Paris in the Fall - A Short Novel

 France is a beautiful country.  I hope we can go back someday.  Paris has some beautiful sights, and impressive history.  I don't want to go back.  To say I've had some bad experiences in Paris is putting it lightly.  I traveled to Europe many years ago (right before the Euro took effect throughout Europe)with a group of students and a teacher friend, and was duped by a merchant who charged me 1200 Euro for a leather jacket instead of the 1200 French francs he should have, so my $200 jacket became a $1300 dollar jacket.  After an 8 hour flight with two kids (who did pretty well and slept for at least half the time) we were navigating Charles de Gaulle airport, each pushing a luggage cart and with a child in tow.  It couldn't have been more than 10 minutes, but I noticed that Nate's backpack was missing.  His backpack that contained his new school computer, his new iPad, his new iPod, some kids toys, a book or two we had borrowed about Normandy, Nate's US and Dubai cell phones, and the list goes on.  It either fell off as we bumped out of an elevator and was snatched by someone (possibly the homeless man who was resting outside the elevator, who may or may not be part of the ring of homeless thieves who hang out in the airport), or else someone walked by and grabbed it while I was finding food for Will and Nate was asking for maps at the tourism desk.  After many extra hours at the lost and found, the police station and retracing steps in hope of a miracle, we had to resign ourselves that it was gone.  Sidenote - this was where I wished Will was still in diapers because I was hanging out with the kids while Nate searched, and Will had to go to the bathroom twice - well the first time was a false alarm, so I had to push our two luggage carts into the restroom, strap Finley into the baby Bjorn and help him go potty.  Then I had to redress him since he has to take off shoes, shorts and underwear to do his thing.  Double grrrrrrrrrrr.  I'm sure it was amusing for others to observe, and they could since I couldn't close the door of the stall. 

 But in the end, it's just money, and we had 4 1/2 more days in France, so we had to get over our frustration and disappointment and enjoy our trip, which we mostly did.  Even though it was the end of August, it felt, and looked like fall.  There were leaves all over the ground that we got to crunch through - I miss that sound, and the smell of the fallen leaves!  The temperatures were really nice - a little too cool in the evenings, and we got rained on a bit too.  We rented a car and drove up to Normandy to see some of the WWII sights and being the in countryside was one of our favorite parts.  We want to go back to the town of Bayeux, that has this amazing cathedral and definite quaint charm that you imagine in French villages.  Nate also bought me a crepe with Nutella:)

 We visited a museum in Caen and got our history fix (well, I did), then we continued on to Omaha Beach and the American Memorial Cemetery.  Unfortunately, our leisurely drive through the countryside got us there about 15 minutes before they closed!  So we missed the museum there, but got to walk through the cemetery and see the beach.  It was so beautiful, and hard to imagine the carnage that took place there.

 If you can believe it, this is a bomb crater.  There were dozens of them at this spot - Pointe du Hoc I think it was called, and they were so deep, and many were filled with wildflowers.

 

One of the highlights of the trip for me was sitting outside Notre Dame, eating take away crepes (ham and cheese for dinner, then Nutella and a caramel one for dessert) with my little family. 

 Highlight number two - buying Finley her first purse.  We let her play with it for a little while, then remembered how she throws things out of the stroller when we aren't looking, so we had to put it away, but she got it right over her arm.  (See previous post for last sighting of cute pink flowered hat.  It's somewhere on the streets of Paris.)

 

When it starts to get dark, the street entertainers come out and set up shop.  We threw a Euro into this guy's hat, so he let Will come and help him make giant bubbles.  Will was the envy of all the kids around, and it was so cool to watch, and see how much fun Will had. 

 

Part of our hotel deal came with a boat ride on the Seine, and we enjoyed the sunny day and some great photo ops.  It is still my pet peeve that when you ask someone to take your picture in front of some tourist sight that they don't realize that it would be nice to get as much of the icon as possible, and less us, but I guess you can still tell it's the Eiffel Tower.

 

 

 

 After almost getting squished by the doors of the metro, and Nate having to haul the stroller up a few different flights of stairs to escape the tunnels, we decided to try the BateauBus - a water taxi of sorts that stopped at 8 major places throughout the city, all near the river, of course.  We thought Will would like riding the boat, and that it might be easier to deal with the stroller, but it was pretty slow, and he got bored, plus we had to make a couple of emergency potty runs while they waited at a stop or two.  Thank goodness for trees and boys...  Gross I know, but you do what you have to when your kid is three and 3 weeks out of diapers.  We did get some amazing views and pictures on our evening rides though.

 Our hotel was about a 10 minute walk from the Champs d'Elysee so we walked up and down it a few times - it was really cool (and long).  Not to be arrogant, but we were one of the biggest attractions in Paris, and when I say we, I mean our double stroller with two cute kids inside.  Everywhere we went, people oohed and aahhed and pointed and smiled (and I'm really not exaggerating) at our mode of child transport. 

On our second day, we explored the fruit market and little shops near our hotel, and then headed down the river to the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle. and their menagerie.  The live animals came first, and again, by the time we got to the museum, it was 10 minutes before they closed, so we couldn't get in.  It looked really cool so we were bummed that we hadn't headed there first, but I guess if you've seen one stuffed elephant and giraffe and zebra and tiger and super cool looking whale skeleton, you've seen them all.  That's all we could see from the ropes:(  But we saw a few animals in the menagerie, and Will got to ride a baby hippo and sit in the mouth of a mama hippo so that was cool.

 

 

I really wanted one more crepe, so Nate went out hunting after we got back to our hotel, but everything was closed, so he settled for some Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream.  We were all happy with his choice.  Yes, I am sucking on a huge chunk of frozen cookie dough:) and yes, we ate the whole thing - what choice did we have?  There was no freezer in our room, and we were leaving the next morning.  Finley definitely ate her share too...

Hotel Villa Allessandra worked out pretty well for us - our room was pretty cramped with a big bed, a rollaway and a large portacrib, but it was very French.  Will loved waking up the birds - and anyone else who was still sleeping as he yelled out the window. 

 

Last year when we got back to Dubai after the summer, I admit I shed a few tears as we walked forever through the airport to get our luggage, but this year, even though I was sad to leave my family and America, it was nice to get out of the airport (after we dealt with our lost stroller that Air France left in Paris), and drive through familiar streets to our new apartment.  Calista came before we got home and cleaned and washed all our sheets, and she even bought us a few groceries.  So it was good to get back, and sleep in our own comfy bed and unpack our many suitcases.  We have trips to Kiev, Ukraine and Malaga, Spain already booked for October and December so stay tuned for more travel adventures - hopefully with less drama!