Paris--Day 2, Part III--The Nighttime Boat Tour (and Just Missing the Pope)

On the second evening in Paris, Ian arranged for a boat tour on the Seine right after dark. It was a great time to take a boat tour, if a little chilly.

It was sunset right as we were walking to the boat launch, which was near the Eiffel Tower:


As I mentioned in a previous post, the Pope was in town, and there were police officers all over the place. The Pope was supposed to tour the city in his Pope-mobile right about when we were to going to be on the boat. I found all of this out when I accidentally told a police office not to cross the street when I was making sure the students weren't getting run over. He laughed and I started talking to him a little (in French!) I found out that we were standing on the Pope's path and that he was supposed to be coming by any minute. Here I am talking to the Parisian police:


Here we are waiting for the Pope, who never in fact came before we had to board the boat. The police officers kept trying to get us to stay because he was coming "any minute," but after 20 minutes of waiting, we were pressed for time.

So, after all of that, we boarded the boat. Some of us sat on the bottom part of the boat, which was the least crowded space with the best view:

Sophie hung out with her friends, Jenny and Katie, the entire ride:

The Eiffel Tower at night (which is blue in honor of the EU):

All sparkly:

Unfortunately, those were the only pictures that turned out. The boat was moving too fast for our camera to take very good night pictures. Suffice it to say that it was a very nice way to see the city at night.

Paris--Day 2, Part II--The Eiffel Tower

After going to the Musée d'Orsay, we headed off to the Eiffel Tower since it was such a nice day. Sophie absolutely loved it, and still recognizes it in pictures and on TV.




We didn't go up in it since we'll be going when Grandpa and Grandma Fine visit, but Sophie wanted to touch it, so we climbed to the base and posed:


Afterward, Sophie decided she was going to get to the top, even if she had to take the long way:


Here was a picture of the extra security all over Paris because of the Pope. I wonder if the Pope condones such violence in order to save his life?

On the back side of the Eiffel Tower, there was a large map of Europe that you could walk on. Ian took a picture of Sophie next to some of the wording to show what the scale was like:

And then we proceeded to pose on all of the countries/cities that we've traveled to so far. First was Strasbourg:

Then off to Vienna:

Sophie straddling the border of Germany and Switzerland:

And finally Paris!
After the map fun, we spent some time in the park behind the Tower.


Sophie decided to imitate the several people laying on the grass taking a nap:


When we were ready to go, Sophie tried to help get Ian up.

It wasn't so successful.

Paris--Day 2, Part I--Sainte Chapelle, Notre Dame (almost), and Musee d'Orsay

Our second day in Paris was a very full day, so I'm going to break it up into two posts. In the morning, we headed off to Sainte Chapelle, a beautiful chapel near Notre Dame where the kings used to worship. It was once connected to the palace, but isn't any longer. There are two levels to the chapel, and people are always a little disappointed when they walk in. The first floor is pretty, but people usually hearing glowing reviews of the chapel, and the first floor is on par with other places they've visited. I have a not-so-good picture of this floor, and again, it's very pretty:

But then you walk upstairs (to the area where the king received mass), and you are just stunned by the beauty of the stained glass that goes basically from floor to ceiling on three of the four walls:



On the outside of the chapel, it seemed like they were doing some restoration work. Here's a pile of pieces they had collected:

After Sainte Chapelle, the plan was to tour Notre Dame. We ran into a bit of a snag when we found out it was actually closed that day because the Pope was in town and was going to speak at Notre Dame later that day! The Pope dogged our heels the rest of the day, creating small problems with sightseeing, but we were able to overcome them. (The most annoying was that they closed the subway stops close to Notre Dame earlier than advertised. At lunch, Ian had to leave early to meet the group, and I was going to catch up with him 15 minutes later with Sophie. To simplify things, since there are no escalators or elevators in all of the Paris subway system, Ian took the stroller. When I got to the subway station 15 minutes later with a very heavy Sophie, it was closed already, which meant that I had to walk with Sophie all the way to Musee d'Orsay. Luckily, I was able to catch Ian on his cell phone, and he met us half way with the stroller, but there's nothing like having to walk a mile with a 30-pound sack of potatoes!)

Anyway, I got a picture of the group figuring out when they could visit the inside of the famous cathedral:


Before lunch, Ian, Sophie, and I went to scout out the place we need to meet later that night for the boat tour. When we climbed the stairs from the subway, we found that there was a nice view of the Eiffel Tower...and this is where Sophie's love affair with the Tower started. (In fact, she built an Eiffel Tower this morning out of a cup, an empty paper towel tube and a plastic apple...)


After lunch, we finally made it to the Musee d'Orsay. Outside there are statues and giant reproductions of paintings, which Sophie found fascinating.


The Musee d'Orsay is located in an old train station. It's a beautiful, relaxing space for an art museum. This is the view from the restaurant:

A view of Sacre Coeur from the balcony:

A view of the Louvre (where you can see that it really was a palace at one time):

Here is Sophie pretending to sleep. The pretense didn't last long, as she once again fell asleep about 15 minutes into the visit and slept the entire time.

A couple of views of the museum space:


And finally, as a prelude to the next post, here is Sophie posing with her miniature Eiffel Tower, which she loved, but tragically dropped, and which was subsequently run over by the stroller and broken. She's looking forward to our next trip so that we can buy her a new one.

We Interrupt This Program...

...to bring you a picture of my first sweet French tart. I made a savory tart (Quiche Lorraine) the other day, and it turned out yummy, but not as pretty as the apple tart.


I have to say that the tart turned out fantastic, if I do say so myself! And if you ever come to visit, I promise to make you one...

Paris--Day 1

The weekend before last, we took the students to Paris for a 3 1/2 day trip as part of their orientation to France. We left on Thursday morning early, early, early--I think we met at the train station at 6:45am! As you might imagine, the students weren't too happy about it, but it gave us a lot more time in Paris. We dropped all of our stuff off at the hostel, regrouped, and headed into the city for lunch and an afternoon at the Louvre.

We scattered in the Latin Quarter for lunch, and Ian, Sophie and I grabbed lunch at a sandwich/crepe shop and ate our lunch on the steps by the Seine. Here is Sophie eating her first professionally-made crepe of Nutella and bananas. (Of course, Daddy and I had to make the sacrifice to help her eat the gigantic crepe!)

After lunch, we walked down to the water's edge, where Sophie so naturally posed for the camera. (I had nothing to do with her pose...apparently Paris turned her into a supermodel!)

A view of Notre Dame on a beautiful fall day:

After lunch, we all headed to the Louvre. The original plan was for Sophie and I to head back to the hostel so Sophie could take a nap, but I really wanted to go to the Louvre, so we skipped the nap.

But Sophie had other plans. About 15 minutes into the Louvre, Sophie passed out. She didn't wake up until we were about to leave! She missed the entire museum.

Here is a picture of the wall of rules for the Louvre, which I think that between Ian and I, we broke about half of them!

During the visit, all of us split up to do our own thing. When we all met back up, Sophie wanted to sit on the wall like the big kids. Luckily, all of the students are very nice and tolerant of her attraction to them.

And late that afternoon, we headed back to the hostel, where we had pizza at a local restaurant, and then Ian was sucked into Sophie's recent favorite game, playing ghost: