We were just so lucky to live these past two years directly across from one of the entrances to St. Cloud Park.  The park is one of the most beautiful in the Paris region and contains the terrace on which Château de Saint–Cloud was built (the residence of royal and imperial families from the 16th century).  Our entrance was through a short train tunnel you see in the featured photo. I took it this May, knowing I would miss seeing this entrance near our school.  There are many statues and fountains in the park that were part of the Palace grounds from the 17th to 19th century over an area of 5 square kilometres!! LOTS of pathway options that were free to explore!

In 1785, it was purchased by Louis XVI who gave it to Marie-Antoinette. Then the Queen’s architect from Versailles, refurbished the château.  In 1801, The palace, in its refurbished state, became the official centre of consular and as a result, imperial power.

Saint-Cloud was the scene of many significant Napoleonic events: the proclamation of the empire; the baptism of Louis-Napoleon by Pope Pius VII; the marriage of Napoleon and Marie-Louise in 1810; the celebrations for the baptism of the King of Rome in 1811…

After his proclamation as Emperor, Napoleon III made the château one of the official residences of the imperial court and a place of government. Napoleon performed his role as head of state here, holding council and giving grand receptions, ex:  for Queen Victoria in 1855; Charles XV of Sweden in 1861, etc.

On the Terrasse de la Lanterne, a site which soars 94 metres above the Paris skyline, Napoleon had built (a copy of the monument to Lysicrates in Athens). This, when lit, signified that the Emperor was in residence. It was destroyed during the war of 1870.

After Napoleon III declared war on the Prussians, the site was occupied by a Prussian force which used the high outcropping to shell Paris.   In 1870 the Chateau was blown up by shells fired at it; and it went up in flames. Despite the fact the château could have been restored (as photographic evidence shows) and some of the furniture saved, it was decided to demolish the building, because of it’s ambivalent history.

Today all that remains of this site, which forcefully left its imprint on the history of France, is the park, and the outbuildings.  Outdoor concerts are often held here and we went to 3 of them in our two years there. We could sometimes hear the music coming from different bandstands or see lights shooting into the sky. Chris and I went to watch on outdoor movie there in our last week, and said our goodbyes to the memories we had made, walking or biking in the park weekly.  We always loved exploring this significant location in French history.  We will never forget the walk over the highway to get there, the magnificent ‘grande cascade’ of water at the entrance to the original chateau, or the view from ‘La Lanterne’.

Walk over the highway

Grande Cascade (hydraulic waterfall)

View of Paris from ‘la Lanterne’ terrasse

For more photos of Parc St. Cloud, check out this link.   If you visited the park with us when visiting and are interested in it’s history, written according to each century with many interesting links, check out this link.

Last weekend, Chris and I visited a park that we’d heard about a few times called Parc de Buttes Chaumont.  We had beautiful weather in early May and decided to check out some new parks. This park has unique topography and the river running through it and steep cliffs in the centre. It was 3 trains to get there from where we live, but we wanted to see something new that is right under our nose.  There are many families and couples that spend a day or part of the day there picnicing by the water. It is a very hilly park but one that invites people to lie out on the grass and enjoy the scenery with food and wine and a good book.  Check out the photos and see how ‘common’ the bottles of wine are in the picnic pictures…At one point I crossed the suspension bridge to hike up to the lookout gazebo (Chris watched from below – not a fan of heights :).  On the way home there were older men playing bocci all the way down the side of the road and younger students playing ‘kuub’. It was a park worth checking out, for sure.

After the park, we took a bus to Pere LaChaise cemetery to try to find Jim Morrison’s gravestone.  We walked the quiet paths in awe of the magnificent and sometimes very eerie headstones.  It is a beautiful place to walk. We did find Oscar Wilde’s grave which is a very popular one to visit there. Soon after we were ‘kicked out’ because the park was  closing.  It was a great day out seeing a corner of Paris we hadn’t seen.

Pere LaChaise headstones

Luxembourg park is well known in Paris but we had not spent much time there as many Parisians do on sunny days. Those living in Paris, often use parks as their own backyards because much of the population lives in apartments and many don’t even have balconies. So, on nice days, it is the culture here to bring book, games and picnics and go spend the day at the nearest park. In early May, we went to stroll through Luxembourg and take in the activities going on. It is a beautiful, large, ‘stately’ park, with statues and beautiful fountains scattered throughout.

