The locals

I mentioned earlier how I had initially heard French people maybe weren't the friendliest sort. This turned out to not be true. To prove just how friendly they were, one night we happen to meet a local who invited us over for drinks. We were at a bar down the street from where we were staying, and Kyle started talking to this guy, Francois. He was a local artist who was at the bar and Kyle had this great idea that he should draw a sketch of us. After thinking it over he decided to, and the top pic is what he came up with. Not too bad for 10 minutes of work.

After that he hung out with us for the rest of the night, which may or may not have entailed trying to throw oranges from one side of the Seine to the other. I think after that he decided we were decent so he invited us over the next evening. The next evening we went over and had a great time. He was a very friendly host. It felt like we were back in college, cramming into someone's studio apartment, listening to music, and talking loudly.

All in all it made for a great experience to add to all the incredible things we saw in Paris. It's always fun to get to do something that's not on any guidebook!

Santé!

Santé means cheers in French. It took us all week to remember that... I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to why. I've written a lot so far about the city and things we saw. What I haven't written about so much is what a great time we had spending the week with our friends.

Everyday was so fun, because in the morning we'd get up, and usually most people had decided what they wanted to do for the day, and then we'd take off. Every morning Karen and I made an appearance at this cafe down the street for a café au lait and croissant (if we'd gotten there early enough). After we were finished we'd meet the rest of our party and we'd start touring. If the six of us had split up, we met somewhere around lunch time and found a place to eat. I'm 99% sure we ate every lunch and dinner together, which I think is pretty impressive.

You also really get to know someone traveling together in a foreign country. We got to know the Kessels very well a few years ago in Italy, especially after all of our bags were lost for a few days. Nothing brings you closer then when you are all stuck wearing the same clothes for three days. They are on our "will fly international with" list. And now so are the Nicholsons and Cranes.

Within every group you need certain roles filled. You need a planner, to help people who like to let someone else lead the way. You need someone to get people out of bed in the morning and keep people to a schedule (10 pts if you guess who this was... there were two). You need people who can speak the language and help the group out of any tricky situations. You need people who don't mind asking for directions. You need people who can go with the flow and easily adapt to changing environments. And most of all you need people you can tolerate for long hours at a time! We had all of these people, and the week went by so fast.

We had so much fun at every meal. Most of the time the six of us were crowded at some small table in the corner somewhere, eating elbow to elbow. Plates would be passed as everyone tried the other person's meal. Glasses clinked and the conversation never stopped. Things were never boring, even when we were doing something boring.

The afternoon that we decided to spend on the bus, things got a little boring. But only because we were stuck in traffic for so long. It was at this point that we were all sitting upstairs, and it was getting cold. So some of us moved down below, and then promptly fell asleep. One by one everyone woke up, and then went upstairs with everyone else. Eventually everyone was up there except for Bekah. John had just come up, and Kyle asked him where Bekah was, John's reply-- "She's downstairs. Probably getting picked clean apart as speak." Luckily she woke up shortly and then everyone was back upstairs.

Great friends make so much tolerable. And they make an incredible trip to Paris even better -- Santé!

Crushing it

The daunting thing about going to Paris is that there is so much to see and a limited amount of time to see it. It's just as daunting a little over a week later trying to write about it. I'll try using broad strokes...

Sunday. Everyone arrives. We head out of the apartment and go to Notre Dame since it is a short 5 min walk. Awesome. Unbelievable. To see something up close that took 200 years to build and it is still standing - awe inspiring. For much more detail than I could provide, check here.
Afterward we head to a cafe and have our first Parisian meal. Some had salads, onion soup became a staple, and I had my first roast chicken - which did not disappoint.

The cafes were funny. Funny in the sense that some of them were packed with all the tables full, and other times they were empty. Whenever we sat at empty cafe, within ten minutes the place was full.

Monday. We decided to take it a bit easy since we were all jet lagged. Karen had been doing some reading on this famous open air market, that apparently was close to some flea market type deal that also sounded interesting. We figured we'd go to the market, find some food for dinner, then walk around the flea market. We took the Metro to Les Halles, where it was supposed to be, and looked and looked around but couldn't find it.

