My family went to Paris and all I got was…

... sick.

Not really. 

Only two of us got to get sick :P

As far as purchases went, the kids did get to choose some pretty stellar (and cheapo) souvenirs on their trip to France...

Big G picked a few books (in French) about ancient weaponry, mythology and wizardry...

And a nifty "gold" pocket watch with an Eiffel Tower embossed on the cover, a very detailed metal model of Notre Dame, and an awesome little gargoyle.

Baby X had her eye on sparkly things and Astérix.  

A book bag, keychains and a little sparkly Eiffel Tower.

Q-Man decided on a "silver" pocket watch with a "gold" Eiffel Tower glued molded onto it of his very, very own (similar to Big G's) and two books (again, in French) about medieval castles and life in the Middle Ages...one of which came with a mighty coolio castle to build!

And his pièce de resistance...

A fabulous $4 snow globe.

Daddy was diggin' on the cheapo chocolate that was on sale at the supermarket.

(it isn't even the 'good' stuff... but man, did he get it for a good price ;-) )

What did I get?

Well, what I wanted was this...

You know how I feel about our toilets here at home. These French toilets rival Target's public restroom toilets and the blaster toilets on airplanes. And they have a half-flush, water-saving feature ;-)  Even the French version of the low-flow toilet is better than the American one. These guys have it going on!

Check this out...

I saw no plungers in any of the bathrooms I visited on the trip. None. They are unnecessary. Such a difference from our house where one is required in every bathroom and used at least once every day.

However...

due to the very low initial water level, a toilet brush (right hand side of picture and video) is indispensable. I think you know why.

So that's what I really wanted, but...

because of luggage restrictions and our budget constraints, I had to settle for these...

The World's Most Awesome Tampons!

And you have to go to France to get them ;-)

Jardin du Luxembourg, Part Deux

Spending Sunday afternoon at the Jardin du Luxembourg wasn't enough. And we didn't have Baby X with us. The boys wanted to go back, and they wanted to share the experience with her. So we had to do it again... even though we only had one day left ... noooooooooooo...

Riding the Métro with four kids is an experience, to say the least. You never know how it's going to fill up...

grab the stroller and the kid standing on the seat...

look how it fills up...

there are signs requesting that you stand when things get crowded... the seats flip up and allow more space...

and then it's packed.

But the ride doesn't last forever...

Finally, you get off the train and go above ground...

And walking the tree-lined paths through the park is joyous...

a visual delight for art lovers...

as well as tree lovers!

Though it was a Monday, in the perfect weather there were so many people sitting in the park's chairs, relaxing and enjoying the beauty.

Or playing a game of boules.

We headed to the playground. Remember how I said that French playgrounds are cooler? I showed you a bit of that in Part Un... here's some more... yes, this is that same playground. It is huge and wildly popular... and you have to pay to get in :(  but it is totally worth it.

This time, the older kids decided to try the awesome swing contraption!

You can see Big G in the yellow shirt seated on the swing's seat. The rope is attached to a wheel on a track. You leap off a platform, jump onto the swing and whip around the oval overhead track.

Awesome!

Some of the ropes have the "button" lower and you can stand on it... like Baby X in the turquoise shirt is doing in the above picture.

Q-Man is finishing up the ride, almost back at the platform after whizzing around the track.

They were in heaven :)

I tried to find a better shot of the rope Eiffel Tower climbing structure...

Here Q-Man sits atop the train's smoke stack... this train had three 'cars' and was very popular.

The sand pit was incredible.

That tower-ish thing in the foreground had ropes and pulleys with buckets attached for hauling things up and down. 

The 'big kid' area was huge... my kids were all over the place and it was hard to get pictures of them in the tunnels, on the slides, or going up the ladders.

Then Miss C did a face plant ...

and it was time to go!

As we headed back to the house, we took in all the street art... it is everywhere and in so many forms...

Fountains...

Mosaic wall art...

Colorful window displays of swimsuits!

No matter where you look, creativity abounds.

Even the warning signs are more interesting than ours.

Up next...

Père Lachaise Cemetery. I think that'll be our final stop.

I know, this is getting to be like that slideshow your neighbor shares with you... never-ending... ever...

Eiffel Tower... Take 2.