The park was originally owned by the Duke of Luxembourg, hence the name. The domain was purchased in 1612 by Marie de’ Medici, the widow of King Henry IV.  After the king was murdered in 1610 she decided to move out from the Louvre to a new residence.  Around the pond are nice lawns, paths, and some of Paris’s most beautiful flower beds, all laid out in a geometrical pattern and enclosed by a balustrade. This is also one of the few parks where you can simply get hold of one of the many chairs provided and take it to the spot where you want to sit. The park is popular with chess players and bocci players. There’s also a tennis court, a music pavilion, merry go round, puppet theatre and an orangery in the park. Marie de’ Medici had Luxemburg Palace built there for herself in 1617 in the image of her Italian estate in Florence.   In 1794, during the French Revolution, Luxembourg palace served as a prison, and in World War 2 it was the headquarters for the German airforce. It currently houses the French Senate.

We walked the gardens and sat in our chairs, watching others stroll by and watched the children steering their sailboats with long sticks in the fountain pond. It is really like being at an outdoor museum with all of the statues in this park. What a wonderful backyard.

*Note: Featured photo above is the introduction to the poem written across a wall by Luxembourg garden. It was written by Arthur Rimbaud at age 16, titled “The Drunken Boat.”  It is written from the point of view of a boat that is adrift after all of its passengers have been massacred. The description of the vessel’s erratic course, its assault by storms, and the vast wastes of the ocean reflect the torment of the poet’s soul.

What a beautiful way to spend Mother’s Day! Bri and Chris took me to Chantilly by train. I had been wanting to go and so off we went with Bri while Greg studied for exams. We took the train from Gare du Nord and were in Chantilly by 1pm.  We had printed information on what to see and the castle was priority #1. On the way we walked through a beautiful town through a tree lined path and it brought us right to the stables of the castle. We could buy our castle tickets there and we decided on tickets for the horse show later as well. So, we continued to walk to the castle (many steps on Chris’ pedometer) and then to Brianna’s Joy (not exactly) we toured the castle with a headset, filling us with all of the history on the castle from ‘it’s day’. It was interesting to hear about why Chantilly cream got it’s name from a chef at the castle who had to make cream go further than normal because his cream shipment didn’t arrive on time for the grand celebrations at the castle. (He later committed suicide over the fact that he thought his name would be ruined because his food wasn’t as expected due to the late shipment).

Domaine de Chantilly  was very interesting to tour and Brianna didn’t mind in the end because we found a Louis Vuitton shop and she bought a wallet there which made her day! She also convinced us to rent a golf cart for her to drive all around the gardens (miles of them) which was actually very relaxing for us to learn all about the castle’s domain.

We saw statues in the woods that were awe inspiring and all of the gardening that was ordered by the duke (ie., love island). Brianna was an excellent chauffeur as she navigated through the wooded pathways and toured the domaine. The horse show was also interesting as they showed the audience how they trained the horses to do specific maneuvers, and the entire explanation was in French of course, so it was very good for us to try to follow along while watching what the horses did. I couldn’t help but sing the song ‘Chantilly Lace’ all the way back to the train as we loved the wold village and it’s sleepy character.  What a historic place and the perfect Mother’s Day gift for me!

Our experience of Thailand was through the lens of a tourist of course, but we always look for ways to explore the heart of the culture where we are visiting and get off the beaten track to learn more about local life. We did this a couple of times without the children in tow, but also saw some unique realities when we were in Ao Nang with them one night. In that case, we saw many ‘ladyboys’ as they are called there, out on the streets looking beautiful in their dresses and calling out to people to come and visit them. It is a part of this culture that we expected but you never really know how to interact with it and it is right there calling to you (in this case quite literally!).