After walking around and trying to ask people where it was, a closer inspection of the guide book revealed that it used to be where we were, but has since relocated... Newman! We were about 30 years too late. Off to the flea market. Which was pretty cool. Lots of small shops with tons of antiques and other unique items.

We headed back on the Metro to get closer to home and find a spot for lunch. Once we got underground, we realized we were in a bit seedier area of Paris. We started to buy some more tickets, when a couple of youths came up to us trying to sell us tickets. At first we just ignored them while we were trying to operate the machine, but then we were having issues with the machine, a line was queuing behind us... more and more people kept coming in... and we were about to lose it. Then, all of a sudden this other group of youths came down and about 10 people in row just jumped the gates heading into the system. The whole thing was a bit surreal, and then we finally figured out the machine, got our tickets, and headed into the tunnel... A bit touch and go there for a few minutes but we made it!

Tuesday was pretty low key. We walked around the city and checked out some more sights that we wouldn't cover on the bus tour. We went to the Place de la Concorde, which is at the foot of the Champs-Élysées and also where the guillotine was located and Marie Antoinette was decapitated. The Luxor Obelisk is also here.

Wednesday. In the morning we headed to the Centre Pompidou. The goal of the museum was "to create an original cultural institution in the heart of Paris completely focused on modern and contemporary creation, where the visual arts would rub shoulders with theatre, music, cinema, literature and the spoken word. Housed in the centre of Paris in a building designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, whose architecture symbolises the spirit of the 20th century, the Centre Pompidou first opened its doors to the public in 1977. After renovation work from 1997 to December 1999, it opened to the public again on 1 January 2000, with expanded museum space and enhanced reception areas. Since then it has once again become one of the most visited attractions in France. Some 6 million people pass through the Centre Pompidou's doors each year, a total of over 190 million visitors in its 30 years of existence." (website) This was a cool museum, but also home to some disturbing pieces of art... I already mentioned the main ones in my first Paris post, so I'll spare you any more graphic images.

After lunch we all met back up and we began the hop on/off tour, which was pretty solid. The bus turned out to be a great way to see the city, the major attractions, and pretty good mode of transportation.

Wednesday evening was also the night that Karen was selected to cook dinner. As most of you know, Karen is a phenomenal cook... She is continually coming up with new dishes and never disappoints. This will be a separate post that I'm hoping she will write...

Thusday afternoon and we were all dragging a bit, so we decided to take the entire tour... Which would have been a fine idea, except this was at about 3 pm. Two hiccups. One, there was some police action going on at the Palais Garnier, so we got diverted and stuck in traffic. Then we headed up the Champs-Élysées, which was completely clogged with traffic. At the top we reached the Arc de Triomphe, where we then proceeded to drive around the rotary, a la National Lampoon's European Vacation style only to then go down the other direction of the congested Champs-Elysees... I think it took more than an hour to do that... Which was painful.

Thursday evening. Woa. This was the night in Paris. And I have one word for it: Taillevent. I was going to include this within the post, but on second thought I'm making it a separate posting...

Friday. Our last day... Everyone did their own thing. We did some shopping, walked around some more, and then spent the afternoon sitting outside drinking wine, savoring our last afternoon in Paris.

Saturday. Airport... Home. I've got a few more Paris-related posts on deck to close out our trip, in the meantime, here are our Paris photos.

Apple Picking!

This post has become what some may call a "dump." It took me a while to get it going, and then we went on vacation, and now it just seems pretty out of date. Needless to say, we had a great time apple picking when we went. Annie loved picking apples, and ate about 20 of them. Although, I don't know if taking a few bites and then pitching the apple actually counts as eating them, but we did our best to restrain her... Nichol was along for the fun, and was very well behaved. He did not try and eat any apples, but his mom made some applesauce that is waiting for him when appropriate.

