How Many Boobs Did You Count

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How Many Boobs Did You Count??

November 19, 2007

After a quiet week around the house in Rognonas, Justin and I left on the TGV for Paris Saturday November 10th. The ride up was so peaceful, forging through the French country side at 200 miles per hour. You never feel you are going that fast but Paris is 450 miles away and you are there in 2.5 hours. Sure beats the 8 hours drive we took back on October 1st. Justin really enjoyed being on the “bullet train” as we don’t have train travel in the US, really. It is a fun experience to zip across an entire country while relaxing with a good book.

We arrived at Gare de Lyon and metro-ed problem free to our “Paris apartment” to meet Becky and Gus. We were lucky to be able to stay there again. It is such a nice place and so conveniently located. It feels just like home to Justin and I. Unfortunately, the real owners have decided to sell it so we won’t have our little “pied a tier” in Paris for much longer. Bummer….I was getting use to this villa in the country and apartment in the city lifestyle. Becky and Gus arrived with little incident. I am so proud of them…they braved it and took the RER and Metro from DeGaulle to the apartment having never been to France before. No wimping out and taking a cab! They immediately graduated to World Class Traveler Status within the hour of arrival in France!!

Just in the door Justin and I were eager to show them our favorite city. I am sure they were exhausted and hoped to go to bed but no way…we dragged them off to see the Eiffel Tour, Champs de Mars and the shops of the Rue Cler. We had a nice meal and lots of catching up (everything revolves around nice meals in France….I do not get why the French are not huge) before we let them get some sleep. The next day we started off a full schedule of sightseeing. It was the Armistice holiday in France so to celebrate we started out tour of Paris at the Arc de Triomphe. It was all decked out in red, white and blue to celebrate the veterans of World War I. It was quite a site. We walked down the Champs-Elysees and took Gus to Justin’s favorite crepe stand in Paris. My kids love the crepes there and claim them to be the best in the city. Poor Becky and Gus…they had no idea how much they would have to walk. We somehow ended up on Ile de Cite and at Sainte Chapelle. Before visiting the church, we had the pleasure of checking out the Sunday bird market on the island. I had never been there before and it was cool to see all the animals the Parisians keep as pets, not just birds but ferrets, puppies, fish, bunnies, mice, and oh fun…rats! It took less than 5 minutes for both boys to start whining…”Could we get a fish? No! Could we get a bunny? No!! Could we get a ferret? No!!!“ Could you imagine it…a ferret! I think they are illegal in California. I guess after that 800 years of stained glass was just not up to par for the boys. They spent the entire visit at Sainte Chapelle in the gift shop. We ended our first full day in Paris with a nice Greek dinner. Becky is Greek and we always moan about the lack of Greek dining in the Bay Area so we took advantage of the Greek options in Paris.

Our second day in Paris found us at the Louvre. I couldn’t let Becky leave Paris without a visit to the world class museum as well as seeing the huge collection of Greek antiquities. We arrived and found ourselves in the French sculptures gallery. It took a total 4 minutes for both boys to be totally bored and start sliding cross all the smooth marble surfaces in this part of the museum. Seemed the French sculptures didn’t do much for them. So…how were we going to engage them in this feast of the senses….they are boys soon to be men right??? It came to me…we offered them a euro penny for every boob they spotted in the museum. They were to look at the art, find exposed boobs, keep track of what they saw, the number of boobs, and what their favorite were. They also were told they needed to be prepared to explain some of the art they saw….boobs or no boobs. This activity of appreciating the female body lasted 5 hours! We spent 5 glorious hours in the Louvre with well behaved interested little boys. By the time the museum was closing and we were out the door, Gus had found 840 boobs and Justin counted 700. He said he stopped at 700 as all he needed for his next purchase was 7 euros. Where is the entrepreneurial spirit my child??? Will need to work on that next! We ended the day with a night hike up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe…besides the cold, the views were gorgeous and the city of lights never looked better.

