Paris - day three

We spent a lot of time walking around; going nowhere in particular. We made our way to Montemarte and had a picnic in front of the Sacre Coeur. There was a movie being filmed at the base of the hill and we watched that for awhile.


We discovered the best patisserie in Paris (and believe me, we tried a lot of them) and sat there a long while - going back for seconds and thirds. We enjoyed the architecture, the energy, the food, and the magic of Paris all day. It was our last day and we wished we had more time!

The girls were more than willing to pay 99 cents for these baguettes.

Paris - day two

First stop, the Louvre. We had read that it would take 9 months to "glance" at everything in this beautiful museum but we set out to see only a few things. First, the Mona Lisa, which is always crowded but little kids have the advantage of sneaking to the front. They walked back and forth to see if her eyes really followed them and tried to take pictures up close, none of which turned out. We then visited the Mesopotamia, Egyptian and Roman areas, all areas we studied this year. And that was more than enough for these girls for one day. We spent some time in the Louvre's great kid's museum shop, ate lunch in the cafeteria and went on our way.

On the way to the Mona Lisa is "Winged Victory", the Greek goddess of victory (Nike, of Marathon fame), a gorgeous, headless, statue of a woman on the bow of an old wooden ship. The only picture we took...

We made our way along the Seine, again stopping at every street vendor, to the Notre Dame Cathedral. Roads were closed and crowds were gathered as the President of France was attending a service for those French people who died in a plane crash in the ocean. So we marveled at the exterior and called it good. Architectural terms learned: flying buttresses and gargoyles...what better place to see those!

Notice Adele's cute little beret...

We worked in playground stops when we came upon them...

Paris' Hotel de Ville

Paris - day one

We stayed in a campground right in Paris; next to where the French Open was going on (I was the only one who wanted to go and therefore didn't win the vote to fit it in). The campground had a frequent shuttle to the nearest metro station so getting to the big sights wasn't difficult at all. Geoff and I have been to Paris a few times so we went at a pretty slow pace and targeted the big stuff for the girls.

After studying Roman history it was fun for the girls to see the Arch de Triumph. As a matter of fact, we note Roman influence just about everywhere we go.

To keep Ceci going we stopped to watch her dance on the lit up "stage"...

and marched under the Arch de Triumph, with Ceci in the lead, led of course.

Incredible detail!

We indulged in a LOT of pastries while in Paris. Tennie went about each one with gusto and inevitably looked like this after every one.

After walking down the Champs Elysees we made our way over to the Eiffel Tower. We had given the girls a certain amount of money to spend as the wished on pastries and a trinket or two. This made for a stop at every tourist shop en route as they compared prices and tried to find the best souvenirs.

To avoid the long lines we climbed to the first level and decided the view was just fine from there. Notice Tennie's newly purchased beret. She loves hats!

After a good while on the Eiffel Tower we went to a nearby carousel. We recently read an article that carousels originated in France in the 1600s (I think). There were quite a few throughout Paris. We hung around the parks quite a while before grabbing some crepes and heading back to our home base.

If you were to ask Ceci her favorite part about Paris she would probably say the metro rides...

and riding the shuttle bus.

Versaille

I didn't read Lonely Planet carefully and our scheduled day at the Palace of Versailles was on Monday when it is closed. Rats. Instead we explored the expansive and incredibly idyllic gardens. After I graduated from high school twenty years ago, I visited Versailles with my dad and his wife and we rented bikes. I remembered Marie Antoinette's little village where she "played" milk maid: little storybook cottages with thatched roofs. The girls really wanted to see it. We found a bike rental place but Adele was riding a bike without training wheels for the first time so we weren't sure how far we would get. Geoff was giving her a little lesson and within about 30 seconds she was off on her own! What a place to master the bike! We found the little cottages, and we rode through the tree-lined paths. It was a perfect afternoon.

That is the palace in the background

And facing the other direction the gardens go on and on (the go on in all directions!)

Provence and beyond

After going to church for the last time (and feeling so loved by everyone) we climbed inside our "house car", as the girls called it, and hit the road. At Geoff's mom and sister's recommendation we took a little detour off the main freeway through a section of Provence and passed through a town called Gourdes. Just a few hours into our trip we knew there would be much more that we would like to see on this trip than our planned route. We wished we could have stayed and explored this very beautiful town uniformly made of white stone; sitting on a hill overlooking some of the most beautiful countryside I have every seen. Pictures can't even come close to capturing it.

