European Vacation Part 1: Paris

With the car packed to capacity we left on Monday morning 2 weeks ago headed for Paris. Our first stop: Giverny.

Kate at Monet's house.

At this moment I realized it would be a miracle if we got one good family photo. I will go ahead and tell you that it never happened.

Harry refused to walk so he got to ride in the backpack.

And he's off!

The Water Garden

Another attempt at a group photo.

I could have stayed there for hours but the children wanted no part of that so we headed to Paris.  They were troopers, though.  We did not stop at all to eat but they were content to eat from their lunchboxes and watch DVDs for the entire ride.

Our flat in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.

The stairs down to the bedroom were a little scary since there was no railing but thankfully the owner's supplied us with a baby gate. 

Kate and Harry slept in the living room on the pullout sofa.

Shortly after arriving in Paris, we were greeted by Cindi and Camille and then met up with John and Lucas for dinner.  We were lucky to have 2 days together inParis as well as Lucas and Camille providing babysitting so the adults could go out.  It was so much fun having them there.

Dinner at the creperie.  Harry was ecstatic that he was spending 2 whole days with his cousin Lucas.

Harry's favorite was the chocolate crepe of course.

Lucas was a good sport and gladly gave in to Harry's many requests for a shoulder ride.

On the Metro

At the Louvre

The Tuileries

Outside the Louvre

The Arc du Carrousel

View from the Ferris Wheel

Sacre Coeur in the distance

Another carousel ride

Lunch in the Tuileries

Concorde

Concorde

Walking the Champs-Elysees

Le Grande Palais

Invalides

Enjoying pastries from Laduree 

Arc de Triomphe.  If you look closely enough you can see Joseph's hair just behind Christopher's neck.

The kitchen in the apartment.

Playing on the Champs  de Mars

Unfortunately we did not make it to the top of the Eiffel Tower.  There were about 20 tour buses there and only one lift was working.  It would have taken all day and our group didn't have the stamina.

Kate and Harry were excited when they first spotted the Eiffel  Tower but were quickly distracted and more interested in the guy making huge bubbles for change.

No trip to Paris would be complete without a picnic on the Bateaux Mouche.

Notre Dame

Sante!

Nice faces.

Joseph loves his cousin Camille. 

This is real life. Diaper Change in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Carousel on the Champs De Mars.   

It was a manually cranked carousel.

The children were given sticks and tried to collect as many rings as they could as they went around.

Harry was disappointed with his tally and cried on his second go round.

Jardin du Luxembourg

One of many picnics.  Christopher is very happy and content in this picture.  There is some backstory here that I should explain.  When we left the house on Monday I noticed that the car was not accelerating properly and had no pick up when I floored it.  Like the British we kept calm and carried on and decided we would take it to the dealership in Paris, which we did.  So we dropped it off and waited for the call which came right after this picture was taken.  The repair shop told us that our car would cost 4000 euros to fix and wouldn't be ready until Tuesday.  This was too bad since were were scheduled to leave on Saturday.

Joseph's favorite thing to do was chase the pigeons.

Breakfast before taking the bus to Versailles.

Since we didn't have a car we took the bus to Versailles.  It was  a crowded ride and we stood the whole 45 minutes but it was  cheap and direct.

The gardens were beautiful

This is the closest I got to everyone looking at the camera.  Good job, Kate.

Harry is hiding behind that trash can in protest because no one would carry him.

Christopher and the boys opted not to tour the Palace.  Kate and I were on our own.

Kate pointed out that there sure was a lot of gold in the palace.

The Hall of Mirrors

After a long day at Versailles we got back to the apartment and started our search for a rental car.  This was more challenging than usual as it was the big weekend when most of Paris goes on holiday.  Christopher finally found us a car that was large enough to hold all of us and our luggage and we continued our trip without delay while our car spent its holiday in Paris.  Our next stop:  Strasbourg.