We are back stateside now and I've put together some silliness from the trip...
Ben realized we had manual transmissions in Europe so he asked to learn how to drive stick. It was a rental and it was fully insured so off we went. Mike took the passenger seat and talked Ben thru it and I videotaped in the backseat. The car was a brand new Fiat 500, it had 9 km on it when I picked it up so the clutch didn't have any slop. He did great though and only burned up the clutch a few times. And now he can say he learned to drive stick in a French vineyard.
And here is Maggie dancing in Carcassonne.
And this is just bull-"pschitt".
This is why those Euros are so skinny.
This was in the 'gym' in our Paris hotel. Called Lippo-sculpt. Feel the burn Finn.
After so much lippo-sculpting, Ben angled for the largest dessert possible.
And a little bit more of Gaudi.
So after too many glasses of wine one night in a Barcelona restaurant Ben and I went back and forth a bit about him not running much anymore, lots of riding bikes, but no running, and a lot goldfish eating on the couch. So I bet him $100 that he couldn't run a mile in 8 minutes. And then everyone at the table started taking action on the bet and Ben stood to make almost $150. Not much of a challenge, but he'd been so sedentary lately, I thought I had a chance...he waited until the last (very hot) day in the South of France and...well watch to see who won.
It's Bastille Day, July 14. When I went to the Versailles website, there was a warning about big crowds. Our trusty guide scribe Rick Steeves even said if there is a big crowd go early. And Rick is rarely wrong.
So we got the kiddos up at the crack of dawn and took the hour long double decker train southwest from the center of Paris. The crowds at the gate to get in were hard to describe, it was like a Disney ride line during school vacation, but the line was wide as well as long. A forecast of a cloudy day turned to hot sun. We sent the kids off to the shade and Molly and I cooked in line for about an hour and a half to eventually get to this gate. Surely things were looking up from here.
So we entered the palace, with massive crowds of Chinese tourists. I push my way to the front to get my only shot not encumbered by selfie sticks, or pushy Chinese. It was brutal. We were unable to enjoy anything inside.
The Chinese tourists were literally taking pictures of everything, floors, ceilings, walls, modern interior stairs connecting utility spaces, at kooky angles and unlit spaces. It was like a photo feeding frenzy of mental patients. The only thing worse than their pfotos was their public space behavior. They would get right up behind you and just push on you whether there was room to move or not. Ben eventually would just stand there and let them push, being about 3 times their size he wasn't going anywhere. Poor Finn never saw a thing and just got pushed around. And us adults just couldn't enjoy one of the most famous buildings on the planet. Am I being too hard on Chinese tourists? I hope so, they were terrible.
It looks like Maggie was enjoying herself...
At the end of the palace tour you walk thru the Hall of mirrors, the first place in hours where we didn't have small Asian tourists pushing all over us.
We squeezed our way into the café for some snacks. This started to bring our sprits back. The thought of being out in the crowds again was daunting though and Molly and I needed to audible or there may be a mutiny, the kids outnumbered us. They crazy party is that there was no line when we left! No line for the freaking palace! We could've slept late, gotten out here at noon and seen everything. Rarely do we get a travel decision so wrong...
Molly and I had had found some bike rental and Segway rental places. Molly mapped out a way for us to walk by a Segway shop, I was planning on sneaking in and finding out if they would let Finn ride, he's only 10 and 65 lbs.
As we approach the kids see the Segway shop and make an immediate B line for it, I hustle up next to Finn and whisper calmly, "you're 12" just before the Segway guy greets us. We open with some small talk and then I ask how old the kids need to be. He looks over at Finn and asks in his French accent, "How old are you?" Finn confidently looks him in right in the eye, smooth as silk, and says, "I'm twelve." "That's the minimum", the Segway guy replies and the were in business.
And viola, you've been hit by a smooth criminal.
The big kids got geared up and after a very brief lesson on an actual street for cars, off we went.
So. Much. Fun. This is one of the palaces out on the grounds behind the big palace.
Versailles is so big, the Segways were a great way to see the grounds, it is like a giant Central Park. Formal and organic gardens, farmland and mile long pools.
We stopped one of the many houses built for Marie Antoinette. This house was built for Marie so she house have a home that felt like a peasants house (but the interior was still marble and extravagant). She was said to paint the livestock, put perfume on them and have animal 'games'. Typical looney royalty behavior. Another crazy fact: the crown taxed homes by the number of windows they had...
Us on the open road buzzing around Versailles. Just after Ben asked how much these cost (8,000 euros) Maggie crashed hers. It was a loud violent crash, but she manage to jump off so smoothly the guide actually commented on how good here reflexes were...thankfully both she and the machine were OK, no video of the wreck though.
No hands!
For our last night in Paris Mike and I made reservations at a place we had seen the night before. Maggie wanted to go out to a place nice enough to wear her new Paris made dress in, and Le Coupe Chou fit the bill. The menu was a bit sophisticated for the kids, but they were gamers.
The building was about twice as old as the United States, it was built with exposed dark beams that were hundreds of years old.
We ordered our dinner and wine and to spice things up, an order of escargot. To my surprise, all three kids wanted to try the snail. I thought for sure they would bail. Unfortunately I wouldn't let Finn eat it as he has never had shellfish and I wasn't ready for an allergic challenge on our last night. But Maggie and Ben both used their escargot specific silverware to hold, dig out and eat the snail.
