Paris

I have to give myself a lot of time for this blog post...The last week was another packed adventure - this time in Paris with friends and family. If you were to ask me right now what we did, I'd honestly have to look back at the pictures each day to remember everything. Is there a word that that means even busier than busy? That would sum it up! 

We learned a fun saying from Nancy Roesner, "Traveler's roulette." When on a trip, especially in Europe, you never know what you're going to get! Let's just say we had several rounds of traveler's roulette in Paris 😂

Our journey to the city of lights begins with Maggie and me taking the train from Toulouse (4.5 hours) to Paris on Wednesday, April 10th to meet Jodee and Avery. Jodee found us the cutest airbnb in the 9th arr. We met at our place within 5 minutes of each other on Wednesday afternoon. Jodee and Avery had come off a LONG travel day from Denver with a connecting flight through Iceland. Lucky for us, they were game to hit the pavement and keep going!

Reunited and it feels so good!!

The obligatory croissant the moment you get to Paris

Metro riding

Walking the Camps Elysses...so much to catch up on!

Louis Vuitton Hotel! 

Bonjour Acr De Triumph

Pizza Dinner 

Cute cafe on the square next to our Airbnb

Looking out the window of Airbnb

Jodee and I both woke up the next morning raving about the smells wafting up to us from the boulangerie below! Jodee said she smelled the bakery starting at 2:30am! Nothing like the gentle wafts of french butter baking coming in your bedroom window to truly make you feel like you're in Paris. It was tres magnifique! 

The next morning we leisurely planned our day over some cafe and croissants in the morning. Then it was out the door for our next adventure - a walk to Montmatre and Sacre Coeur. 

Maggie and Avery had fun putting a lock on the fence, and we enjoyed seeing all the street art and artists. Sitting down to a lovely lunch on the square felt like something out of a movie - it was all so picturesque. 

Standing in front of the Airbnb

Montmatre

Sacre Coeur

Thousands, maybe millions, of locks

Placing there lock...

...and...

Voila!!

Lunch spot 

Hello Eiffel Tower

Photo dump of Street art and the Streets of Montmatre - Tres mignon and genial!

Time to walk back to the Airbnb and get changed for our 5:30pm Musee D'orsay reservation and our dinner!

A QUICK change - no time to shower - or sit - and we were back out! 

A few of my favorites from the D'orsay:

We had some time to kill after the museum, so we wandered toward Saint Germain where our dinner reservation was and found a cafe to have a pre-dinner bevi. 

Dinner at L'Atelier Rouliere

French onion soup and Escargot

Cheers to the snails

Slippery Suckers

Canard, of course

Maggie and Avery sipping wine; it's not for them - lol

Cheese cake and...

Creme Brulee (Maggie's #1 fav.)

Madame avec cafe au lait 

French dinner - Check! Hmmm...it's 10:30pm, what should we do? Oh, I know, go see The Eiffel Tower lit up at night! 

And that's a wrap on day 2, now let's see what time our bike ride in Versailles leaves tomorrow. This is when we realized (at 12:30am), that our bike tour in Versailles wasn't actually "tomorrow" but the next day (Saturday). And, honestly, thank goodness because we appreciated being able to sleep in the next day! 

Day 3...These girls want to SHOP! We first walked to Le Marais and explored some cute stores around that neighborhood, and we grabbed lunch at the cutest cafe there. 

Lunch at Cafe Janine:

House made lemonade

Avocado toast with salmon

The infamous ouef mayo!

Now on to MANGO - my most favorite of all favorites. I don't know if it's because I'm nostalgic about Mango from when I lived in Spain, but I always have luck finding the cutest clothes there; Bonus, they have cropped length jeans so both Maggie and I can find pants that aren't too long there! 

We took a quick rest in front of the Hotel Ville to figure our next move...which turned into a walk through Ile de la Cite, past Notre Dame, to The Shakespeare Bookstore, and finally (kind of) riding back home on the metro (It broke down part way home). 

