Karen and Crew: Paris March 2016 I'm posting, but will be adding more, so check back.

We pulled away from home at 6am March 1. Makenna claimed the "white rabbit" honors. No one wanted to get up extra early and eat breakfast, but Jess also didn't want airport food. So she packed a single serving of corn flakes and plastic spoon in her backpack. All she wanted was a carton of milk from McDonalds. The rest of us made do with basic airport food.

Girls waiting at the gate for our call to board.

I amazingly do not have any pictures of our layover in Munich. I wouldn't have expected too, but we ended up spending plenty of extra time there as our 2.5 hour layover turned into nearly 4! The plane was delayed taking off from wherever it was coming from, so there was no plane to get on.... We got to know our area very well, drank lots of free Lufthansa hot chocolate, ate wursts and a giant pretzel and generally killed time. It was teasing because our last leg was barely an hour flight to get to Paris and we were waiting for so much longer than that. On the flip side, we only have an hour and 5 minutes layover in Frankfurt on our way home and I hope we (including luggage!) make that shorter window.

So we got to Paris. I have been to the city many times, but never to the airport. Huh. It's pretty cool. I love the crazy Dr. Seuss moving walkways. After we arrived at our apartment and got briefly settled, we dug out warmer clothes and went on a little walk to grab supplies for breakfast. There are plenty of neighborhood shops, bakeries, restaurants, etc., to easily meet all our needs. We have been pretty fortunate with finding English speakers and have done reasonably well with translating food labels and instructions. The bread? yummmmm. So good and fresh.

Isaac checking to make sure the eggs were not hard boiled....they weren't in the fridge.

Spinney's baguettes will not cut it anymore. Sad.

Day 1

Watching something as we planned our day. And finishing breakfast.

We were twins on our first full day. Not that you could tell once we left the apartment. It's COLD!

First thing we did was to walk to Sacre Cour. It's the famous white church on the hill. We visited during mass, I think, and there was singing and a message in French. Visitors can quietly walk around the edges of the inside, but no pictures please. The view from the hill was spectacular. The Sky was so blue, but the wind had a fierce bite.

I heard that French authorities cut all the locks off the famous bridge, but we have seen many other places where they are starting to collect anew. I guess it's turning into a city-wide thing?

Look, you can see the Eiffel Tower.

Matt after taking pictures of us.

Cold and windy, but come on! Look at that sky!

This is much farther down the hill. We are about to discover the Chocolate shop.

We happened to watch Chocolat just a few days ago. This chocolate art made me think of her chocolate art. And ooh la la, it smelled so fantastic. We tried a few squares of chocolate, but also all picked a flavor of macaroon to try for the first time. They were gooier than expected.

Her eyes match her new coat!

After wandering for awhile and unsuccessfully trying to get one SIM card for internet, we got on the metro and made our way over to the Eiffel Tower area. By now the temperature had dropped more and clouds were moving in.....

Makenna could not join in the artistic display because she was wearing boy jeans with zero stretch and while they look great on her, she can't come close to doing her signature move.

We are now starving and looking for lunch. Isaac tried duck and loved it. I have no food pictures.

During the next more successful bid for a working SIM card, it started torrential rain with some thunder, and then that morphed into think sleety flakes. (The above picture is doing a poor job showing loads of big flakes.) We got quite wet and had no luck finding umbrellas, no thanks to me for pooh-poohing the first ones as too expensive. We ended up a bit defeated and decided to head for home via metro. When we popped up above ground, there was a City Carrefour, it did have umbrellas, also over priced, but we bought some anyway. When we came out, it had stopped precipitating and hasn't since..... We also passed 3-4 other cheaper options moments after leaving the store. Blah.

Metro

This is a company that sells only gourmet frozen foods. It's a small store filled with freezers. They market themselves by saying how this is frozen food like you've never seen before, not like that nasty American crap. Ha ha. I'm exaggerating, but not much. Much of it did look amazing.

Day 2 On our way to Notre Dame It started much colder than Day 1.

We were told there are Paul's everywhere (a French chain we love in Dubai) and sure enough. We have seen several, including this mini one down in a Metro line.

More locks at Notre Dame.

We saw the SAME pigeon/bird guy that helped the kids feed the birds for over an hour back in 2007! Probably there would be a lot more bird pictures if it was less windy. As it stands, we have some good videos, less still shots. We also were planning to go up top and see some gargoyles, but the wind just picked up more instead of dying down so instead we found a cafe and got hot chocolate!

Jess brought the leftover bread from breakfast just for this. She loved the little ones that would land on her hand and nibble. I have a cool slow motion of this. Ask to see it sometime.

Joan of Arc. There is a plaque saying that Notre Dame was the location where the decision was made to reinstate her reputation ( not so very long ago). They did not mention if it was also the site of the decision to burn her as a witch.

Makenna has found so many weeping angels!

Me inside the Notre Dame treasury.

Saint bone. We did our best, but the signs are all in French.

Jess's reaction to the bone.

Beheaded St. Denis.

Gorgeous model of the cathedral in wood. There were also models of the progress.

There was a service going on during part of our time here too. As we were heading out, it sounded like someone was warming up the organ, but it never became a concert.

Ahhhhh, warm food!

We changed plans and realized the Pompidou was within a 10 minute walk and it would be warm inside. So we went there. After being completely mixed up by ironic lines, we got inside and saw some modern art. Above is a sand sculpture with kids' attempts around it.

Our own modern art.

Notre Dame from the 5th floor of the Pompidou.

It doesn't show up well, but you can see the white church on the hill--the Sacre Cour.

On to the Lourve! It was also a short walk. We knew it was closing in a little over an hour, but we thought we would give it a go and see if there was more interest for a repeat visit on day 3. Matt had never been. After racing through several galleries to go see, obviously, the Mona Lisa, he said, "Wow. Now I see why you can spend weeks in here. This place is amazing." So we walked more slowly back and will be going back again.

Jess wants to know why there are so many pictures of severed heads, or heads about to be severed, like this one of David and Goliath. She's just lucky to be alive in the most peaceful generation the world has yet known, in recorded history.

Makenna said, "That's where the Doctor comes in...." I can't think of a better explanation for that golden sphere warping space/time in the upper right.

This is the GIANT painting you see when you turn around after looking at the tiny, but impossibly famous Mona Lisa. When is the best time to see it without huge crowds? 15 minutes after they announce the museum will be closing.

Don't forget to check out the ceilings. Sometimes they are more amazing than the walls.

The Winged Victory. This dates back to 3rd century B.C.!! And it's gorgeous and majestic. Humans are amazing.

Views from inside the Louvre.

Yes, there is now an apple store in the underground shopping area connected to the Louvre. We passed it on the way to the the metro. Isaac popped inside.

Umm, I just liked this window display.

Paris Day 3: Napoleon's Tomb, Arms Museum, Arc de Triumph, Louvre

We came out of the metro and saw two big impressive buildings on either side. It took a bit to figure out which one we were aiming for.

It was this way.

There's the landmark.

Hôtel national des Invalides

This is a panorama going up from Napoleon's (looking down) tomb, then up past the alter, the ceiling and out the door full of sunlight.

Foch, commander of the Allied forces of Europe during WWI, fired by the French and criticized by historians for being one of the generals sending thousands of men into the "meat grinder', is now one of the few entombed in the Hotel national des Invalides. Hmm.

This is the ceiling in his private side room.

Side view of Foch. It shows soldiers dressed in clothes from the end of the war (metal helmets) acting as his pallbearers.

Makenna's hand by the toes of one of the giants guarding the entrance to the main underground tomb.

On the wall nearby. There are two heads that have become statures while their bodies remain reliefs. That's tricky.

The chapel/church behind the dome.

After I asked her, Makenna rolled her eyes and said, "How about I take a picture of YOU posing."

We are in the medieval section of the arms museum now. Later I'll have lots of pictures from the world wars. Thanks to Skyrim, Isaac noted the significance of these two quivers. Different quivers for different arrows/firing conditions? I don't know. He just made an "aha" noise, little comment and I took a picture. I'll try and get him to fill me in later, but he's asleep just now.

I'm guessing the little armor was ceremonial for a prince? Very few signs in this section had English translations.

"That would knock the air out of you."

Is that the length of a spedone? spadon? We don't know how to spell it, having only listened to the audio books. I think it's a made up sword, though I know "bastard sword" is a real type.

Leaving the knights.

There was LOTS of extra info on Verdun, being the 100 year anniversary, if you can have anniversaries for something horrific. This area is still toxic and dead thanks to the gas warfare that killed everything and ruined the soil.

A shot before we went into the WWI and II sections.

Early machine gun.

You can see a propeller above Matt's head. This war changed warfare more dramatically than any before or since.

Quite a nice mess kit you've got there, general.

Barbed wire, a brilliant invention to keep cattle out of farmland where there aren't many trees to build fences. But later also put to horribly efficient use against humans.

Model of the trench warfare. The barbed wire shot was a side view, this is from above.

Camouflage.

Uniforms from different countries/regions that France called upon to help.

This is what you get.

It's an Enigma Machine! And we have obviously moved on to WWII.

Battleship with model airplanes.

Submerged mine. I wonder how sensitive those buttons are. What if a fish pokes at it?

Torpedo above the mine.

American kit.

Anyone know what the juggling sticks are?

Old fashioned printing press used by the underground--it's all they had.

Matt explaining about where the gunner is placed. It looks right out of Star Wars--probably it's the other way around.

Lives lost.

Sky when we left.

More figuring on the map.

Street performers at stop lights. You get a quick show, then get propositioned for a donation.

This lady must have been FREEZING. Maybe we will see the picture on a billboard or magazine, but the process of taking them looks ridiculous.

That's her in red across the street, below and left of the Eiffel Tower.

Great cloud moments throughout the day.

"This is the Sein."

Lunch! Time to thaw and rest feet. How do you get your pedometer steps in? Be a tourist. Jess and I have been comparing. She is usually a bit ahead of me, shorter legs, but we have been in the 22,000-26,000 all three days.

Seen on the Champs-Élysées mixed in with the fancy stores.

Sisters

Inside the Arc de Triumph.

Sacré Cœur on the skyline. Views from the top of the Arc.

Model inside. We didn't stay out long because it was windy and started sprinkling again.

Brilliant cloak room at the Louvre. Find a locker, set your own code. They have little coded spots for umbrellas, and a wall of helmet sized ones for all the moped riders. I'm going to throw in a bunch of art we liked or has scholastic importance for us. More notes later. Short on time.

Title on this one: Large Vase. Ummm, yeah.

Let me take a selfie

Joan of Arc

Why is Napoleon laying on a crushed eagle?

Let me take a selfie

It's Molier!

I'm so beautiful!

This looks stolen from around a Italian fountain.

A guy was sketching this statue's face in charcoal. It was good.

Let me take a selfie

Ummm, why is Hermes standing on a bunch of pipes shoved in a child's mouth?

Let me take a selfie

Michelangelo

The Code of Hammurabi. You can't see all the tiny writing on the stone, but it's there, making laws universal for all classes for the first time. We saw this last time in 2007 and little Isaac was excited about it because he had learned about it in history. I remembered it being bigger--I guess he's just grown a LOT in comparison.

We stayed till around 8 (late closing of Fridays). Time to grab some bread for morning, go home do a last load of laundry and pre pack for our departure in the morning.