Versailles and good food and much walking

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We impressed ourselves with our ability to stay up most of day 1. So much so that we were a bit surprised on day 2 that the kids appeared to be in a suspended sleep state and could not be roused. Not even with promises of fresh baked goods. Mark and I left the kids sleeping (having told Nathan--we are going to the bakery, tell your sister if she asks). Turns out he was not really listening. She awoke to find us gone and was none too pleased. Fear not, she did recover.


We used Yelp to find a nearby bakery and with Mark's map reading talents, we were there with ease. Shelves lined with the most gorgeous pastries and breads. Loaves in perfect form, golden croissants, some with chocolate peeking out. We ordered 6 items and then I had to have a mini quiche too. Since we didn't have quite enough, we stopped at a second bakery for another treat for Nathan--to be fair the bakeries are right there on the streets and you can see through the windows and I can't prove it but I think they treats may be able to talk or at least send mental messages to people passing by. We could not help it. We had to buy that many things.


Upon returning to our apartment and making it up the 90 steps (Mark counted, and Nathan later confirmed) we were greeted by a surly Emily who demanded quite sternly that we NEVER LEAVE HER AGAIN. I tell you, she was un-wakeable when we left. Nathan didn't recall our conversation and didn't comfort her as we had hoped. He slept on.


Finally, the kids got up, they ate some of what was left of the treats (Mark and I didn't wait, obviously).We managed to get them to shower and dress and we hit the streets of Paris to seek out our adventure.
It's fun being out and about on a weekday when most people are off to work (Parisians dress to impress and I was impressed). We were heading to a train station to make our way to Versailles. Along the way, I was stopped by a woman and she asked me where to find Musée d'Orsay in French. At first I was going to shake my head and offer a shrug but then I realized we had just passed it and so I grunted and pointed toward the museum--pleased with the fact that I assumed she assumed I was local. Emily burst that bubble and said, no she probably just thought you were an experienced traveler. As if there was no way I could be mistaken for French! I still think I was right.


Funny thing about not speaking French. It reminds me of our first months in China. Odd grunts, and hand gestures. I am sure French people appreciate our hand gestures--they are afterall the people who brought the world the art of mime. People speak plenty of English here and we are followiing that general rule of asking if people speak English using French before rambling on in English. Works every time. I understand a lot more than I expected or recalled from my previous trips to France. Maybe I'm paying closer attention. I also have quite a bit of Spanish back in the recesses of my brain and it helps. Especially when reading signs and menus (Remember, I said helps. Funny story to follow).


The Trip to Versailles
Mark had wanted to get to Versailles early, but we didn't make it there until about 11:30. We bought 2 day museum passes which gave us entry to the Palace (Chateau) but we had to line up regardless. The passes do let you avoid some lines at some museums. The weather was quite warm, the sun quite bright but we had free wifi. Standing in that amazing courtyard with views of the estate through the golden gates, we wound back and forth about 6 times in a very civilized manner (with personal space to boot). I can't help but compare and contrast everything to China and this line would have been chaos and elbows out and people jumping in front in China. I did see someone attempt to enter the front of the line after we waited an hour, but the police officer/guard sent them to the right place and that was that.


The Palace was stunning and we did enjoy the incredible rooms, seeing the ornate artwork and the spectacular garden views from the large windows. The windows were opened and the breeze coming in felt refreshing as we mingled in rooms with many other warm and toasty tourists.


Mark had an agenda (we must see gardens!) and I tried my best to help him achieve it. The kids were getting really tired and we were hungry. We didn't bring my backpack into the Palace because I read the sign that said check your bags and thought I had to check my bag. I realized that the sign about no pictures was similarly ignored by all without consequence. Lesson learned.


We ended up in the gardens which were a separate fee beyond our passes but it was worth the extra Euros. Mark took the less than subtle hints and navigated us to a restaurant in the gardens. We dined on croque madame (for me, the madame), croque monsieur (for Mark, the monsier) and the kids had pasta and a burger (Emily the burger, Nathan the pasta to our surprise and yours too I'm sure). Croque madame, which is a ham and cheese sandwich made more fun with cheese toasted brown on top of the sandwich, is distinguished from it's male counterpart by having an egg on top. In this case, and perhaps all croque madame making cases, the egg was less than cooked at all. As in I think it was raw. I ate it. I am fine.

Back to town we went
We took the train back to the city and made our way home. Kids got some electronics time, Mark and I got some wine time. We looked up dinner options and had a funny moment when I (using Yelp) found the same restaurant as Mark, who had used Tripadvisor. Not only that, but I also found an alternative suggestion. I told Mark that we might consider my alternative find but it turned out that I had found the same restaurant Mark found and took us to on the first night. French restaurant names I can't pronounce tend to run together in my mind.