Redemption!

Yesterday's post left you at the top of the Arc de Triomphe... but didn't leave you hanging ;-)

We met up with Daddy and Miss C almost exactly on time on the steps of Napoleon's Tomb.

He went into the military museum with a local friend and the older three kids while Miss C chased pigeons for a solid hour.

When they came out, Q-Man force-fed me chocolate... or maybe tried to steal my chocolate... in any event, here is a much-requested picture of me :)

The local friend took this great picture of all of us... I think it is the only one so far of the whole family on this trip.

Then he drove us to the Eiffel Tower. It was AWESOME to get a ride right up to as close as you can get in a car! We crammed into his cute little Nissan and made it work. He was such a kind and generous and accommodating guy... he gets un grand 'merci' :)

 Then it was time to queue up for the tickets...

here's the view up from the line...

We finally had our tickets and needed to then wait for the first elevator...

and watch out for the pickpockets!

 We made it up to the second floor and took in the sights...

 Big G was pretty excited!

 Then we had to wait another 45 minutes to get on the elevator to go to the top!

Everyone went a little stir-crazy ;-)

The elevator was JAMMED!

You can barely see Q-Man's head between all the elbows and shoulders.

After goofing around on the super crowded top level for a while and watching the city lights come on below us... which was really lovely... we headed back down to the bottom. The crowds going down were much smaller, thankfully and understandably.

 And then it was time for ice cream!

We then walked 20+ minutes to the Métro and finally got home at about 11 p.m. Everyone was happy and exhausted. No separations, no vomiting, no picking of pockets. It was a success.

We needed some fun...

After our ill-fated Eiffel Tower-NOT adventure the other night, we needed some fun.

The kids wanted to "see stuff." We talked about what "stuff" they wanted to see. We made a list and a plan. And a contingency plan. And a fall-back in case the contingency plan failed. And on that list was still...

the Eiffel Tower.

The plan consisted of bopping around town all afternoon, not necessarily going in any places but seeing them. Going in was possible but not required. After seeing what they could see, see, see... we would meet up with Dad and Miss C at a set time at a set place. That was the basic plan... I am not going to go into all the contingency fall-back crap 'cuz we didn't need it :) From there, we would go see the Eiffel Tower.

First up... the Stravinsky Fountain at the Georges Pompidou Centre...

We ate lunch while looking at the colorful figures moving in and over the water.

Bummer was they were not spraying.

Then we went to find Nicolas Flamel's auberge (if you are into Harry Potter, this will make some sense to you). I forgot the directions at the house, but we did find the very tiny streets named after him and his wife at this intersection...

 His wife.

 Him.

 And the boys played some funny chanting, clapping game...

sort of like ro-sham-bo...

but in French... duh.

There were some gorgeous signs of spring in the little park at the base of that tower...

Then we went to Notre Dame... and went inside...

Very cool wooden scale model of the cathedral...

incredibly detailed and amazing.

 Super interesting model of how the cathedral was built back in

the whatever hundreds...

 And STILL HAVING FUN!

this was not a 

"mom dragged us all over the friggin' place"

kind of day...

they wanted to do this and had FUN!

What next? you ask...

But of course...

Sacré-Cœur... the Ice Cream Cone Church!

We did not walk up to it. I tried to talk them into it so I could double-up the stairs work for the day, but they were just not into it at all.

 Q-Man wanted to ride this carousel soooooo badly...

but it was 3 euros! 

and Big G pointed out the the horses looked like they were screaming in pain...

so we said "no" to animal cruelty ;-)

Would you agree with Big G's observation?

To celebrate our triumphantly fun day, we decided that the Arc de Triomphe was a good place to go...

First, they had to fight over the telescope...

which I wouldn't give them any money for.

Got the mega-stairs workout in... 

and NO ONE COMPLAINED!!!!

Baby X took a pic of Q-Man and mommy :)

And I got one of all the kids looking still like they are at least kind of having fun ;-)

pretty sure the spikes are suicide- and homicide-prevention... 

clearly not for aesthetics.

Then we walked down the stairs and went to meet Daddy and Miss C... very close to on time and within the original plan's parameters.

The day's next chapter to follow shortly. Time for bed. Well, past time for bed.

Bonne nuit!