Oh yeah, they also had a bouncy house at the farm. The exact same bouncy house we got for Annie's second birthday. Only this time when Annie was in there, the fan/blower became unplugged and collapsed on all the kids inside... A bit hairy for a little while, but luckily Annie was by a window and so we were able to hold up the structure before she was fully engulfed. I guess that's what happens when these things are run by 12 year olds... She also rode a horse for the first time, and liked it!

More Paris posts to come...

Olives

Last Saturday we got back from one of the best vacations... Paris! Karen and I went for the week with four of our good friends, and we had the best time. Although the trip wasn't without some hiccups. Leading up to our departure it seemed like the city of Paris was a powder keg filled with rioters, protesters, terrorist threats and strikes, waiting to be ignited at any minute... The State Department issued a travel alert... And then about a week before we were all leaving the airlines had been asked to cut flights into Paris airports by 30-50%. I'll say it, I was a bit nervous before we left. But then we got there...

We dropped off the kids with my parents Friday and departed Boston Saturday evening. Early Sunday morning we arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport where we were meeting Bekah & Kyle. An hour later they arrived, our car arrived and we were off! While in Paris we were staying at this fantastic apartment on Ile Saint Louis. Ile Saint Louis is an island in the middle of the Seine, which is the river that runs through the middle of Paris. Here's how it's described:

This small island is like an oasis from the rush of the city. It's almost as if someone dropped a small French village into the center of Paris, as it features markets, bakeries, fromageries and cafés. While much of Paris has modernized over the years, the ile remains romantically frozen in the 17th century. It is remarkably the same as it was centuries ago. It is lined with adorable boutiques, is home to its own unique ice cream, features historic attractions, and boasts one of Paris' best hotels.

And that is exactly how we found it. There's so much to try and cover-- I'll do my best. This post is going to be more of an introduction and thoughts about the whole week, with more specific posts to follow.

You're probably wondering why if this post is about our overall trip-- why is it titled "Olives". Well that's simple: that was the family password. You see, since we were a little on edge, and we were in a busy foreign city-- we needed a word that one of us could say to indicate we needed help or felt scared -- immediately alerting others to our plight. Mostly it was used as a joke or to signal something very serious -- someone needed another drink.

Language. Before leaving I had read that in Paris English was not as widely spoken as in other European cities. Luckily for me, Karen had studied French and as soon as we arrived and she started dusting off her skills, it came back pretty easily. I also made sure to master some basics like: hello, please, thank you, where is the toilet, coffee, wine, etc. While I have yet to travel somewhere that I can use my awesome Spanish skills (I guess you could argue there are plenty of opportunities in Boston), my french was ok. And you would be amazed at how much you can communicate through hand gestures...

People. Also I had been led to believe that may be French people weren't the friendliest sort. I could not disagree more. Everyone we encountered was very friendly and courteous, and if anyone was rude they at least had the decency to do it behind our backs... which I appreciate. And many people spoke English or at least understood what we were saying. And again, Karen and Bekah were both pretty good at laying down some French talk when needed. Later on I've got a good story of some people we met, but that's for another post...

Overall impressions. The people are awesome. Paris is awesome. There's way too much to see. The Louvre is a cluster %#@*, so be prepared to have people all up in your grill the entire time. Buy a "Paris Pass" before you go so you can skip the lines at pretty much any museum (or better yet, get someone else's even if it has expired because no one checks). Taking a bus tour around the city is a blast, unless you're doing it close to rush hour, duh. If you go to the Modern Art museum be prepared to be appalled -- unless seeing naked people hula-hooping barbed wire on the beach is your thing (sorry for the image but I still can't shake it, and you're welcome). Or a naked woman holding a dead chicken that's bleeding all over (sorry, couldn't resist one more). It's pretty hard to find a bad meal. The Metro is one of the most efficient public transit systems around, take it everywhere. Unless you take it to a sketchy neighborhood... Try lots of new foods. Wine is cheaper than Coca-Cola. Drink as much Cafe Au Lait ("Cafe O-lay") as possible (it's basically espresso with steamed milk). There is nothing like a long meal, outside under a heater, with a group of friends, people watching in a foreign city.