Day 10 – Au revoir Paris! Hello Detroit!

We got home today!!!

This morning we finished packing and then we took a train to the airport. It was a little crazy with all 7 of us and our suitcases, but it wasn’t as bad as last year when we had tons of suitcases!

Our plane left at about 2:00 (Paris time). I sat with Grace and we watched tons of movies on the plane, read magazines and played cards. It took about 9 hours to get to Detroit. It was only 5:00 in Detroit (but to us it was 11:00 at night!). Dad, Jacob & Carson were all waiting to pick us up! We were so happy to see them! Uncle Tim, Mitchell and Ben were there too.

When we got home we gave the boys their souveniers and they love them! Now we’re all going to bed early (because it’s the middle of the night to us).

This was such a cool trip and experience! It was a lot of fun and I know we’ll never forget all the wonderful things that we got to do. Thanks for reading our blog!!!

Love,
Maddie, Charlotte & Mom

Day 9 – Montmarte & Louvre

This morning we took the Metro up to Montmarte. It is a town up on a hill, when you stand at the top of it you are at the highest point in Paris and you have a great view of Paris below. There is a huge two story carousel that we were going to stop and rest at, but we just kept going. We walked and walked and walked up stairs to get to the top. We were too tired to count all the stairs! Charlotte insisted on climbing up all the stairs by herself…and she did! She kept stopping and when mom would ask if she could pick her up Charlotte would say “No, I’m not tired!” and she would keep going! At the very top is a huge white church called Sacre Couer. It’s made of stone that gets whiter and whiter when it rains. Montmarte is the town where a bunch of famous artists lived like Van Gogh, Renoir and others. It had lots of little streets filled with homes, shops and cafes.

We took the train to the Louvre, a huge art museum that used to be a French palace. We took a tour. We saw the famous Eyptian Sphinx (about 4,000 years old!) and two really famous huge marble Greek sculptures called Winged Victory and Venus de Milo. We also saw the famous painting Mona Lisa. It’s pretty small, and there are big crowds of people gathered all around it. It was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. We had paper and pencils so we could sketch the paintings and a bunch of people took pictures of Charlotte drawing…it was really cute. We saw other interesting paintings also.

There is a really nice shopping mall below the Louvre. We shopped for a while. My favorite stores were Esprit and Swatch. Swatch is a watch company…it has every single kind of watch you can imagine. Watches with big faces & small faces, plastic, leather & metal bands, and a lot of jewelry that match the watches. I had some spending money from babysitting and I bought the cutest watch there! The guy that helped us was so nice, he spoke French to us and English. He let us go in the back of the shop with him to see him size my watch and set the time. It was really fun!

We walked home all along the Seine River on the right bank, and then we crossed a bridge and walked on the left bank (we live on the left bank). We stopped at a restaurant and ate dinner. We had salade, pasta, poulet roti (roast chicken) and crème caramel for dessert. The food in France is sooooooo good!

When we got home we started packing. We were smart this year and only brought 1 suitcase, but we couldn’t fit our souvenirs! Luckily Aunt Beth lent us a bag. I have had so much fun and part of me doesn’t want to leave, but I also can’t wait to get home! I really, really miss my family & friends.

Bon nuit for the last time from Paris!

Day 8 – Notre Dame, St.Chapelle & Musee d’Orsay

We got out of the apartment this morning and walked across the bridge to Notre Dame, the famous church here in Paris. It’s where the hunchback of Notre Dame lived in Victor Hugo’s book. On the way to Notre Dame we ate croissants fresh from the boullangerie down the street…yummmmm! When we got there we went to the crypt. It had all these ancient walls that the Romans built underneath where the city is now. Then we waited in this looooooooonnnnggggg line (that went all the way down the street) to climb the Notre Dame tower. Finally we got in and we walked up a huge spiral staircase (almost 400 steps)! When we got to the top we saw a great view of Paris. We also saw tons of gargoyles, including the most famous gargoyle in the whole world!