And Molly downing hers.
I couldn't be one up'd by those kids so I slurped one down too, as did Mike and Kim. The escargot was pretty good, they were a bit chewy and flavored heavily with pesto.
And the leftover tools of the snail trade.
We finished our vacation atop a hill in the Latin Quarter watching fireworks over the Eiffel Tower to celebrate Bastille day.
Thanks again to the Grubers for spending another summer with us.
So we woke up pretty early and hit the hotel buffet breakfast before heading out to the Louvre, I'm having trouble remembering where Mike and Kim went in the morning...Our plan was to just go and walk around, take it all in. We were not set on seeing much as it was Sunday and we heard there would be huge crowds. We bought the 'museum pass' that allows for you to skip most lines hoping that would help.
Here are the Girls at the I.M. Pei pyramid in the main square of the Louvre. (and the location of the final scene of the DaVinci Code). Not as impressive as I would've hoped. Weather has made it a bit dull; it looked a bit dated and dirty. On the upside the museum pass we bought turned out to be huge. There was a massive line but we just sashayed right in and walked right up to the Mona Lisa. Best money we ever spent.
As we thought, Miss Mona wasn't as impressive as you might think, still good to see here tho. I think there are only 17 DaVinci paintings in existence and the Madonna on the Rocks is just 50 feet away, but no one seemed to care about that one. Mona was also overrun with pushy Chinese tourists, a harbinger of things to come.
Any here is Maggie between the caryatids (surely stolen from Greece like the Brits)
And here's my real Aphrodite in front of some old stone one.
And big Ben heading up the ceremonial stair in the main atrium.
There were creepy clowns that came up and worked us for a euro. When the African trinket vendors saw the clown one of them came and ripped his wig off and swatted at his nose. Which prompted Ben to say one of the best quotes of the trip, "I'd pay 10 euro to see a clown fight" The clowns were chased off but sadly no real clown fights happened.
The happy Griswalds.
We met Mike and Kim and set off for the Tower Eiffel as the French say, walking from the Louvre. We stopped at a little bistro for some lunch and chocolate cake. Finn devoured the cake (sitting in a cream sauce) and his ravioli, he ended up with a stomach ache. It was really the only thing that didn't sit well with him on the whole trip, what a difference from the days when we would pack an entire suitcase of food just for him. He's really doing great getting over his allergies.
And we made it. The grounds weren't that crowded, but the tower itself was packed. The tower is impressive, in part due to its surroundings being so consistent. So much stone and heavy building throughout Paris, the lightness of the tower is very beautiful.
This guy. And others like him. Selling selfie sticks. Yuck.
Yup, that's the Eiffel Tower up there.
Good stuff.
So Molly and I dropped off some weary kids and went back to walk the interior of Notre Dame Cathedral. We arrived as Mass had begun, the organ was impressive, as was the interior. Molly lit a candle for Joan of Arc, burned alive at 20-something for being a heretic. She was only redeemed in the last century or so.
After Notre Dame we went looking for some of the old Metro station entries. They are so awesome, reminded me of the architect Charles Macintosh. Molly is standing at attention for some unknown reason. This station was next to an area where only birds and bird related paraphernalia is sold one day a week on the street. Bizarre.
We returned to the hotel to meet Kim and Mike and go out to dinner, we went kid free as indicated by this sign above. I left 50 euro with the kids and had them go find their own Parisian cuisine, I think they ended up with 4 formaggio pizza that was not well reviewed by the Conner clan.
We opened up again with breakfast at the hotel and the then head off to the Champs-Élyséesby Metro. We planned on climbing the Arc de Triumph and then walking down the Champs-Elysées for some shopping.
It's impressive, beyond marking victory, it is also France's tomb of their Unknown Soldier.
The long walk up.
The views are spectacular, 360 views and a great way to see the tower.
Our teenagers from the top to the Arc de Triumph...
And then it was 'Maggie Time", shopping the Champs-Elysées. She had been talking about shopping for a bag made in Paris by a shop called Longchamp.
I have to admit, this place was swanky. Maggie found her handbag, no cash here, only credit and even checking out is ceremonial. Top shelf place.
When men shop too long.
After more shopping than men are meant to do we found a Bistro for lunch. We really all considered taking up smoking, kids and all, to properly fit in to bistro culture.
And then we hit another museum. The Paris sewer museum....it is safe to say this teenager was not impressed. Funny, no lines here.
Nor was this 10 year old.
But it was an interesting place, they roll this giant ball, Indiana Jones style, thru the sewer to help keep the pipes clear, push and squish. Finn refused to stand in front of it for scale, it's at least 8 feet in diameter.
After the sewer extravaganza we went to ride bikes on the Tames, but renting 7 bikes from the automated city bike system proved to be too complicated. so we walked. We found some cool container bars on the water.
It felt a bit like the beer gardens in Munich, but this time it was wine. The kids got ice cream and we enjoyed our wine for an hour or two.
After a bit of rest we hit an Italian restaurant in the Latin quarter near our hotel. The service was 'almost get up and leave' slow, but when the food did come it was quite good, don't ask Finn though, he fell asleep.