The next day we took Becky and Gus to the Catacombs and to visit Napoleon’s tomb and military museum at Invalides. Poor Gus, after traipsing through what seemed like miles of dark tunnels all of a sudden he was faced with piles of human bones on each side of him. He wasn’t quite expecting them to be so numerous or close. He turned around and walked away….no come back Gus…he did…and enjoyed the rest of the walk past millions of Parisians that met their final resting place under the city streets. None of us had been to Invalides before. It was amazing….so interesting. I have always skipped this wonderful French monument in the past due to ignorance about Napoleon and no interest in military history. That has been a huge mistake. It was extremely interesting. The collection of military artifacts is huge. The best part of the World War II collection. We definitely didn’t have enough time there. We were being rushed out with the closing bell snapping pictures all along the route. I hope we can go back some day and take our time in this part of the museum.

The next day brought us a little bit of trouble. The French rail workers were planning a day or 5 of strike against reforms sought by the new president. This includes the Metro, the RER, and the TVG…all forms of transportation we planned to take in the next few days. So Wednesday we started off on foot to Notre Dame. Three hours later, which included a lunch break, we made it there…just in time for it to close ½ hour later. We then walked the hour and half back through freezing weather after a quick coffee break at Starbucks…only my third in 6 months. We were really looking forward to taking the boys to Disneyland. Poor Gus was so excited…however the RER was not running and there was no trip to Disneyland. The weather was icy so we stayed close to the apartment. We walked through Champs de Mars. Looked up the middle of the Eiffel Tower and stopped at a café for lunch. The very Parisian waiter offered us the usual charm of indifference…but it was the Paris experience.

The most fun we ever had was our last day. (Read NOT!!!!) The boys throughout the week had been getting these little toys out of a vending machine at the corner store. One such toy was a parachute that they had sent down the stair well over the course of the week. Somehow that materialized into tying him up with string and sending him out the back window, to lowering the garbage out the window that day. The neighbors were not impressed with the skill of balance and steady hand this took as the bag was banging against their windows on its way down. There is some small blessing for neighbors that the apartment is being sold…we won’t be back! We finally get packed and ready to go and discover our metro station has no trains. We trudge with luggage and kids to the closest open station 20 minutes away and make our way back to Gare de Lyon to find our train canceled. We are told to take the next train, actually leaving before ours was scheduled. We had to stand for over 3 hours from Paris to Avignon. The train was so crowded. All the seats were reserved and all the displaced passengers were 5-6 deep in the ends of the cars, stairwells, luggage racks, and isles. It was miserable…thank god they served wine!! The kids sat in the cargo hold, thankfully out of everyone’s way.

We finally arrived in Avignon as we exited the train the icy mistrals whipped through our bodies. It was so cold and windy, none of us had ever felt such weather. It surely felt like Chicago must feel in January. We had to wait for Scott to pick us up and I stepped outside for a moment to see if he was there and Becky reported my hair blowing straight out…and freezing in that position for the next several minutes. It was nice to finally arrive at home and sit down in front of the blazing fire and sip a nice Cote du Rhone!

We really had a great time. We are so thankful for Becky and Gus coming to visit us, and for the week ahead in Provence. The adventures never seem to end!!!! Happy Thanksgiving to all a home!!!!! We miss you and hope you are all healthy and happy!!!

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Photos

Paris
Armistice Day Celebration

Paris
The Champs-Elysees

Paris
Hanging by the Acr

Paris
Loving these crepes

Paris
The bridges are great! Fun view of the city

Paris
The bird market at Ile de Cite.

Paris
We made it with minutes to spare!

Louvre
Having a Starbucks at the Louvre!! That just seems so wrong!

Paris
We can read those hieroglyphics.

Paris
See, I studied ancient Egypt!

Paris
The boob counters emerge!

Paris
A little break mid-way up the 300 steps of the Arc.

Paris
Gorgeous

Paris
Out in front of Crazy Horse. They really wanted to count boobs in here.

Paris
Cool

Paris
Mailing notes home!

Paris
Catching the lowered garbage

Paris
lowering the garbage down four stories

TGV.
We got kicked out of these seats.

TGV
We had a seat for 2 minutes.

TGV
Three hours like this. Not Fun!!!!