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 ;-)

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!

Day 5

It's always the darkest before the dawn.

When we used to travel frequently with the kids, we would talk about and remind ourselves that it took 5 full days to regain humanity when going through 9 time zones.

Day 4 was always the worst. It was always that day when we'd look at each other and ask "What the f were we thinking? Why the f are we here? Why on EARTH did we think this would be a GOOD idea?" I think dissolution of relationship probably entered into both of our brains... at least briefly. Every single time. But because we did it so much, we KNEW that it was Day 4. We KNEW that the awful part was almost over and the bliss was about to begin. We KNEW it. We had so much practice doing it.

When Day 5 would start off feeling like the Apocalypse, we would look at each other... knowingly... and say "Day 5." By the end of that day, all hope was restored and life was glorious once again.

We are out of practice.

It's been 5 years since we've done this.

Today is Day 5.

We all woke up kind of scattered. Except Q-Man. He kept sleeping. We had early afternoon plans so it wasn't a problem... yet. In an effort to keep us on the adjusting-to-the-time-difference plan, I attempted to wake him up around 10. He woke up, came downstairs, then went back up and crawled back into bed. I went up 30 minutes later and he said his tummy was hurting. If you read about our 'frolic' at the Louvre, then you know where this is going :( Click there if you missed it. Or don't.

After he threw up... in the toilet YAY! ... not on the floor at the Louvre or in the line for security at the airport... he went back to sleep for the rest of the day. Daddy stayed back with the sick boy and the toddler, which allowed the two older kids and I a grand day out. My husband is really smart and really kind :)

Apparently, that was the only time he threw up all day, and he slept until 3. He feels much, much better. Wonder who'll get it next? No. Don't even think that!

"So what did you do?" you are wondering.

First, we went to the Musée de l'Orangerie and saw the enormous Monet Waterlilies with some of our stateside friends...

They were all I had imagined them to be... 

gorgeous.

Then we went to the Cluny Museum... the National Museum of the Middle Ages. A gallic-roman bath ruin and really, really old castle filled with really cool really old stuff... the kids LOVED it.

Big G found a gargoyle that reminded him of his Louvre experience...

And I found out that Jesus was a breastfed baby!

When we were done there, the kids were hungry. They had something they have never had before... really.

Almost 9 and 11 and a half... and this is the first time 

they have ever eaten something from 

McDonald's.

We walked with the fries through the Quartier Latin and then over the bridge to the Ile de la Cité and...

Baby X's supermodel photo shoot in front of Notre-Dame.

While we were walking around taking in these sights, I saw a lot of people who had run in yesterday's Marathon de Paris... if you missed my post yesterday with the highlight video of the leader pack at 15.5 miles, click here. I could tell they had participated by the way in which they went up and down stairs and kept telling their non-running companions "no... I'm okay. I got it."

As we were nearing home, eating still-warm-from-the-oven bread from the boulangerie (that's bakery ;-) ), Big G remarked, 

"This day just went from excellent to AMAZING!"

That, my friends, is Day 5.