Paris

 

It’s our final stop on our journey and one of the few locations we chose prior to leaving home.  For some reason, Devin’s only request of this trip was to spend his 7^th birthday in Paris and to climb the Eiffel Tower on the 8^th of December (his b’day).  We are spending our final two weeks in Paris and we have found an incredible apartment with one of the best views of the Eiffel Tower for a reasonable price (very little is reasonably priced in Paris but we have a three bedroom apartment for the same price as a hotel room – yeah us!).   I wish I could say I have mixed emotions about our final stop but neither Calvin nor I want to go home.  We do want to spend Christmas with family but we would prefer to be on our way to Australia or South America or anywhere warm.  The kids are up for more travelling adventures but they are equally excited about getting home to see their friends.

We arrived in Paris on the high speed train via the chunnel from London.  After a few minutes of no scenery and only grey walls flashing by I realized we were in the chunnel and told the kids. They looked up and went right back to what they were doing, quite unimpressed. After about 2 ½ hours we arrived in Paris.

We thought we would take the metro to our apartment but it was rush hour and which line to take was not immediately obvious to us so we opted for a taxi instead. After a few odd characters (one guy kissed Aidan on the cheek – yuck) tried to talk us into getting a ride in their “taxi” we stood in the official taxi line and waited our turn for an official one.
The sun had set but Paris was just waking.  No matter the weather or hour of day, Paris is beautiful but sprinkle it with twinkling Christmas lights and it takes your breath away .  Our taxi took the tourist route down the Champs- Elysees. The boys’ chins were on their chests – the wide boardwalks were lined with stalls selling anything and everything Christmas.   Perfectly dressed Parisians were strolling with mull wine or hot chocolate in hand picking out hand crafted gifts - a definite must do for us.  We spotted the Eiffel Tower and Devin got very excited.  During our 20 minute drive to our apartment we passed by some of the best Paris had to offer and we started to wonder if ten days could possibly be long enough.
We arrived at the apartment and the owner, Caroline was waiting for us.  She was such a lovely person who greeted our family with kisses on the cheek and a warm Parisian welcome. She decorated the apartment for Christmas and fully stocked an advent calendar with candy for the boys.  She had three boys as well so we had an immediate connection.   She had colouring books, children’s books about the sites in Paris and LEGO !!! Many toys for the boys as well as a bottle of red for us, some coke and beer in the fridge and enough munchies to get us through our first evening…including a fresh baguette from the local market.  Caroline is a wonderful ambassador of this lovely city.

When Calvin found this apartment, we both agreed it would be perfect – one of the bedrooms (Devin’s for this portion of our trip) had a window that looked out at the Eiffel Tower from the bed, as does the living room window.   The Tower is lit up at night and then twinkles for 5 minutes at the top of every hour. We all ran to the window for the entire 10 days when this would happen. It never got old or any less impressive. The character of this 180 year old building was so charming we were really looking forward to our time here. We could easily have stayed in the apartment every day to enjoy it, but of course the city of lights was not going to have any of that.    

Including London, we have endured only a few days of rain over the past six months….how incredibly fortunate.  If the weatherman has his way, we are about to surpass our total just in Paris but we were not going to let that stop us.  We got up early the following morning and walked the five minutes to the local grocery.  We passed an exact, scaled replica of New York’s Statue of Liberty on our way to the market. Just as he did in New York, France’s Bartholdi chose the location for Paris’s Statue – welcoming sailors to Paris, this Lady of Liberty sits on an island in the Siene and all ships entering Paris have to sail by it. 

The Monoprix supermarket became our favourite market to shop in and it also had great clothing on the top floor so it was my turn to buy some clothes - just a couple of sweaters and turtle necks to keep me warm.  We stayed in this first day and Calvin made a great pasta dinner for us and ended the night watching the Tower sparkling.

The next morning we jumped on the bus and found the Louvre.  It was beginning to rain as we walked in. The Louvre is the mother of all museums.  The Musee du Louvre, or the Louvre Museum as it is known around the world, is a mesmerising place. For anyone who is even a wee-bit interested in history and art, a trip to the Louvre justifies the expensive air ticket to Paris….or so the French will tell you and after our day of exploring just a fraction of the Louvre, I have to agree.  From the moment you step in front of the glass pyramid enclosed on three sides by the palace, a feeling of awe takes over. Inside there are probably a million paintings, relics and sculptures to see, and each one has a story to tell. You'll soon find that one day is not sufficient to do justice to this place!

Overwhelming is probably the word that comes to mind the most. We packed a lunch and spent the day there and were overcome with the sheer breadth of what we saw.  Raphael, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, the Venus De Milo, Mona Lisa, Winged Victory.... it was just astounding.
There is always a crowd around the Mona Lisa painting and this day was no exception. We made our way up to it and Calvin put Devin on his shoulders so that he could get a good view of it. All 3 boys thought it was going to be bigger and more impressive. They all asked “what’s the big deal ?” We offered suggestions about Da Vinci’s style at the time, her smile and the mystery around who she really was and such but they still walked away a bit disappointed. 

