. They were all uniformly sandy, however, the French don't do a lot of grass.
Next stop: Eiffel Tour!

Geoff and I did not climb this when we went a couple of years ago. The lines were crazy long, even to do the stairs, like four-five hours long and we didn't think it was worth it. But, I was determined to go to the top this time.

Happy family shot with the new tripod. (used a lot on this trip)
We did the stairs to the second level (the level right above Hazel's head in the above picture and then rode the elevator to the top). On the first level we stopped to take pictures.

And then we continued on to the second. It was 668 steps. We didn't have to count because luckily someone did it for us. Hazel did not love the stairs. She was nervous to even take this picture. It was windy and the stairs are fairly exposed. But, she was brave and we made it.
We then had to wait in a huge line to ride the elevator to the tippy-top. More pictures were taken.
Hooray for the tripod!
Flora wanted to look out the telescope.
Geoff took a lot of pictures from the top but they are all scenery shots and that is not what I am about. I can barely post pics of my kid, I cannot post all his artsy/scenic shots.

Okay, I will post just this one. But it is a family shot.
After surviving Eiffel, Hazel was rewarded with a ride on a carousel.
She loved it.
I was a little slow on photobombing my emo child.
Flora wanted the same picture as Hazel. No photobomb.

I love the Eiffel Tower.

Especially when it sparkles at night. Holy cow, I love this so much I would fly back to Paris just to watch it sparkle. I will rent an apartment overlooking the Eiffel Tower and watch it sparkle every hour (on the hour, for five minutes). Photos do not do it justice. If you have not seen this in real life, you should go. I will go with you.

We tried to take family pictures but the focus was off. I think they all kind of look like we are standing in front of a backdrop, not the actual tower.
And then it was late and we rode the Metro home.

What will tomorrow bring? Stay tuned and find out. It was awesome, trust me.