Marvelous Adventures in Paris - Second Half of Friday

When last we met, I was regaling you with the story of the Louvre. What a hassle that outing turned out to be. But there is a silver lining to the nasty black cloud that hung over us that afternoon: Caleb discovered art. He had a wonderful time looking at the different paintings and talking to Uncle Alan about them. He and Alan were sitting together waiting for Audrey and me to come out of the loo and they were in front of some large paintings. Alan was kind of zoning out, but quickly came back to reality when he heard Caleb talking about baby Jesus. Caleb was looking at the painting directly in front of them which portrayed the nativity. Alan hadn’t even seen it. Then there was a portrait above that one that was of a man dressed in ancient Greek garb. For some reason, he either had some massively dark circles around his eyes or he had some sort of dark eyewear. Caleb decided he was a movie star from Jesus’ time.

About the artwork, Caleb says: I saw a picture with George and the dragon. George had already defeated the dragon because he was standing on the dragon’s head. It was cool. Mom bought me a book called “Tell Me a Picture” with famous pictures in it. I look at the pictures then we talk about what we see. My favorite picture is of George and the Dragon. (It’s actually of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, but I haven’t told him this yet).

He was with Alan for part of the time and they would talk about the different paintings. Apparently they saw one with Cupid in it and Caleb said that he was stabbing the chickens with his arrows. Alan told me this with a straight face.

So we have a budding art aficionado. Maybe. We’ll go to the National Gallery in London sometime and see what he thinks about what we see hanging there.

Now, back to our Friday in Paris. We got on the green bus line and went to Notre Dame. We were going to get off there and get on another bus line to see some sights to the south of the city center, so we decided that since we were off the bus we might as well go inside Notre Dame.

There were 2 things I loved about Notre Dame: the gargoyles outside and the breathtaking stained glass windows. Those gargoyles are so awesome! I didn’t know until just recently that they are rain spouts. How cool is that? I took some pictures that got as close as I could of those bad boys. I didn’t get any photos of the windows because you weren’t supposed to take flash pics inside the church. Anyway, the interior was huge. The word “lofty” comes to mind. We went inside and headed straight to the point where the long axis of the church crossed the short axis of the church so that we could see all 4 of the big beautiful windows. I got them on video, so we at least have that as a memento.

We walked around the perimeter of the interior, but so was everyone else. It was hot and uncomfortable, so we tried to get out as soon as we could. At least I was trying to with Caleb and Julie. Steve had Little Miss Axe Murderer with him.

After we looked around and were content to say that we were done there, we went back to the bus stop and waited for about 20 minutes for the next bus. We got on and headed upstairs. This bus took us past some of the newer buildings in Paris like the National Library. The library is interesting – it is comprised of 4 skyscrapers that are all L-shaped. It’s like they make the 4 corners of a square. The sides are all glass and we learned that they have an automated window blind system to control the temperature and light exposure to protect the books. That was interesting. We passed the new opera building, the new treasury building, the big event arena, and a few other places that I don’t remember.

When we were passing the site of the Bastille for the 2nd time, the driver stopped at a bus stop. No big deal. We’re used to stopping, so nobody noticed anything until the driver came up and told all the passengers to get off. Apparently his shift was over and he was taking the bus back to wherever the buses go for the night. It was only 4.30 or 5.00. It took all the passengers by surprise. At least we were at a bus stop that had a big bench. Audrey had another of her infamous pink hat tantrums here. It was cold and we wanted her to wear them, but she wanted to hold them. Actually she wanted to put the scarf and mittens inside the hat and then wear the hat. Problem with this is that with the stuff in the hat there’s no room for her head.

THE pink hat & accessories.

I’m not sure how the decision-making process went from this point since I was dealing with pink hat-induced melodrama, but we ended up going down into the Metro (their subway system) and catching a train back to the stop just outside our hotel.

At the hotel, we decided that Cindy, Steve, Lynette, Nancy (and Julie) would go out to eat and get some authentic French cuisine and Alan and I would take the kids to McDonald’s. I didn’t want French food – I just wanted to get LMAM (Little Miss….) fed and to bed. Caleb had been an absolute dream all day long, as had Julie. I think this was his best day ever. But to balance that, we had to have LMAM have her worst day ever. Anyway – to McDonald’s. Alan, Jarrett, & Connor were all pleasantly surprised to see the McFlurrys there and each enjoyed some ice cream after dinner, as did Caleb and I.

On the way back to the hotel (which was 6 doors down from the McDonald’s) we passed the restaurant where the others were eating. We popped inside long enough for me to eat a snail, gather up Julie, get both room keys, and leave Alan there.

All of the kids hung out in our room for a while, then I sent Connor and Jarrett down to Lynette’s room so I could get my kiddos to bed. The other adults came back and plans were made for the next day. Since Saturday in Paris was another misadventure in itself, I will save it for another posting.
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On to current stuff:
I took Julie for her 9-month pictures Friday. The place was wonderful and the photographer was good. She probably took between 100-150 pictures in the hour we were there. I’ll go back on Wednesday to see how much damage they’re going to do to Steve’s wallet. I’ll try to keep it as painless as possible, since we’ll be doing the big pictures when she’s 2.

After the pictures, I went home and picked up the rest of the family and we headed to a “fancy dress” shop – a costume store. We got a costume for Caleb and the finishing touches for Audrey’s costume. I seriously thought about getting a pink wig for me, but didn’t. I wanted Audrey to be a sheriff for Halloween because they had a little pink sheriff’s star and a pink and white set of holsters and revolvers. Plus pink cowboy hats. But she had other plans.