Later that day, we got the knowledgeable artist’s review of the Mona Lisa from Jamie - The painting was among the first portraits to depict the sitter before an imaginary landscape and Da Vinci was one of the first painters to use aerial perspective. 

When we finally left, the rain had stopped…for the moment…and we voted to make the 20 minute walk to the Champs-Elysees to cruise the Christmas booths that lined the street.  About 5 minutes in to our walk the skies opened and we were pelted with rain until we arrived at a bus stop – we went straight home to dry off. My cousin Jamie and girlfriend Katherine arrived later that evening to spend Jamie’s 30th birthday with us. We had a great evening with them and the boys realized what a funny dude Jamie is.   

The next day was sweet Devin’s 7th birthday ! He awoke very excited. While I made breakfast and Devin colored a picture at the table, Jamie sketched a portrait of him. It is beautiful and I will frame it when we get home.
As promised, we walked to the Eiffel Tower to spend Devin’s birthday there. We took the elevator up to the top and admired the view for quite a while.

It was a cold day and up at that height it was even colder. Devin received a birthday call from his Godmother and she was quite impressed to be talking to him while at the top of the Tower. 

Afterwards we visited a Christmas Market across from the Tower and bought some delicious Comte cheese and other delicacies. Back at the apartment we made dinner, enjoyed Devin’s cake and watched his favourite Christmas movie, The Polar Express.

As I mentioned, when we arrived at the apartment, the owner equipped it with many toys which included a little doll. Devin took to this doll right away, slept with it and brought it to the table for meals. He named her Lily and she became his favourite toy while in Paris. I was beginning to wonder how he was going to part with her so I asked him and he said he didn’t think he could.
She would miss him and be lonely… oh boy this was going to be tricky. I wrote to lovely Caroline and asked her if it would be okay if we bought a new doll to replace Lilly and she come home with us. She agreed and told Devin that she was thrilled that Lily would be able to spend Christmas in Canada with us. Problem solved !  
The next day was raining again but we hopped on the Metro and headed to the Notre Dame cathedral. The dark grey clouds provided a great background for Europe’s greatest Gothic church with it’s famous gargoyles and flying buttresses.

We walked inside and through the large cathedral.  Afterwards we stopped for a roadside crepe and ate it while we walked through the streets and then over to the second small island of Ile Saint -Louis. Every romantic movie filmed in Paris must have been filmed here.  
 
The streets are lined with small, beautiful shops each with exquisite display windows.  By this time, we were ready for lunch and chose one that looked like it would be a good choice for the boys to try escargot and frog’s legs…their decision, not ours! Delicious French onion soup, braised duck, escargot and frog’s legs served for all of us to share.  


Devin tried everything but was not too interested in the snails or the froggy legs but Noah and Aidan really enjoyed them. Isn’t just about anything delicious if it is smothered in garlic butter ? Other than the over priced bottles of water, we were happy with our very French meal. 
We explored more of the city including a medieval mansion that has a cannonball still lodged in its front wall dating back to the revolution. We walked around the building twice and finally found the tiny dot on the front facing wall. We thoroughly explored the Jewish quarter including great shops, delis and falafel restaurants.

On the way to the bus we stopped in at a hair salon for Noah and Devin to get haircuts. The cuts were great and the price more reasonable than we expected. Instead of taking the #72 bus we took the #70 as it came sooner and we knew it would eventually get us to our stop but we soon realized it was taking us way out of our way and counted 29 stops to ours…good way to see the city !!
The next day we awoke to a beautiful sunny morning and decided to explore the area surrounding Sacre Coeur – Montmartre.  The Sacre Coeur Basilica is a slightly steep climb up the Montmartre hill and is the highest point in the city. We decided to up the climbing ante and hike up the dome of the Basilica – it was only an additional 300 stairs and it was more dizzying than tiring but once we stepped outside….what a view!  

Calvin and the boys want to climb everything and usually I’m with them especially dome’s with tremendous views but sometimes I just don’t understand boys.   Sacre Coeur is a wedding cake-white church. The striking building, with its towers and white onion dome, was built around 130 years ago.  After the climb and a walk through the beautiful church, we decided to stop for our picnic lunch before wandering the streets of Montmartre. 

If you are so inclined you can experience what we did via Ameilie - it is a wonderful movie set in this area.  Calvin and I watched it after the kids went to bed that night.  There are a lot of shops around the hill at the base and the streets leading up to the top.  It can be quite touristy but we found that many of these shops have a good selection of affordable and unique gifts for people back home. 

Although not very close to the other Paris attractions, Montmartre has a character of its own.  It is a nice walk from rue de Abbesses to the top of the hill, and a great place to sit and enjoy some Parisian pastry and a cup of coffee before heading to visit the Sacre Cour. 

There is a square in the middle of the town that is home to an outdoor art gallery. We enjoyed walking through and watching artists at work. Aidan bought a small original painting of a night sky in Paris and Noah commissioned an artist to sketch his portrait. It turned out amazing and attracted a lot of onlookers admiring the artist’s talent.


One of the last stops before leaving Montmarte was a visit to the Salvatore Dali museum which proved as strange and wonderful as we told the boys it would be. 
Before getting on the metro back to the apartment we used croissants as bribery to get the boys to help us find the Je taime wall.  In the depths of sidestreets, we found a very cool wall with the words “I LOVE YOU” in 311 languages. So romantic! – how can you not love Paris.   

Le Jardin Luxembourgh  is a lovely park where Parisian families like to spend their weekends, so since it was Sunday we decided to blend in with the locals at the park. It was a chilly day but the sun was shining.

We walked around admiring the many statues of past Queens and the skills of the remote control boat drivers who floated beautiful replica models in the large pond. 

The boys found a fantastic rubber floored outdoor park with zip lines, tilt o whirls and pedal cars. 

Calvin and I sipped our coffees while they played. We felt very local and it was a nice break from sight-seeing.

Another day was spent at the Arc de Triomphe and after taking some pictures, we …wait for it…climbed the 280 steps to the top! The hills in North Vancouver are going to be a breeze after all these stairs! We counted 12 streets that lead to the Arc and it was an impressive view of the city.
The Champs- Elysees is the largest street that runs from the Arc and we still hadn’t explored its shops and Christmas market. The street was lit up with lots of lights that changed color the entire time. We spent a couple of hours going through the market sampling mulled wine and amazing cheese samples.

The boys got a couple of souvenirs and we bought some Christmas gifts. It was a great night and we were exhausted by the end of it.

After 2 failed attempts (long line up, closed on Mondays) to see the Catacombs of Paris we were successful and the first ones in line. One of the most eye-popping sights of Paris, the Catacombs represent a network of labyrinthine tunnels, first excavated in the Roman period, that now house the remains of over 6 million Parisians. 

Many were removed from the various overcrowded cemeteries all over Paris in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Well worth a visit: the atmosphere is morbid and gloomy (without being too scary). 

The dark tunnels contain neatly stacked piles of skulls and bones. A strange experience and after the first 2 million or so bones, Devin, Aidan and I were done and walked rather quickly to the exit but Calvin and Noah took their time, took pictures and sauntered through…creepy, dudes.

Our last day in Paris was a sunny beautiful day. We wanted to squeeze another museum in so we chose the Marmottan Museum. It features a collection of over three hundred Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works by Claude Monet (the largest collection of his works in the world).

It also features work by Renoir, Degas, Gauguin and others. The other reason we chose this museum was because our bus pass ran out and we could walk there from the apartment. The various Water Lily paintings were beautiful and I was pretty excited to see them up close and personal. We watched a youtube video about Monet with the boys before we departed for the museum.   The video was done by a young girl about the life of Monet and showed many of his pieces so they knew what to expect from the visit and spent time in front of many of his masterpieces.

After the visit we headed across the street to a park where we could hear a small trio of musicians playing.  We rounded a corner to see Santa and a couple of elves with some horns playing Christmas music – very cool!! Calvin and I sat on a bench listening to the music, watching the kids and discussing how great this trip had been. It started to get a little chilly so we headed back to the apartment to do laundry and pack up for the last time .

Since it was our last night of the trip we went out for dinner to a restaurant that is one of the highest rated in Paris and only a 5 minute walk from the apartment.  Mini Festin is a French and Italian restaurant that did not disappoint us. We had a great meal and everyone left happy and very, very full. We just couldn’t bring ourselves to go back to the apartment quite yet so we walked the 20 minutes to the Eiffel Tower so that we could stand beside it at night and watch it sparkle close up. We found a park bench very near the tower and sat down to wait for the sparkle. It was breathtaking and a perfect end to the night and the trip. I really loved Paris, this visit and hope that Calvin and I can come back one day for a special anniversary. 

The next day we boarded a plane for Toronto.  We are excited to see family and friends but also saddened that this amazing adventure has come to an end.

Summary of MacInnis Family Adventure

Vancouver to Cape Breton to PEI to Toronto to Madrid to Toledo to Granada to Fuengirola to Gibraltar to Malaga to Seville to Fuengirola to Barcelona to L'Escala to Rocallaura to Barcelona to Venice to Fucecchio to Florence to Pisa to Fucecchio to Pompeii to Castellabate to Paestum to Naples to Castellabate to Rome to Vatican to Sora to Rome to Istanbul to Anadolu Kavagi (Black Sea) to Kayseri to Cappadocia to Kalkan to OluDeniz to Pamukkale to Ephesus to Izmir to Istanbul to Athens to Cairo to Aswan to Luxor to Cairo to Amman to Madraba to Wadi Rum Bedouin Camp to Petra to Dead Sea to Amman to London to Paris to Toronto to Vancouver.

Total of 43,179 km