They're getting ready for the Olympics

Notre Dame

Shakespeare Bookstore 

About three stops in on our thirteen stop metro ride, someone pulled the emergency brake. The metro stopped and wasn't going to start up for at least 30 minutes. We decided we could handle the 30 minute walk home - as long we stopped half way for a refreshment to get us back! 

Mini Arc de Triumph??

Nonstop with the .5 forehead pics - I'm too old to get it, lol. 

Our feet hurt, but this Orangina is helping

A quick stop at the boulangerie for baguettes and the grocery store for all things delicious (French butter, cheese, produce and dessert), then we were back at the Airbnb. The girls immediately got in comfy clothes and Jodee and I headed to one of the local bar/restaurants, Doppio, for some much needed adult catch up time over some Aperol Spritzes. 

Midway through drinks, we had a special guest appearance by ANNIE!!! Annie, Nancy, and Gigi had just arrived that morning to Paris, and Annie, living her best life, was able to get la grand-mere and la fille au lit, then sneak out to meet us!  

Maggie got this pic of us from the Airbnb window...Our reaction when Annie is getting out of her Uber

We finished the night back up at the Airbnb with Annie and the girls, a bottle of red wine and indulging in baguettes with butter and cheese. All of a sudden, it's after midnight...Annie better get home and we need to get to bed for our 6:30am wake-up call to get to our train for Versailles the next morning. 

Day 4 - VERSAILLES!!

What a day we had - I better start at the beginning. Here's a timeline...

6:45am - wake-up and get packed / check out of the airbnb

7:45am - get in an uber to our Nannybag location (a mini market to store our luggage for the day while in Versaille)

8:00am - arrive at Nannybag location to find it closed

8:05am - message Nannybag, no response

8:10am - decide to walk with luggage to our meeting spot for Versailles tour in front of Starbucks at Saint Lazare Train station

8:15am - Jodee takes kids in to get drinks and Starbucks

8:20am - Maggie starts to panic that her stomach hurts and there's no bathroom in site

8:21am - The guides are trying to help us figure out a plan for our luggage...there are no lockers in the train station

8:25am - Sarah runs to closest hotel to see if they will hold our luggage for us - that's a negative

8:30am - Tickets for train are passed out, the decision is made to take our luggage on the train to Versailles and figure out a plan for it once we are there. (as a backup plan, they can keep our luggage in the bike storage, but after our bike ride we would have all of our stuff which we can't bring into the palace). 

8:35am - Go to board train, Jodee's luggage tips on the curb and she spills coffee 

8:45am - Train pulls out for Versailles - Maggie thinks she's gonna puke; there's no bathroom on this train. I open my luggage and find her a plastic bag. 

8:50am - The train "police" come through and fine one of the tourists in our group for using the wrong ticket to get on the train. There is a lot of arguing and our guide gets involved. At one point the "train police" threaten to charge him even more of a fine because they saw Maggie or Avery put their feet up on a train seat, for just one second, which is NOT allowed! 

8:55am - Maggie moves to sit by me, tears start coming, she feels very sick to her stomach...only 15 minutes more till we arrive in Versailles...Hang in there Maggie. 

9:15am - We arrive in Versailles and drag our bags for fifteen minutes to the plaza in the town center and covered market. On the way, our guide thinks up a plan for storing our luggage. He is friendly with the people at a local cafe and he will see if they will store our bags. 

9:30am - I run Maggie into a local cafe and she gets to use the bathroom...She's starting to feel a little better

9:45am - We catch up with the group and Voila - The cafe has agreed to hold our bags! We go to the cafe and they take us to a separate locked entrance and room where they must hold private parties. 

9:50am - Baggage has been ditched! Time to hit the covered market to shop for our picnic lunch - Rose, side salads, and sandwiches. 

10:00am - Sit and have a cup of coffee to relax before starting our bike ride; take several deep breaths. Maggie's stomach has righted itself, the luggage fiasco has been handled, and we have a lovely bottle of rose ready for our picnic lunch. 

Teamwork makes the dream work

Working together to get the ball in the hole a the top

So french

The rest of the day is simply magical! We started by getting on our blue bikes and putting our stuff in the saddlebags on the bikes before we took off. Irving guided us through the city into the gardens and grounds of Versailles. The weather was AMAZING and the girls had the best time riding the bikes. All of the bikes had fun names. Mine was "Christian Dior" and Avery's was "Let them eat cake!" We would leisurely bike, and then stop for Irving to give us some history about all the kings and Versailles. It was all really interesting and a perfect mix of biking and stopping. 

We eventually got to stop for our picnic lunch - which was right near where they are setting up for the equestrian competition in the Olympics.  Lunch was great and then we were ready to continue our tour. 

The palace is way, way back there behind us

Crew teams practicing on The Grand Canal (it's in the shape of a cross)

Picnic lunch! 

After lunch, the bike tour continued to the Grand Trianon (a much smaller palace than the gigantic one), but an important place where the prime minister still conducts meetings. Then, it was on to the Petit Trianon and Marie Antoinette's Hamlet "peasant styled village" that was built for her in 1783. She didn't like living in the grandiose palace, so she spent 14 years in her "peasant village" living and raising her kids there. It was a highlight of the day, and I wish we had had more time here! I would HIGHLY recommend spending a day exploring the grounds of Versailles. 

Marie Antoinette's Hamlet 

A beautiful day for biking on blue bikes! 

Irving, our guide

Flashback to the morning; getting our biking legs warmed up

After our full day of biking around the grounds of Versailles, we rode back into the town to return our bikes. At this point our guide walked us up to the actual palace at Versailles (it has 2,300 rooms!). When we approached the entrance, Jodee realized she left her phone back on her bike in the raincoat holder - oops! Luckily our sweet guide was able to walk her back to the bike storage and she located her phone right away!

The palace was huge and one room looked like the next after awhile. We were all pretty wiped by this time in the day, so we booked it strait to the infamous Hall of Mirrors and decided that was enough for us to see in the palace. 

Golden roof

Hall of Mirrors

Beaucoup decor, gold, and crystal

Forever memories with my girl

6:00pm - back on the train to Paris after retrieving our luggage from the cafe in Versailles. We make it to our new Airbnb and meet Jay and Finn! Now we are staying in Le Marais in the 2nd/3rd arr. We have about 10 minutes to get changed for dinner and Annie, Nancy, and Gigi come meet us at our place. Us adults say au revoir to the kids and head to our dinner reservation at Ober Mama. Jay and I dashed ahead to get to the restaurant because we were running tres late...we get there and find that I had made the reservation for the following night, not the 13th, and they were fully booked-oops again! Time to rearrange the plan - Nancy saves the day! She calls the French restaurant that they are supposed to eat at the following night and gets us booked at the very last table outside. All is well, and we ended up having an AMAZING dinner! 

*Bonus: Annie, Nancy, and Gigi took our reservation for Ober Mama on the following night and all was righted in the world :) 

Wine chosen by taking a "this-or-that quiz" with the sommelier/waiter/owner

Jodee, Nancy, and Annie - mixing of my worlds in the best way! 

Escargot - you can eat the "shells"

La carte

Day 5 - April 14th - Mama and Papa arrive!!

Kathy and Jim joined the Paris crew today! They landed early and were at the Airbnb by mid morning. I realized I had left my jewelry bag at the other Airbnb. Jodee was able to contact the host, and I was able to pick it up on Monday morning from a local bakery where the cleaning lady left if for me in a bag (I hate to admit, but this is not the first time I have left that jewelry bag behind and had to go back for it - oops! )

Almond Croissants on the menu for petit dejeuner 

We had fun waving hello to our neighbor across the street

We divided up today:

Jodee, Avery, Annie, Gigi, Maggie and I went to Tea and then to Candle Making.

A tout a l'heure

So happy you're here, Annie and Gigi..can't stop hugging you

Mariage Freres Tea room for brunch

The jam and butter, tres mignon

Scrambled eggs, shrimp salad, and smoked salmon

Blue chai tea 

The dessert

What even is this - so decadent! 

6 person uber to candle making at Etagere Cafe

Decisions, decisions...what to make

Prepping the wax

Heating, melting, and mixing

Ready for layer one 

The moms decided to make linocuts - something I never knew I would be doing, but loved

Stock photo from internet 

Focusing...

Back for more wax and colors

Thanks for arranging this, Annie and Gigi!

House chien

Ready to pour

Come on friends...

Jodee's Sardines! 

Meanwhile....Jay, Finn, Kathy, and Jim went to the Louvre, napped in a park, and walked the city 

Le Pompidou 

Notre Dame

I love this picture! 

Catching some zzzzz's

Louvre time! 

The Scream meets the Monet Lisa

Inside the Louvre

Looking out of the Louvre pyramid

We love this street name 

Dinner was with our respective families - we went to Chez Janou with Jay's parents - quite an experience!

Pastis Galore

The best part - the giant bowl of Chocolate Mousse

"Tell me when to stop"

Ready to dig in! It did not disappoint!

The millennials met back up later for a petite biere (or two) post dinners. As the bar closed down around 12:30am, Jay and I walked Jodee to her hotel around the corner and had another memorable experience. As Jodee likes to say, "We entered the twilight zone."

When we arrived at the hotel (aka the twilight zone) to check her in so many things happened all at once. First, as we were approaching the hotel entrance some man sleeping on a street cried out (was he creating a distraction?) Then, when we got into the hotel, the front desk attendant was a somewhat disgruntled, cross-eyed man. He asked for Jodee's passport, which was still back at our Airbnb, but in the process of her looking for the passport she realized her phone was gone!

Jay went back to the street to see if he could find her phone. In the meantime, I got a text from Jodee's phone saying, "I found this phone unlocked in the street. please let me know if you know whose it is and I can return it." Jodee ran out and found Jay and they found the guy "lurking in the shadows" who had her phone. She had just dropped it on the sidewalk...so we think, unless there was some very strange pick-pocketing happening. 

While all of this is happening, some obnoxious American women come down from their rooms to the front desk and start making a scene because there is no bottled water in their room. Cross-eyed desk attendant tells them to drink the tap water from their room, and they were NOT having it!  Eventually the guy just had us write down Jodee's name on a piece of paper and he checked her in no problem - sans passport. 

To top all of this off, I found Finn's polo shirt he had worn to dinner draped across the top of Jodee's suitcase mixed into the pile of her coats. She had accidentally grabbed it when gathering her clothes from our place. It was all too much, and we had lots and lots of laughs. 

Day 6 - April 15th - Jodee and Avery say goodbye :(

The morning was spent walking The Luxembourg Gardens...the day started out sunny but quickly got windy and the clouds started rolling in. 

Cute cafe we walked by on the daily

In the gardens

(paid) playground break in the gardens

From the gardens we wandered to an Italian restaurant for lunch in Saint Germain where we warmed up and had some delicious pizzas.

At 4:00pm we had reservations to go up to the 2nd floor in The Eiffel Tower. We met back up with the Petty/Roesner clan and headed up a packed elevator into the tower. As soon as we got out, it started pouring! The views were mostly clouded in and we took turns running out in the rain with the umbrellas. Even though the views weren't great, the memory of being on the Eiffel Tower in a storm is something we will never forget. The kids had a blast running laps in the rain and getting soaked. It was something! 

In the rain cloud

Annie and Nancy 

I got you Gigi

Let'g go!

Make a run for it! 

Don't forget to look up

We took the stairs down

Montmatre in the distance 

Dinner back at the Airbnb with Annie and family, plus all of us McMahon's. More good food, laughs, and wine!