We also saw the typical street bartering that you see in developing countries.  One evening we wanted to take a taxi from one village to another and we were quoted 500 baht.  We decided it was too expensive and walked away, but were immediately called back to ‘re-negotiate’.  By the time we finished our discussion, we ended up paying almost half the original price. This seems to be a stressful process for some tourists, but Mo and I are used to being heckled and bartering (ha!). Sometimes you learn the prices and possibilities too late though. For instance we were charged 1500 baht for our van taxi from the airport to the hotel on Day 1, but then asked other ‘stalls’ along the beach for their price (since they ‘advertised airport taxis’) and they were as low as 200 baht per person So on the way back, the 4 of us had a spacious SUV taxi (2015) to ourselves for 700 baht. 700 baht = 30 Canadian  The airport was a 30 minute drive.

At times our surroundings were an overstimulation of sights, smells and action for our senses, but this atmosphere added to the wonderment of our experience.  Watching whole families, or very young siblings, riding on mopeds and scooters in bare feet with no helmets, would be unheard of back in Europe, but in Thailand it was commonplace.  Electrical street wiring sometimes looked like tangled spaghetti with some of the loops almost touching the street.  Laundry was hanging out everywhere to dry and smells of food cooking along the road were intriguing (roasting bananas etc.). The garbage along side streets and even floating in water at some beaches was alarming to us and a reminder that they do not have systems in place to deal with all of their packaging being thrown away. We had seen some similarities in South Africa.  A lot of it ends up in streets. We didn’t see a garbage truck or recycling truck once in our 10 days there.  This is common in developing countries that don’t have the infrastructure for such systems, but it is also very shocking to see.  “Enviro” Mo was compelled to take bottles or pieces of plastic out of the ocean or from the streets to a garbage somewhere, but there is just too much of it and no system in place to deal with it. Similar to the plumbing and toilets in terms of ‘rudimentary’. Thailand has squatting holes or simple rimmed toilets that you have to flush by scooping water into from a bucket they have beside it. Toilet paper is thrown into waste baskets generally because the pipes can’t handle it. Washing up requires use of a “bum gun”.  Hotels are very modern mind you so we only had to use these squatters once or twice, but it was an instant reminder of the country we were in.

We also saw many examples of the traditional lifestyle that many Thai people follow.  One example was the Adhan or ‘call to prayer’ that we would hear throughout the day (and at 5am!!), that reminded us of the importance of faith for the Muslim community living in Thailand. If you have never heard it, imagine this call to prayer being broadcast over speakers that entire communities could hear, 5 times a day.  We also noticed that if you want to go into a store you need to remove your shoes first and go in your bare feet. So I took a photo of the shoes outside a store before I took mine off one day when I went to buy some juice for our drinks.  When we were in Ko Phi Phi and having a lunch there at a large restaurant, everyone had to take their shoes off and wash their feet before entering (and eat in their bare feet of course). Even when going to the little washroom on the beach at  Hong Island, there was a foot pool to walk through in your bare feet before you get to the washrooms, because the feet are considered the dirtiest part of the body to Thais. It is a great insult there to direct your foot towards someone so crossing your legs isn’t common amongst Thais for this reason.  Another daily ritual we witnessed was Thai families walking farther out from shore during low-tide searching for crabs and other shellfish to put in their bucket and bring home to cook.  Young men spend their time leaving early on their ‘longtail’ boats or coming in late and having to drop anchor far out because of low tide. For this reason longboats dot the beach and look like a part of the ‘nature’ there.

This blend of a tourism ‘culture’ with tradition and local routine was fascinating to witness. Overall, Klong Muang, which is 15 minutes from Ao Nang, has a lazy ‘beach town’ feel and the pace is slow and relaxed. Life is simple in Klong Muang. The merchants are up early at their stands and stay up late selling their goods along the main street. The houses on the back roads are what you see in these pictures below and everyone is barefoot or on a moped (barefoot). They are friendly and hard working. There are only 4 or 5 hotels in the area and they are discreetly tucked into the dramatic landscape. You can see how quiet our beach was in the pictures below, compared to the crowded beach at  Ao Nang that has massuese hustling you while you lay on the beach. There wasn’t one difficult or unsafe thing about it…just a very relaxing holiday location. Thailand culture was new to us, so we just wanted to share it for others who may remember it that way, or for those who haven’t gone (yet).

Our intention for the April Break was to travel somewhere epic and different.  We had considered a trekking adventure in the Himalayas, but quickly realised that the kids would probably revolt and complain that vacations are not meant to be torturous.   We have always wanted to see Asia, and so we started looking at areas in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia.  After weighing all of the options, Thailand seemed to have everything we were looking for.