To get back to the freeway we went down a back road and came across an old monastery down in a narrow valley. There was the potage (kitchen garden), and fields of lavender (not yet blooming). The monastery itself was gorgeous. Looking back, this was one of my favorite places. I wish I had more pictures, or could remember the name. We could only see it from the high road looking down into the valley.

We then passed through spectacular countryside (I'm going to have to use a thesaurus for additional word ideas to not be redundant when describing the countrysides on this trip) with fields of cherries, groves of olives, and vineyard after vineyard. We steered clear of Provincial countryside during the winter to avoid the minstrel winds, but we clearly are missing out on one of the most picturesque parts of France during these summer months.

Geoff grabbing some cherries on the side of the road

We came upon a very large herd of sheep with several sheep dogs keeping them off the small country road. We stopped to watch them, and listen to the clanking of their bells, and learned from the Shepherd that he has 1,300 sheep!

We continued North through the Rhone Valley with the most magnificent countryside made up of rolling hills and manicured fields, with small villages in the distance that certainly inspired Belle and Gaston's hometown. There were red poppy fields everywhere. No wonder Monet was so inspired!

I could have left France after this first day full and happy...but that was just the beginning...

The Camping Car

We discovered the subculture of camping cars on our Tour de France. There were a lot of us on the road, and a lot of places in France accommodate camping cars. Those we met were helpful in helping us learn the ropes quickly. It was much more "camping" than we anticipated. I mentioned in my last post that when Geoff picked up the camping car from a kind and generous bishop and his family (from a neighboring ward) it was discovered that the water wasn't working. That meant no shower, no toilet, and no kitchen or bathroom sink. Instead of putting our trip off for a day or two to have it fixed we decided to live without it. We could use the toilet by pouring water in to flush our waste down which made it more like a latrine, really. We relied heavily on Purell for clean hands. We took three showers during the trip at camp grounds, and washed our clothes once. It is one thing to feel and look like you've been camping when in the woods, it is another to be walking around Paris! On the second day the fridge stopped working, and at one point we lost the gas for a few days. When we cooked we couldn't wash the dishes so we wiped them off and turned a blind eye to the germs that were most definitely there. Finding a place to sleep was always an adventure. We slept at rest stops next to big semi's, parking lots in the middle of towns, and occasionally at a really beautiful spot on a river. It was a challenge to find level ground so we usually parked so that the blood would run to our feet instead of our heads, or roll us to the window side of the bed instead of open side. Only once did we move the camping car after a poor choice of parking. It was late, the rest stop was full and the only place to park was close to the freeway. Finally at 3:00AM Geoff and I decided to find a quieter spot and drove on to a country rode and parked on the side of a road in a small town. And only once did we slam on the brakes before going under too low of a low bridge; we held up traffic as we reversed to an alternate route. And only once we backed up into a fence and marked up the camping car (nothing a little baking soda couldn't take off). By far the least favorite thing about the camping car was emptying the toilet. I pulled out my "I-changed-thousands-of-diapers-while-you-travelled" card and Geoff was responsible for this disgusting task. Every other day we found a "cess pit" (as Geoff called them) which was a hole in the ground and a hose meant for this very purpose. We heard from some Americans we met that in American camping cars one pulls up, hooks up a hose, empties the toilet and voila, you're done. God bless America. In France Geoff had to pull out a container filled with waste, pour it into the cess pit, try to dislodge stuck pieces with the hose, then rinse out the cavity in the car where waste had splashed out during driving. Geoff assures me we are even now.

Driving in a camping car is like riding in a room during an earthquake. Cupboards and contents rattling, things sliding around, any objects not secured fly out of their places, and constant shaking. When we got into a normal car after our trip was over we all felt like we all noticed the silence. We welcomed the silence!

Geoff kept up his daily yoga routine...not always in the most convenient places...

The girls loved it. They loved walking around while the car was going (although this was far from safe!) The flexibility to stay longer or alter our routes was really nice. And, we saved a ton of money by "camping" our way through France.