The Apero

Hair braiding time

This pole provided endless entertainment for the kids

Day 6 - Catacombs, Le Procope, D'orsay, Shopping, Boat ride on the Seine, and Quick

Yes, those are real human remains 65 feet underground

Millions of Parisians were exhumed from graveyards and moved here in the 1700's

People didn't like the dead being so close to the living and worried about diseases

They dug up the graveyards that were in the city, next to where people were living

and moved the bones at night with clergy men blessing the process

Back to the land of the living; lunch at Le Procope.  The oldest cafe in Paris that opened in 1686. It even has one of Napoleon's hats. It was fancy and fun! 

French onion soup - to die for!

Pistachio ice cream sundae

Cafe with biscuit lid

Napoleon's hat

"If you want something done well, do it yourself"

Table for 9 

Cuties

Several games of telephone to keep the kids (and adults) entertained

Decor and ambiance - tres French

Nancy finally gets her Ile Flottante

Moist chocolate cake

Apres lunch...

D'orsay Part Deux (Jay, Finn, and Mama and Papa)

Looking out from D'orsay

La mere et le garcon

Three generations - une, deux, trois

Annie, Gigi, Maggie, Nancy, and I go shopping

Galleries Lafayette

One designer after the next 

Another quick break post shopping, then it was time for the night cruise on The Seine from Pont Neuf. Our one hour cruise was at 7:45pm. Yet another fun round of traveler's roulette was played. We got on our boat tour without problems. Annie and I hit the bar, first thing, to get Champagne for the adults and refreshments for the kids. 

The very unhappy bartender was making it very clear that he was mad at his boss...possibly because he hadn't shown up and the bartender was working alone?? His angst was our reward - we got double pours of champagne and free snacks. 

The boat departed on time, but maybe five minutes started to make a u-turn. There was no information being given, and before we knew it, we were docked back where we started. We basically followed the crowd and disembarked. We had two options - get reimbursed or wait for the next boat ride at 8:45pm. We chose the latter. We still don't know why the boat ride never made it - lol. 

There was a warm spot to sit inside and wait for the next boat while we finished our drinks. It all worked out fine, and we got to see Paris lit up at night - it was spectacular and a top activity of the trip! 

On y va! 

Twinning

Eiffel Tour in distance - such pretty lighting with clouds and setting sun

Kicked off boat number one - Champaign-hand photo bomb

But we don't care! WE'll finish our drinks and wait for the next boat

No boat ride, pas de problem

Boat ride on the Seine - take two! 

The city of lights, living up to its name

Bridges were so pretty lit up 

D'orsay

Avocado, avocado is the name of the game 

Notre Dame at night 

Paris from the Seine

Birthday twins 

French fast food - late night! 

Day 7 - Goodbye to Annie, Gigi, and Nancy. We take a private tour in Montmatre with Antoine, a local street artist. He was amazing and full of interesting facts and knowledge. 

Bell Tower at Sacre Couer

Avery and Maggie's lock!

Inside the cathedral

Antoinne's art - mixed animal species 

Artist's apartment with owl statues and spider web window

Another piece of Antoin'es art - hidden by shutters during the day 

An old short story of a man who could pass through walls, but one day lost his power midway through the wall 

Art in the city hall building - showing the air in Paris during the era of coal 

We thought maybe they were filming Emily in Paris, but it was just a commercial 

More Antoine art!

He won street artist of the year recently

Approaching Sacre Couer from the back - a great idea with less crowds

Sacre Couer 

Inside is all mosaics - no paint

ET 

Montmatre used to be the country side - here's someone's "country home"

Finn's dessert - two huge pieces of brioche French toast - he didn't know what he was getting into 

Post lunch nap time

The afternoon at Sainte-Chapelle - The most beautiful and stunning stained glass ever! over 1,100 stained glass windows with 15 glass panels and a giant "rose" window. The Chapelle was built to house the crown of thorns. 

And that's a wrap on Paris! Mama and Papa got on a train to Amsterdam the next morning and we headed back to Toulouse via Train. I'm not sure I've ever been so tired from a trip, but it was all SO WORTH it!