We decided on a smallish resort located in the south, in Krabi Province.  The village and beach was called Klong Muang, and it promised beautiful views of the Andamann Sea with spectacular sunsets.

Our journey began with a 6 1/2 hour flight to Doha, Qatar.  The airport in Qatar is absolutely beautiful (so modern!) and we were able to enjoy about 4 hours of shopping and relaxing before jumping on our next flight to Krabi.  It took another 7 hours to reach Thailand from Qatar, so when we arrived we were extremely tired, but excited to have reached our destination.

Upon arriving we jumped into our shuttle (large air-conditioned shuttle just for us) and were immediately aware of the humidity and a host of different sights and sounds.  To say that our senses became acutely ‘alive’ would be an understatement.  On route to our hotel we saw incredible scenery and a business that we were not used to seeing.  Tuk Tuks, mopeds, bicycles, motorcycles all darted amongst one another in a chaotic manner, hustling people in different directions.

We spent the first couple of days settling into our new surroundings and explored the beaches at Klong Muang and Ao Nang.  Ao Nang was about a 15 minute taxi ride (or 30 minute tuk tuk) from our resort and we soon realized that it was a commercialized hub of activity along the beach strip.  We shopped and had dinner there one night, but the touristy vibe and waves of ‘lady boys’ was more than we could handle for too long. Back in Klong Muang, for the rest of our evenings, we found a couple of restaurants right by the sea that served incredible Thai and Western food, so everyone was very happen.  There was also a cool Jamaican vibe, outdoor ‘dance bar’ on the beach with a pool table that we spent a couple of nights at (live music!).  Chang beer quickly became a favourite, and I honestly think that it will be difficult for us to ever find spring rolls that match the ones we ate during our vacation.

We were all itching to explore the islands in Krabi Province, so for our first excursion we rented a ‘long tail’ boat  and spent an entire day touring 4 beautiful islands.  We went snorkelling in crystal clear water and were introduced to beaches that rivalled anything we had ever seen before.  It was a chore to stay lathered with enough sunscreen to prevent a burn while we were in and out of the ocean or pool throughout the day.  Brianna quickly found our long tails shaded hammock, and spent some time snoozing in the shade.  By the time we returned to our hotel we had seen Poda and Chicken Island, and spent some time at Railay Beach.

Our next excursion was a speedboat ride to Koh Phi Phi Don (big island) and Koh Phi Phi Ley (small island).  All of us preferred the small island, and the highlight of the day was exploring Maya Beach (where Leo DiCaprio’s The Beach was filmed).  This trip included lots of snorkelling and an afternoon swim in a beautiful bay.  Greg entertained the other members of our tour by doing backflips off of the bow of our speedboat.  At one point he had about 100 people from other boats giving him a standing ovation in their boats! For some reason, this is not seem as ‘normal’ to them as it is to us. lol

On another day we got up very early and went to a spot called Hong Island.  It was a cool experience because we were the first ones to reach the island, and we had a beautiful secluded beach all to ourselves.  Hong Island is home to the second largest lizard on the planet (the Water Monitor).  We honestly didn’t think we would spot one, but happily, we were we wrong.  During a quick hike through the island footpaths, Greg heard a sound on the jungle floor. He spotted a large Water Monitor strolling through the underbrush about 10 feet away.  He moved slowly into the underbrush while Mo followed him with the camera trying to get a photo before he disappeared.  No fear Mo. We also saw the remains of longtail boats that were destroyed when forced into the jungle by the tsunami in 2004. They have left them there with a plaque to commemorate the 200,000 lives lost in the tsunami. This island was hit hard and there are still signs of it and escape routes to high ground are labeled in case of another one.

While we were at Hong Island we also went to an area called the Blue Lagoon that was surrounded by a mangrove forest. We got to it through a narrow cut in the rocks and once inside, the water was crystal clear and we got out of our longtail boat and walked all around in water up to our thighs (the whole lagoon was this depth). In this lagoon, Greg was asked to have his picture taken with a few people because he is tall and blonde (strange for them). Brianna had the same thing happen when we were in Ao Nang and two boys and a girl wanted their photo with her (“pretty white girl”). They found it ‘odd’ but played along.

