July 29 – Luxembourg Gardens, Pantheon, Paris fast food, Louvre, and Paris at Night!

We had a great morning and afternoon at Paris’ Luxembourg Gardens. En route, we managed to find the famous Poulane boulangerie and stock up on items for lunch, including croissants (perhaps the best I’ve ever had), brioche (just a tad better than what I make) and sable butter cookies (definitely better than mine)! We also topped it off by sharing an excellent chocolate tart from Christian Constant - it was so rich that just a few bites for each of us was just right. I'm starting to make some good progress through the Paris Pattisserie guidebook that I bought in preparation for the trip :)

The gardens adjoin an historic 17th century palace which now houses the French Senate.

However, the girls found the playground much more interesting. Indeed, it was the most extensive playground we’ve ever seen with many pieces of play equipment that were new to us. In particular, the girls loved a tower of ropes to climb as well as a revolving zip line track.

After a visit to the Pantheon, Matt took the girls back to the park to see a classic French marionette show. While the puppets spoke French, the action was entertaining, and featured kittens, so the show was a hit for them :)

After dinner Matt took advantage of the late hours night at the Louvre to see some new rooms that he had never had time for before. After he returned, he surprised the girls by taking them out at night to Trocadero square to view the hourly lighting of the Eiffel tower at dusk. They all had quite an exciting time!

July 28 – Walk around Monmarte

We spent the morning and mid-afternoon enjoying a long walk through Paris’ Monmarte district. This area has an extensive history as an artist’s colony, housing Renoir, Picasso, and many others over the decades. The highest point in Paris, around 400 feet, is in this district, topped by the famous Sacre Couer cathedral. This is a beautiful and vibrant cathedral, highlighted with an extensive mosaic in the center dome full of characters and bright colors. You'll see in the pictures below that Carolyn enjoyed wearing an artist's berret that she found in one of the shops. Evelyn was happy to find new Crocs with Paris landmarks attached as the bling :)

We had a great lunch of omlettes and crepes at the same café that my mom visited during her visit with dad in March.

After some time in the park, Matt and the girls hit the markets and came home with great provisions to cook at the apartment. The girls were great chef assistants to Matt and we all enjoyed a great dinner: pasta with sausage, baguette with cheese and priosciotto, roasted potatoes and fruit. Yum!

July 27 – Day Trip to Reims (Champagne country)

Today we took our second day trip to the city of Reims in the heart of Champagne country, yet only a 45 minute train trip from Paris. The train moves so fast that it is hard to take it all in, it would be great to explore the countryside by car someday. However, the town itself was nice to explore as well.

We started with a tour of the Mumm champagne house. The tour included walking a section of the underground caves which house 25 million bottles of champagne for them in over 25 kilometers of tunnels. The tunnels were carved out centuries ago by this vintner, as well as the other (the tunnels kriss-cross under the whole town). Of course, the highlight of the tour was the samples at the end!

We had a great lunch at a local café, including lamb stew, steak tartare, and Carolyn’s first French hamburger, served sans bun. The ground beef tasted just like steak!

In the afternoon we toured the historic Reims cathedral, constructed over the 13th and 14th centuries. Every French king, going back to Clovis around 500 AD. The cathedral is quite large, as the medieval archetects were able to build even higher after gaining more insights and knowledge from building Notre Dame in Paris.

A highlight of a this cathedral is the windows, some which have survived since original construction up through a recent installation of windows designed by Chagall in the 1970s. These windows replaced some that were lost during WW2.

July 26 – Tour de France!

We had a leisurely start to the day and then assembled a picnic to eat in the square of the Louvre. At the end of Tuilerries garden, we could see the crowds starting to gather in expectation of the Tour de France, set to finish in Paris later that afternoon.




We found a nice shady spot at the end of the gardens that was set up slightly to overlook the obelisk and the Champs-Elysees beyond, as well as a nice view of the Eiffel tower. We spent a few hours enjoying the view, relaxing and playing around, etc. as the crowds gathered. Late in the afternoon the energy picked up as a large envoy of the sponsorship vehicles paraded into town from the Rue de Rivoli into the Champs-Elysees, up to the Arch de Triumph, and back down the Champs-Elysees. Shortly after, the lead vehicles came through and we got to watch the cyclists zoom through the route.





As part of the finish of the race, the cyclists make this loop through the Champs-Elysees around the Louvre and up the Rue de Rivoli eight times. Our spot was a great vantage point to take in the overall race. After two loops, we quickly descended to street level on Rue de Rivoli. Watching the cyclists zoom by just a couple feet from the rail was exhilarating (we were lucky to be on the inside of the route that they clung to) and we remained here for the finish of the race.





During the final lap, the crowd cheered the wave of cyclists and then surged with cheering again for the last racer coming down to the finish line. Matt and I were in a shocked slow motion moment as he sat up in his bike to respond to the crowd while simultaneously throwing something into the air. Through the tight crowd it landed right between Matt and I and Matt quickly bent down and came up with the racer’s riding gloves! Here he his posing moments after getting his exciting souvenir.

July 25 – Day Trip to Lyon

We used the first day of our France rail pass to journey south to Lyon. Lyon is in south central France, yet only a 2 hour train ride on their high speed TGV trains which travel up to 180 kph. The scenery can be almost dizzying at this speed! Nonetheless, it was a beautiful trip through Burgundy to arrive at Lyon – what many consider to be the most renaissance city in France.

The sites did no disappoint us. In the late 19th century Lyon built a Notre Dame cathedral. Given that it is “new” as cathedrals go, the stonework, windows, and artwork were all very bright and vivid – time and pollution have not had much of an impact yet. There was a considerable amount of artwork done with mosaic in the interior.

From the cathedral we stepped back in time two millennia to the site of two Roman arenas. An impressive amount of these original arenas are still in tact and they have also done a partial restoration of the larger arena such that it now hosts performances in the summer today. We could see them setting up for one during our visit. The views of Lyon from the arena were great from here.

We relaxed through the hottest part of the day with one of our best meals of the trip. The girls shared a great chicken beurre blanc dish and I had the best cheese and spinach soufflé of my life.

The old part of town is full of quaint and beautiful buildings. We had a nice time taking them in from square to square. A highlight for the girls was this double decker carousel. Meanwhile, I stumbled into a rare sweet from the south of France – sugared clementines dipped in dark chocolate – tres bon!

July 24 – More fun at the Park & Canal St. Martin

This morning we enjoyed a typical Parisian petit dejeuner (breakfast) in a café of coffee, hot chocolate, and croissants.

After breakfast we returned to the nice, large park in the 19th arrendosement to let the girls play and show Matt the tower.

After our time in the park, we took a fun cruise down the network of canals that lead to the river seine. The canal system includes an underground tunnel built in the 19th century that is over 2 km long. While we were sailing through the tunnel, they ingeniously projected a film on the wall of the tunnel detailing the history and construction of the tunnel. This was a nice way to see some more of Paris. We came home to eat dinner and prepare for the next day – a journey to Lyon!

July 23 – Mona Lisa, Notre Dame (Our Lady), Saint Louis, and Napoleon

This morning we made use the second day of our museum pass by touring the Italian art in the Louvre museum, the showpiece of which is the Mona Lisa. There was quite a large crowd around the masterpiece. We emerged a bit dazed (“overcome by art” as my Dad would say), ready for lunch!


In the afternoon we toured through the Notre Dame cathedral. Carolyn was particularly taken by some of the relief pictures in the choir section of the cathedral because she could recognize biblical accounts that she has learned. It is still hard for me to conceive of this cathedral (as many sights in Europe do) as predating the Columbus' voyage to the New World.

From the Notre Dame on Ile de Cite, we crossed over to Ile to St. Louis. This is a beautiful, classically Parisian island to explore and enjoy some ice cream (again).

For dinner we were able to finde a fondue restaurant, which was a big hit with Evelyn! Then we topped off the day with views of Paris from the top of the Arch de Triumph. We were fortunate to be on the arch at dusk at the top of the hour when the Eiffel tower sparkles for a few minutes with thousands a lights – a lovely sight. When it rained on us up on the Arch, the girls found this clever shelter :)

July 22 - Art, and more Art!

July 22 – I (Merideth) woke up first this morning and got things in order for our day out, including a quick trip to the neighborhood boulangerie to get croissants for breakfast. After luring everyone out of bed with the fresh croissants, we spent the morning enjoying the Orsay museum, which features the largest collection of Impressionist art in the world. Both of the girls enjoy the Monet and Renoir paintings of the outdoors and everyday life (particularly if kittens are involved).

After lunch, we utilized our Paris museum pass some more to see some very special additional Monet paintings at the L’Orangerie. Monet painted a series of eight paintings that are six feet high and 50 feet long (or more) especially for this exhibition space. We had a wonderful time enjoying the beauty of the paintings, contemplating our favorite one.

From this museum we enjoyed the Tuilerries park where the museum is located, including another gelato stop; and surprisingly, a fun turn to jump on the trampolines available for younger visitors. Evelyn and Carolyn found them to be extra bouncy.

The day wrapped up at a nice café with my first beef tartare (raw beef with egg and seasonings). It was truly delicious. I’ll have to enjoy this dish a few more times while I’m here! Now, as I’m writing this entry, there is a nice steady rain coming down as night falls… we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

July 21 - Matt Arrives, Paris Walks

After a full day on Monday, including an early start from jet lag, we all enjoyed a good sleep in this morning. This was good timing, as we were awaiting Matt’s arrival between 10 and 11AM. He made it to the apartment just fine from CDG and was able to wake up the girls himself!

We spent much of the day enjoying classic Paris walks, including Ile des Cite, walking across the Seine to a nice area of the left bank and then over to the Eiffel tower. The highest point of observation from the tower was closed (we think due to high winds), so we elected to enjoy views of the tower from the Champ du Mars park adjoining the tower (we will definitely come back).

The girls also enjoyed this pony ride in the park.

From the park we walked through the Rue Cler neighborhood and were delighted with the gelato ice cream treats we found shaped like flowers.


We ended the day by showing Matt the playground near the apartment that the girls enjoy, and then having pizza at an outdoor café.