We were excited to see that you could book a reservation on Tripadvisor, but after feeling like it didn't quite work, I called (no easy task--had to set Skype profile to France and then was able to make it work). The only time we could book was for 9pm. This seemed ambitious considering the 11 miles we'd walked so far, but we went for it. The kids rallied and we marched back down the 89 steps and out to the street below. Emily and I went first and found a $5 comb--she forgot her brush and is the only one that actually uses a brush on her hair in the family. Mark and Nathan joined us and we marched off toward the train.


Before Sunset
To kill some of our time between reservation making and reservation having, and to ensure nobody passed out, we wanted to get out of the aparment and stay awake. We went to a park near the Louvre and sat in metal chairs that surrounded a fountain. Nathan takes his Kindle everywhere and while he read, Emily daydreamed of souvenirs and Mark studied the map, I spied on these French women drinking champagne, smoking cigarettes and laughing with French flare and animation. Smoking is bad, but somehow it seems more glamorous in Paris, at sunset, with champagne in hand and a group of attractive women.
But soon it was time to march on and we made our way to dinner. The restaurant was typical in its small size and warm, noisy ambience. We were welcomed inside and seated immediately. It's warm enough to enjoy dinner outside, but since that's where they seat the smokers, we were glad to be inside away from the smoke and street. We were seated between a French family and a couple with a French man and American woman. The family had 3 very young kids who were clearly used to the late night dinners. They were very well behaved and the young girl enjoyed what I believe was foie gras. She was approximately 4 years old.


Emily, not to be outdone by the French girl, shared escargot with Mark and crispy shrimp with me. I tasted the escargot because Mark dared me to and I don't like losing dares. For my China blog followers, you will recall I was dared on our last night in China to eat a chicken foot. I did it but because it was the last night, the options were limited and I ate one from a plastic package that was from the equivalent of a 7-11 and it was cold, gelatinous and downright awful. At least with this dare, the preparation was as good as it gets.
I can tell you there was a bit of crunch that I am much more comfortable assuming was dirt or sand than anything else. Otherwise, it was all chewy and garlicky. Whatever. Not a fan, but check it off the list where the chicken feet once were (foods I've never had, not foods I aspire to eat). I caught our French neighbor's eye--the man with the American woman--and asked him if he ate escargot. He said he'd had it once as a child. I said "are you french?" with a bit of surprise in my voice. He said "yes, but they are snails! They are from the ground!" Exactly. We all had a laugh. Later I confirmed with the waitress that this man's perspective was not typical of all French people and that indeed escargot is a typical French dish. Apparently, I found the one frenchman who thinks snails are as gross as I do! Emily only ate one too, but she ate one to be sure she made the blog. See--the blog has powers.


The funny story mentioned above relates to our menus. When the waiter seated us he said something rapidly in French which I thought might be "do you need other menus or are these okay?" but I wasn't sure. So we tried to interpret the French menus. We recognized words, Mark more than I since he studied French a hundred years ago, but we were getting more and more confidant about our interpretations. Before we ordered, I asked a question of another waiter and he offered us English menus to be safe. We accepted with gratitude. Turns out, we are not flawless in our ability to translate from French to English. We thought the shrimp dish was shrimp with shells on them and it was actually crispy shrimp which I ended up ordering. The bad thing about the English menu is that Nathan learned that Caesar salad has anchovies in it. You ask how he could not know this? I can't tell you that. But he loves Caesar salad and insists he hates all fish. So of course we never told him that the dressing has fish in it. He'd never haven eaten it again. Sure enough, he changed his order and ate the french onion soup. We didn't tell him about the fish heads they use in that. Just kidding. The English menus also helped us find the cassoulet we had read about in an online forum.


We ended up back home at around midnight and not asleep til after 1am. Who are these children, especially this boy? Able to adjust in a day and stay up so late? No sleeping at the table this trip.
I am not expecting we'll make it out as early as our guide (Mark) is imagining. So far, Paris has been a delight and we are loving it minute by minute.


Final note: traveling with our pedometers adds a certain element of fun to the trip. We are walking everywhere and clocked 10.5 miles on day 1 and almost 13 on day 2. We haven't had time to get in a run, but I feel certain we are getting in our cross country training by walking. I also tried to find a Zumba studio but none of the teachers have returned my emails. There's a class Thursday night I may be able to attend.

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Photos

Jet Lag
Nathan found this place.

my cassoulet
it was amazing, albeit meaty (porkish really). When in Paris!