Friday we picked up my sister and Lucas from the airport. Hoping that they wouldn't crash from the jet lag we rushed them off to Versailles. We did a tour of the inside of the castle and came back quickly to pick up the kids from school. The kids were so happy to see their aunt and cousin! Lucas acclimated quickly to the time zone while Sandra struggled a bit more. Saturday we headed into Paris. Our first stop was the Arc de Triomphe. Luciana fell asleep in her stroller so Olivia, Lucas and Sandra made the 284 steps to the top. Lucas ordered his first nutella banana crepe and now I think he is addicted.

We then headed to Champs Elysees. The street is beautiful this time of year as it is lined with white huts selling holiday trinkets. Luciana was thrilled to see all the statues of Santa along the way and even sat on a statues lap with pure joy! Unfortunately Luciana spilled hot chocolate on herself so Chris took her home early. Funny- how I let a 3 year old drink hot chocolate unsupervised on a cold dark night. I can only say that it is because she is the fourth! We enjoyed a pizza dinner and headed back home on the train. Spending this week with my sister we have used the train everyday so I am happy to say I feel I really can get anywhere in Paris. I was actually able to help some people find certain metro stops.

On Sunday Alex had a hockey tournament. Happy to say his team won again....Alex scoring 3 goals, two of which were the game winners in the last minutes. After the games we went to Le Marais district. This is really one of my favorite areas of Paris. So much to see and do and shops are open on Sundays. Kids played in the Place de Vosges and we had a nice lunch at Cafe Hugo. Olivia opted to spend the day with her school friends making and decorating cupcakes. There was a contest in Paris with donations going to charity. You needed to officially enter the contest so it was really reserved for professional bakers. When the four girls proudly displayed their lopsided cakes- the judges couldn't help but smile and even laughed as they bit into hidden rainbow sprinkles. Although they did not win- Olivia claims they sold the most as most of the children who were there wanted to buy their cupcakes.

On Monday we went to Sainte Chapelle, La Conciergerie and Notre Dame. The Sainte Chapelle was built in 1248 to hold Louis IX's collection of relics of Christ, which included the Crown of Thrones. The Crown of Thorns is now housed in Notre Dame.  Sainte- Chapelle has the most beautiful walls of stain glassed windows I have ever seen. Apparently when the sun is shining( which is virtually never in Paris in the winter) the light shining through the windows is spectacular. A definite recommendation for anyone visiting Paris.

Sainte-Chapelle

beautiful sky lights that survived the revolution

We then headed to La Conciergerie which I have written about in a past blog entry. It is a former prison where Marie Antoinette spent her final days. After that we went to Notre Dame. I have been there a few times but this time we headed into the Treasury Room. For a few euros you can see the room that houses the church's relics. We wanted to see the Christ's Crown of Thrones! It is incased in a shrine and is taken out of the room once a month during a special mass. The treasury also has fragments of the holy cross as well.

The shrine holding Christ's Crown of Thorns

On Tuesday we went to the Catacombs. The line for this is very long and we knew this so we bought a tour package months ago that allows us to skip the lines with a guided tour. I highly recommend this option.  The depth of the catacombs  is 20 meters down and has between 6-8 million Parisians buried within the walls.  Originally the tunnels were built to create the quarries where the stone was removed to build the city buildings.  Over time, the cemetery in the center of town became overcrowded and they moved the bodies to the tunnels.  They also put those killed from the Revolution into the catacombs as well.  The stories we were told were very interesting and the place itself is fascinating!

Wednesday we went to Montmarte and the Louvre. I always enjoy Montmarte. As all our excursions have gone this week- we look for a cafe and get some coffee, hot chocolate and croissants.  We went to a cafe called Le Coquelicot.   The bread is delicious!  We started our walk with a visit to Le mur des je t'aime ( I love you wall).  "I love you" is written 311 times in 250 different languages.  We past the studios where many famous artists lived- including Picasso.  We then stopped at le Passe-muraille.  It is a statue of a man trapped in a wall- kids loved this one.  We visited the statue of Saint- Denis, the patron saint of France.  Not sure I told the story - but after he was decapitated, legend says he picked up and carried his head and walked for 6 miles.  We then went to place du Tertre.  It is the main square filled with restaurants and artists.  I have been a few times and have been overwhelmed with tourists and the overcrowded streets.  This time there were very few people and I enjoyed it much more.  One of Olivia's wishes was to have her portrait drawn by a street artist- she got her wish and a lovely souvenir to take home.  We made it to the top and visited the Sacre -Coeur Basilica.   We took the funicular down the hill, stopped at the Moulin Rouge and said goodbye to Montmarte and headed to lunch and then back to the metro- two transfers later, we were at the Louvre.  

Enjoying giant bowls of hot chocolate

The wall of love

Trying to pull the man out of the wall

Olivia gets her portrait drawn

The kids were pretty exhausted as we hit the Louvre so we decided to make it a quick trip. Someone told me it would take nearly a year to look at each piece for a minute in the Louvre. We opted for the kids preferences- the ancient Egyptian, Greece and Roman eras as well as a stop to see the Mona Lisa.

In cased in bullet proof glass

Chris, Alex and Lucas went to a Paris St. Germain national soccer game on Wednesday evening. They did get to see a home team goal but left early as it was a late game and a bit chilly.

 

Today is Thanksgiving! Chris took Sandy, Lucas and Alex to the Eiffel Tower and Invalides. They finally made it to the tippy top of the tower and got a chance to see Napoleon's tomb. I stayed home to help with the kids school celebration and to prepare our thanksgiving dinner. It is not so easy to celebrate the traditional way. Its difficult to find a turkey and if you do order one- chances are your oven is too small to cook it. Some ex-patriots ordered from the butcher- who prepped and cooked it in advance. We opted for chicken instead but did wrangle some items such as fresh cranberries, stuffing and marshmallows for the sweet potato dish. There was no pumpkin pie- but we did have a cinnamon crumble apple pie and delicious tart of some kind of fruit. The woman at the bakery was so excited explaining it to me that I was too busy watching her than trying to understand what she was saying.    Nonetheless- I am thankful we had a nice dinner and had family here to share it with us!