Once we went outside there was a tree full of sparrows. We each took a piece of baguette and held it out and the little sparrows flew onto our hands and ate the bread right out of our fingers! It was so cool!


After that we got baguettes with meat and cheese and had a picnic in a playground next to Notre Dame.


Then we walked to Saint Chapelle, a church that was originally built to house Jesus Christ’s crown of thorns. It was really cool! It had an upstairs that was filled with stained glass windows covering the walls, with thousands of bible stories on them.

Then we hurried over to the Musee d’Orsay, an art museum nearby. We saw paintings and sculptures by Monet, Degas, Renoir, and Van Gogh. I absolutely LOVE Degas’ paintings & sculptures of the ballet dancers.

On the way back home we stopped by the boullangerie again to get croissants and bread. The baker found out my name is Madeline and gave me Madeleine cookies...he said “Madeleine pour Madeline!” I said "Merci Monsieur!" They tasted like sugar cookies.

Tonight we went for a big French dinner at a café here in the Latin Quarter. We ate onion soup, escargot (I love them – and even Christian & Grace tried them!), cheese fondue, beef fondue, and for dessert we got crème brulee and chocolate mousse. It was soooo good!
Now we’re winding down for bed. Tomorrow is our last full day here.

Bon nuit!

P.S. Mom, Charlotte & I all got super cute new shoes here! Here are Charlotte’s:

New photos posted! [& finding wireless in Paris]

After three days of searching for a wireless connection in our area, Lynn and I just found a local cafe with free wifi! Now we are forced to sit here at 11pm and drink red wine, eat cheese & baguettes, and work on our computers (while the kids are in bed at the flat with Aunty Beth)...poor us! Great news, I have just posted pictures to "Day 5" and I have posted Maddie's blog entries & photos for "Day 6" and "Day 7"! Enjoy! Did I mention, there's a live band playing...gotta go! Much love to everyone at home ~ Molly

Day 7 – Tuilleries gardens, Angelinas & l’Orangerie

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We walked to the Tuilleries gardens this morning, outside the Louvre. We played around for a while by the fountains and in the gardens

We went across the street to Angelina’s, which is famous for it’s hot chocolate…it doesn’t even have milk in it, it’s just melted chocolate!!! That’s what we ordered. We also got quiche Lorraine, crocque monsieur (ham & cheese), cheese & bread, salad, and toast & jam. The chocolate comes with a big glass of whipped cream. It was sooooo delicious and rich!


We crossed back over to the gardens and took two rides on a beautiful carousel. The horses had little mirrors and jewels all over them…they were so wonderful. Then we saw this area where kids were jumping on trampolines. We went over there…it said in English “Attention! Very springy carpets!” It was so funny. All of us kids took off our shoes and jumped and jumped, even Charlotte.

We walked down the gardens to the Musee de l’Orangerie. We saw huge wall sized paintings of Monet’s “Waterlillies”, my favorite!!! We also saw paintings by Renoir, Picasso, and other famous artists. We went outside and saw the Place de la Concorde, where the guillotines were during the French Revolution...ewwwww! Now there is a big Egyptian obelisk in that spot.

We took a long walk to the Opera Garnier, a huge beautiful opera house. There were fancy stores all along the way like Cartier, Tiffany, Chanel, and Repetto (a fancy French ballet store). Behind the opera house are huge buildings filled with stores called Galleries Lafayette. We got there just as they were closing, but we did get to go in one cool store.

Then it was the RER trains back home to our St. Michel stop, a quick stop at the boullangerie for croissants and baguettes for the morning, and something to eat, and now we are warm in our apartment on Rue de la Huchette.

Beaucoup d’amour (lots of love),
Maddie

Day 6 – Luxembourg Gardens & Eiffel Tower

This morning we slept in…hooray! My aunt Beth , Christian, and I went for a walk outside our apartment and got some souveniers. When we got back to the apartment we got ready to go for the day.

We took a train underground called RER to the Jardins du Luxembourg (Luxumborg Gardens), which is a huge park with a big playground, tennis and basketball courts, a marionette theater, a carousel, chess tables (there was a big chess tournament there), and places to eat.



First we all went to the playground (it was really BIG), while my cousin Christian went running. There was tons of cool playground equipment, like ropes that you could swing on. We ate lunch at the park. We got baguettes with fromage (cheese) and jambon (ham) inside. Then we went to a marionette show at the theater. We could not really understand the words because it was in French, but it was still fun. Then we walked over and watched some chess games. I watched a few rounds, but then it was time to go.

We walked over to St. Sulpice, an old church with an astrological clock in it. There was a cool band playing outside. We also walked to see the oldest church in Paris, St. Germain de Pres. They were both very big, and very beautiful with lots of statues and stained glass.

We took the Metro (that’s the subway in Paris) over to a street called Rue Cler. It has lots of little food shops and restaurants on it. We ate at a restaurant called Café Rousillion. We got a bunch of yummy stuff like a cheese platter, pasta, steak, salad and more. Then we walked to Champs du Mar, the park underneath the Eiffel Tower.

We were so excited to go to the Eiffel Tower. It was dark and when it turned 9:00pm the whole Eiffel Tower started sparkling! It was amazing!!! We went up all the way to the top level. We could see the lights all over Paris. While we were up there it turned 10:00 and the tower started sparkling again with us in it! We took the elevators down to the first level and then we took the steps all the way down to the ground…586 stairs!!!

We took the RER to our neighborhood. We got the most delicious ice cream (that tasted like Nutella) and came back to go to bed. Bon Soir!

Day 5 - Bonjour Paris!

Maddie: Today we got up and quickly packed up our things so we could catch the Eurostar train to Paris. The train was about 2 ½ hours long, but it felt like a million! My mom felt sick to her stomach and I was bored out of my head. Luckily I was sitting next to Grace, so we gave each other manicures. Aunt Beth kept Charlotte busy with stories and made up songs. We arrived in Paris at 2:30pm and caught a taxi to our apartment on Rue de la Huchette in the Latin Quarter. My mom spoke in French to different people, and had to speak in French to both taxi drivers (we couldn’t fit in one), and then at the apartment she taught us a bunch of French words like bonjour (hello), au revoir (goodbye), toilettes (guess what this means), pardon (excuse me) and je t’aime (I love you).

Our apartment is just around the corner from the apartment we stayed in last year. It’s a little bit bigger since we have more people this year. It has big windows going all the way up to the tall ceiling. We are on a busy street with lots of shops and restaurants. We are right across the Seine river from Notre Dame cathedral.

After unpacking and touring the apartment we went out to explore the neighborhood. We went to the boulangerie (bakery) and got baguettes, croissants, and pain au chocolat (it’s like a croissant with chocolate in the center). Outside we ordered crepes with chocolate…yummmmmm!


Then we walked to the grocery store Monoprix and got some stuff for the apartment. We came back and worked out the sleeping arrangements. There is a big loft bed, a bed underneath it, two window seat beds, and a futon bed. Grace and I voted to sleep in the loft bed, but Aunt Beth voted that we sleep by the window…we got outvoted. We were going to go out tonight, but everyone was so tired so instead we stayed in and took hot baths and made dinner here. We had pasta, tomatoes, baguettes, a big chunk of blue cheese and red wine (wine for the grownups) for dinner. Christian and I were forced to do all the dishes! It took us forever because we’re used to having a dishwasher. Now we’re turning out the lights for bed. I can’t wait for tomorrow!!!

Au revoir and bon nuit (goodbye and goodnight)!

Last look at London

Below are a bunch of pictures we thought were very London (mostly or all taken by Maddie). We also added a bunch of pictures to each of the days we have been here. Enjoy!