Paris in the winter time!

Well, forget settling in, we decide to go on vacation. We pack from our suitcases which we have now been living out of for 5 weeks. My poor kids look like they never change clothes, but really they do. Since they are wearing their uniform pants from home of which they had a few pair of same pants, in each photo it looks like: same pants, 1 of 5 shirts, same coat, same shoes. I laugh at our pictures - they all look exactly the same. I digress - we went to Paris over the mid term school break. It was a fun trip. Since many of you have been there and know the basics, I'll just fill you in on a few funny things.

- to start our journey off with a bang, L gets on the train and no more than 15 minutes later is throwing up while standing in the middle of a commuter packed train. Just what every commuter wants to deal with. It wasnt pretty, but he recovered and we continued on.

- Eurostar train ride to Paris was nice, except when your son has just been sick in the other train, it isnt a good situation for a 2.5 hr trip to be flying down the track in seats that face backwards. Actually, He made the trip ok other than getting mad at me for asking him how he was feeling over and over.

-15 minutes in Paris, I am stuck in the turnstile entering the Metro. It was a funny sight. Tried to take my suitcase through turnstile, not understanding that the little slide-through on the side was for luggage. I thought I couldn't read French signs, come to find out, it was a very legible picture that DA read just fine. There is about 1 foot between the turnstile and a gate you push through. Bag was tangled up and I missed the 2 second window to push through gate - it's a timed thing. I was stuck between the two. Had to crawl on my knees back under turnstile and go back to ticket counter cause my ticket wouldnt work again since I hadn't actually come out through the exit. Yes, I embarrassed my fellow Americans (and children), but finally got through.

- you know the tiny apartment we were leaving behind in Surrey, well we hadn't seen anything yet. The hotel room was TINY. We could sit forward on the toilet, but you could touch the toilet from the bed and touch every wall too. room was about 2 feet bigger than a double size bed. Kids had to stay in separate (and not connecting) room. B not too sure about that. L loved it.

- shock to the children - all TV shows are in French! And once again, only 4 channels.

- shock to the parents - you have to pay a fee everyday the TV is turned on. Lovely.

- another shock - all the statues, and there are hundreds of statues in Paris, are of naked people. Come on. I know Napoleon didnt go to war wearing his armour while naked. that is crazy. but statue after statue after statue - naked men and women. Interesting trip when your 11! B even got an education.

- under no circumstances should you walk your family from the beautiful Sacre-Cour church to the Moulin Rouge. It is through a red light district. didnt really realize what the Moulin Rouge was, I guess. more education for the kids.

- Night time boat trip down the Seine River at night to see the city of lights, beautiful! But B missed it, she fell sound asleep after 5 minutes. had to walk about 1/2 mile to metro and take 3 trains to return to hotel. DA had to carry her the whole way back. Next time, we'll go during the daylight hours.

-tried to go to restaraunt on Valentine's evening for dessert and coffee. We had eaten earlier in the day expecting large crowds at dinner. We were actually told they would not serve us after we had already been seated at the table. It was 8:30pm and 6 tables out of 50 were full, but they were going to be "too busy" to allow us to just have dessert. Hope their dinner crowd finally arrived. In case you're wondering, we enjoyed our candy bar dessert and water just fine in our hotel room. So much for fine French Cuisine!

-yes, the snow globe you searched for in every cheap souvenir shop for hours will break when dropped. We made a wonderful deposit of glitter in the Louvre metro station. Surprise, surprise there was another souvenir shop just above ground that happened to have an exact snow globe to replace it. Tears dried and for only 5 euro!

- and finally to cap off our journey, the local train to our town was out of service for the day, so they put us on a BUS. We knew we were in trouble when what normally is 3 minutes on the train takes us 40 minutes on bus. After 1 hour and only 3 stops met (ours was #10). we hopped off and hailed a cab. No matter what the cost! We only had Euro in our pockets, but thanks to our shiny new ATM card, we could get money from ATM and pay the cab driver. Whew.

-Think that's it? not yet. perfect week finished with B deciding she would run away so she could go back home. She even packed a map in her bag so she could find her way. I think it was too soon for her to go on vacation!

The kids in front of Notre Dame.

Logan having a conversation at the Louvre.

The kids just before going to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

B in front of the Arc de Triomphe