Paris - Day Four - Saint Sulpice

Sunday was our last day in Paris, and our train didn't leave until late in the afternoon, so we squeezed in a few more things.

We started the morning with mass at Saint Sulpice.  This church was featured in The Da Vinci Code.  The Rose Line (I SAW IT) runs right through the center of the altar.  They also have a fairly famous organist, who gives concerts after mass, and allows you up into the organ loft for look see. 

The girls were angels in mass.  Maybe they liked it better in French?  I'm not sure, but they were great.  We received several compliments.  It was funny to look around and spy all of the Rick Steves or English language guide books during mass.  After mass, we listened to the concert, and then Matt and Grace stood in line to go up into the loft while I chased Audrey around.  It took quite awhile, so I had to eventually take her outside, as the next mass was starting.  There were a few homeless people camped out in front of the doors of the church, and Audrey like going up to them and sitting down with them.  It was quite a sight, as I tried to politely shoo her away.  It was a yucky rainy day, so we tried to stay out of the rain while we waited.....

Finally, Matt and Grace were done.  I think Matt was glad he got to go up and see.  But sadly, the pictures didn't turn out that well.  He didn't want to use the flash up there, and so they are dark.

Afterwards, we ducked into a little sidewalk cafe while Audrey snoozed and had some lunch.  I think it was my favorite lunch of the whole trip.  It was just little open faced sandwiches, but so delicious!

We then headed back to our hotel, packed up and got on our train for Brussels.  It's only a little over an hour train ride!  We had only bought seats for Matt and I, but on both legs we were kindly moved to seats for 4!  On the way home, we even had our own enclosed cabin.  Which was perfect.  We just let the girls loose.

Here is the last album of pictures from Paris.  Day four pictures.  4 days and 300+ pictures.  We had a really nice time.  I think we surprised ourselves.  We didn't think it would be easy and/or fun with two toddlers, but it worked out perfectly.

Paris - Day Three - Le Tour Eiffel

On Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to head to the Eiffel Tower.  It was a grey and drizzly day.  :(  But oh well....

We took the bus to Trocadero Square, and this is the view we were greeted with!

Of course I wanted the girls picture, and FORTUNATELY, we got one with a cooperative Audrey.

We walked over to get in line to go up.  I think it opens at 9:30am on Saturdays, and we were definitely in line by then.  We didn't have to wait too long.  Here is a shot of the line, and the machine gun armed military patrolling it. 

 Probably less then an hour before we were on our way up.  We only opted to go to the 2nd floor.  Supposedly the views are the best from the second floor anyway.

The views were pretty incredible.  Here's the shot featured in European Vacation where Rusty threw his beret off and the dog jumped...... notice all the brides walking across the grass..... it was a big bridal portrait weekend.  We saw them at every major site.

We eventually made our way down.  And as we were walking away, Audrey proceeded to throw a HUGE temper tantrum.  She hates the baby carrier.  So I was letting her walk for awhile before throwing her back in the stroller.  I was holding her hand, but let go to take some pictures.  And I don't know what about that set her off, but she just threw herself down on the ground, writhing around, screaming for all to see.....  I am trying to ignore her when she does stuff like this because I know she is just doing it for attention but I was getting some seriously dirty looks.  So I bent down to pick her up and the camera around my neck swung and hit her square in the mouth.  So the Level 3 temper tantrum quickly escalated to Level 5.  And I felt like one completely horrible Mama.  And then it started pouring.....   it was just ugly.  We quickly decided to do a Seine River boat cruise at this point to get in from the rain - it's an enclosed glass boat.   We grabbed some lunch beforehand.  And fortunately, Audrey finally calmed down to eat.  I think Matt and I had grand plans for both girls to nap on the boat.....but oh no!  That was not going to happen!

The boat cruise is probably money better spent to START your introduction to Paris, but it worked just fine for us.  An hour sitting out of the rain, cruising along looking at beautiful buildings and listening to the tour worked out fine. 

And then amazingly after the cruise, it stopped raining.  So we decided to stroll the Champs-Elysees. 

Hello Arc de Triomphe.

Hello, Obelisk.

Hello, Mr. Blinding Sunshine!

And then we were back at the Tuileries Gardens again....just on the other side, and Matt found this perfect picture taking spot....

Daddy and his girls....

And a sneak peak at what will most likely be featured on this years Christmas card.....

Sorry to ruin the surprise.  But I couldn't do this post without this picture.  It may even become my new blog picture in the header.

We finished off a long day eating dinner at a sidewalk cafe near our apartment.

Here is a link to all of the pictures from Eiffel Tower Day in Paris:  Day Three Pics

Paris - Day Two - A Rick Steves Walk

We are big Rick Steves fans.  We use his books wherever we go in Europe, and love his style and recommendations. His books usually include a walk to familiarize yourself with the area and see the big sites.  He also takes you off the beaten path a bit to see how the locals live.  So on Friday, we started our day with his Paris walk.  We caught the #80 bus from our apartment and headed down to Notre Dame.  The bus dropped us off along the bank of the Seine river.

Here is Notre Dame peaking out on the left hand side....

And looking behind us, you could see the Eiffel Tower.

Notre Dame

One of the Rose Windows

After viewing the inside, we stopped at the park to let the girls play a bit and for Daddy to get our next stops lined up....

Please also notice our rigged up "double stroller".  Grace walks most of the time now, but just in case, we wanted to have another stroller with us.... so we piggybacked it onto the one Audrey rode in.

Up close

One last shot of Notre Dame (don't worry - the album is LOADED with tons more!!), before we head on....

After we left Notre Dame, we made a quick visit to the Deportation Memorial, viewed Ile St. Louis, from afar, and walked through the Latin Quarter, before finding a nice place for lunch.

 After lunch we went to Sainte-Chappelle. The bottom floor is all painted....

And upstairs, where the royals worshiped, it was beautiful stained glass.....

My big girl tourist going down the stairs....

And our sleeping tourist....

After Sainte-Chapelle, we headed back over the bridge, and got another great shot of the Eiffel Tower....

And then we headed over to the Louvre.  We knew going in would not work this visit with our two little tourists.  But it's still a landmark worth seeing.

Afterwards, we walked a little bit further along, and came to the Tuileries Gardens.  Grace was doing really well posing for pictures....

 Audrey? Not so much....

We finished the day off with a visit to Luxembourg Gardens for more playground fun....

For all of our pictures from Day 2 in Paris, click the link:  A Walk Through Paris

Paris - Day One - Montmartre

Last Thursday we traveled by high speed train to Paris.  Grace had two days off of school, so wanted to make the most of our time.  The train ride is less then an hour and a half.

We found a small apartment in the Montmartre area of Paris, in the 18th Arrondissement.  Paris is broken into different numbered areas.

We were literally 3 blocks from Sacre Coeur, so we started our Paris visit there.  Sacre Coeur is the highest point in Paris.

And along with the highest point comes a lot of steps! We skipped the steps with a trip up the Funiculaire.

But even after that ride up, we still had a lot of stairs to climb.... you can see Matt huffing it up with a stroller!

To read up on Sacre Coeur, visit the Wikipedia entry here:  Sacre Coeur  It was really beautiful inside, but you're not allowed to take pictures on the interior.  We also opted to skip the views from the Dome with two little ones in tow.  But the view from the steps is impressive anyway.  Even more so on a beautiful day, I imagine.

Our girls

Here is a shot of the famous steps....

 At the bottom of the hill was a beautiful, old double decker Merry Go Round, which the girls enjoyed.

 

 

After a spin on the Merry Go Round, and some pigeon chasing in the square, we walked around the Montmartre area awhile before finding a place for dinner.  Here is my tour guide finding all the important things to see and do:

Here is a link to all of the pictures from our first day in Paris:  Day One - Montmartre

Audrey

Audrey, Audrey, Audrey......

She is going to test EVERY limit.  Please note the pile of fish food on top of the cabinet, and on the front of her shirt.  She pushed the chair up to the cabinet to feed the fishies herself.


The other night after dinner we were sitting in the living room talking/playing, and I looked up and Audrey wasn't around.  I called for her, and then looked for her.  No where to be found.  And then I heard the pitter patter of feet UPSTAIRS.  She decided to go on up to bed.  We usually keep the doors closed to the stairs, but I guess we forgot.

Today, I went in to get her after nap, and she was lifting her leg up over the rail of her crib.  It doesn't go much lower!  And I'm not ready for her to be in a bed.  A crib tent is an option, I guess....but so pricey!!!

I wish I had been more easy going about Grace NOT moving.  This is karma.

Orval

While we live in Belgium we hope to visit all of the Trappist Breweries. A Trappist beer is one that is brewed in self sustaining abbey by monks that maintain strict adherence to fundamental brewing rules. Of the only seven Trappist Breweries in the world, six of them are in Belgium (the 7th is in the Netherlands); they are Achel, Westvleteren, Orval, Rochefort, Chimay, and Westmalle.

 One weekend in September we went to the Orval monastery to tour the brewery. It is open only ONE weekend every year and we made reservations in May to hold our spot. I was lucky to stumble upon a fabulous blog a girl did detailing all the things she did while in Belgium, and this was one of them.  I luckily stumbled upon it in time to make the reservation!  Thanks to her for the photo and description above! (She's from Atlanta, so maybe we'll run into each other some day.....and I want to make sure I give her proper credit!)

Orval is located in the southwest tip of Belgium, very near Luxembourg and France. We thought we might be able to tackle Bastogne (Battle of the Bulge) while we were down there.....and we thought wrong!  This was an all day event, between the time it took to get there, tour the brewery, eat lunch, and tour the abbey.

The monastery grounds were breathtaking. It cost us nothing to make the reservation and tour the place. We reserved 4 tickets, so we invited Maureen and Jacob to join us.  The girls (Grace, Audrey and Autumn didn't need tickets!) 

They even provided beer (OJ or water for the girls) and cheese at the end of the tour with souvenir Orval bottle openers.

 

 This type of independent self-guided tour would never be allowed to take place in the United States. We were free to wander and get up close and personal with the factory inner-workings.  We were inches away from the bottles whizzing by. 

 We even saw the glue oozing out of the label machine. We were all a little in awe, especially since we've all been in Breweries before and have never been so close.  If someone sneezed, it would have been bottled!!

My camera ran out of juice while we were looking at the abbey, but of course Maureen got some wonderful shots you can check out over at her blog:  Orval Brewery & Abbey

Here are a few that I was able to get: