France-Days 5&6

This was one of a couple of firsts for me, the funicular to Sacre Couer. It was our first really rainy day in Paris which is pretty amazing for Spring.  I thought it would be fun for the kids to take it. Rewind to a rough start to our sight seeing this morning. I hate to even blog about it but we can always learn from our mistakes. We were purchasing our train tickets and I started wondering if it would make more sense to try a day pass with the random things we had left to do that were all over Paris and also the rain. A well-intentioned gentleman showed us some all day passes that turned out to be cards to charge to put and all day pass on. There were no English instructions for these-they clearly are not intended for tourists. We got the little paper tickets that look like regular metro tickets and they did nothing to get you through the styles. A Metro maintanance guy with very little English offered to help and took me through the styles to a couple of different ticket offices. Nobody really gave me good English instructions but they charged me more money to put the pass for the day on and asked if I had a picture. I said that I did not and would that be ok just for today. "Yes. It will be ok." I left it at that and the guy took me back through the maze of Les Halles to my family who had been standing in the metro for at least 30 minutes. I passed out the passes and we headed off on our way. Stay tuned.

It wasn't a fun time to be up there, the view wasn't great, no artists around but that's ok. Living in Oman teaches you to love rain any time anywhere.

A picture for Anton Vincent of St. Vincent's chapel.

This sweet girl has fallen for Joan of Arc. She can't get enough of the story. 

She and Alena spent a long time sitting here and sketching.

Give me all the beautiful organs. I was sad that I didn't stumble upon a single organ being played during the entire trip. 

A break in the rain sent us rushing to the Arc D'Triumph. Somehow going up a million steps on a spiral staircase is totally doable.

I really love the art of the Arch. Matt loves the refrence to some dumb comedy movie where they get going around the Roundabout-Charles DeGalle Etoille and can't get off. It's easy to see why. Brigham spent a considerable amount of time counting smart cars that went by and they all seemed strangely entertained waiting for cars trying to get off the circle onto a straight road. 

I actually think this is one of the best views of Paris. Something about the way the streets reach out from this central location and you can see the churches, the Eiffle Tower, Sacre Couer and most everything.

I convinced him to admire the roof gardens instead of the traffic. I think he appreciated that. We headed down the Champs Elyses after this and had lunch, visited the Disney Store and mostly just headed down since big ticket items aren't really something my family likes to admire.
 

There are so many beautiful museums in Paris. I want to go to ones I've never visited next time.

Here Matt gave me time on my own to go see the Opera House. It cost money for everyone so we decided that we wouldn't all go but I've wanted to tour it for so long so it was going to be my special treat of the trip. I got them a plan and instructions and I headed off.

I knew it was going to be close but they stopped letting people in a little earlier than I anticipated and I wasn't able to go. I was pretty bummed. Another little hitch to our trip is that google stopped my roaming privileges the first day we left. I had no cell service other than hooking up to wifi the entire trip. I couldn't really let them no or catch up with them so I tried visiting the Madeline church in case there was a concert there-there was not. Then I decided to go into Ikea, land of bathrooms, wifi and food. I didn't need food but took advantage of a couch to contact Matt. I couldn't really meet up with them in a timely way so I decided on some shopping. I hit up Decathlon and 7 pairs of wadi pants later I headed to the hotel.

After a bit of wandering they finally found Pere Lachese Cemetery and everyone enjoyed finding graves of people they knew of.

The artist of the famous Wrath of Medusa painting.

Frederik Chopin who loved France.

Here's where things start to get a little hairy. There was a lot of argument and angst about what would happen that last night in Paris. The kids were done. Matt was not. There had been promises of crepes, talk of going back to the Eiffel Tower for the bursting at the seams strawberry, nutella, whipped cream crepes. Matt wanted to go to the Bastille. I was able to calm him down a bit and even managed to lead everyone to a great little creperie near our hotel where they made them just what they wanted. I did not have one because I had my sights set on another bowl of French Onion Soup and some creme brule.  We washed and tucked our kids in and one by one they bowed out of going to see the Bastile Monument. So, I went with Matt to humor him. I was pretty tired of walking myself. Well, we got stopped at the Bastille metro exit and when we showed them our passes we discovered rather abruptly that we hadn't followed the rules on the card and we were supposed to have the other part of the card and since we didn't we were being fined 50 Euros each. No matter how we tried to explain what happened, they would not budge. Needless to say that was more than a little upsetting. I will spare the reader the details and say that was the end of peace and harmony. I went back to the hotel on the metro and Matt walked back. I will not complain. I had been given everything I had prayed for. Somehow trips can't just be perfect and the Temple and my family enjoying Paris and learning that they do enjoy museums and history were the most important things for me. Everything else worked out. It will all be ok in the end. 

This little girl was night and day different this trip from our Egypt Trip. I think partly because she knew better what to expect, partly because of the variety of the experiences, partly because we had lovely treats and food every single day, and I actually wonder if it also had something to do with not having all the videos she could ever want on the plane. She had been so pleasant the entire trip and then at 3am when we flew into Oman we had to wake her up and she wouldn't be carried and she also wouldn't stop crying. Poor kid finally had enough of the rigor. A bientot Paris.