Hong Island and Lagoon was the last of our 3 boat tours and then on the 2nd last day of our trip we booked a ride into the interior (about 20 minutes away) to bath an elephant in the river with an elephant sanctuary.  It was only Mo, Greg and Bri that could go in the end because I had picked up a stomach bug. It was only us with the elephant (and it’s ‘leader’), so it was a fairly ‘private’ encounter because it is the end of the tourist season. The kids and Mo got in the river (steep bank to descend) with the elephant and enjoyed about 45 minutes scrubbing him and washing him.  It was a memorable experience.

The day our flight left, we were up at 5am and off to the airport (30 minute drive). Unfortunately when we arrived we found out it would be delayed 3 hours, so we slept in the airport chairs for a few hours before finally leaving at 11:30am. Because of this delay, we had to run for our connecting flight in Qatar but they held the plane for the 40 of us or so that were connecting to Paris. In total we flew about 13.5 hours each way and that day travelling home was a LONG one since there was no break in Qatar. We are now over the jet lag and so happy we chose to see Thailand before returning to Canada in June.

Every April there is a Colour Run in Paris that wraps all along the Seine from Hotel de Ville to the Eiffel Tower. Chris and I ran it last year, but this year we decided the four of us should do it as a celebration of our two years in Paris! It is a 5 km run with 4 colour stations that have music blasting and colour being sprayed at you as you run through.  Being Europe, there are beer stations along the way and a lot of dancing and fun amongst a huge group of strangers! We started our run at 11am and finished about 12:30pm to enjoy the techno dance party at the finish line.

This was how the run started:

Here are some memories from the morning! The four of us are starting to realize that moments like this in Paris are quickly coming to an end, so it was bitter sweet! This was us before the ran began:

After the yellow station:

Color run; so fun!

After the green station:

After the pink station:

After the blue station:

Finish Line:

Concert at the finish line:

Friday morning: Tracey and Marsh arrive!!!

But WTF! Upon arrival at the apartment, the key was not in the planter as so carefully planned – because gardeners were hired for the day and went through the planters, cleaning out the leaves an hour before Marsh and Tracey arrived! Luckily they gave them to the guardian who then gave the key over when they showed up (what are the chances it would be cleaned on that day and just before they arrived?). However, once they had the key,  Marshall got the key stuck in the top lock of the door because I failed to mention our key is for the lower lock on the door.  So, I received some texts about this key problem and left the school meeting I was in, to go and see how I could help. It was already opened though when I arrived to welcome them. 🙂 Marsh had managed to get the key out and open the door!  Then Tracey and Marsh decided to have a nap until about 3:30pm. At that time, Greg came home from school and walked them up to the local bakery for a treat.  After that, Chris and I arrived home and at about 4:30pm we went back to the school to give Marsh and Tracey a quick tour of the reason we moved our lives to France.

Local boulangerie (bakery)

Ghandi’s house on our street

Tracey and Marsh at ASP!

Friday night: La Defense, Louvre and Latin Quarter 

As soon as we got back to the apartment, we decided to go into La Defense, the Louvre, and then the Latin Quarter for a walk. We saw the oldest churches in Paris, the oldest tree, had a fantastic gyro dinner while touring about and then walked past the Notre dame, and Hotel De Ville. We then trained to Trocadero to see the Eiffel tower lit at night, looking over the Champs de Mars. Tracey and Marsh seemed enamoured with the Paris vibe and it was so exciting to have them here with us! We were back on the train at 10:30 to La Defense, but then had to find a bus to St. Cloud because of the train strike, and then UBER to Garches!! Poor Marsh and Tracey – taking double the time to get in and out of France due to the strike.  The rest of the days in Paris though would be strike free, so that was the most difficult travel day (as far as we know anyway :).

L line! Learning the ropes!

Touring the Louvre

Notre Dame at night

Eiffel Tower – l’amour vrai

Saturday: Market, Versailles and Montmartre!!

Saturday morning we went to the Garches village market as we do every Saturday.  We looked at the interesting seafood and chicken parts lying on the ground near the butcher we always visit.  Greg impressed all of us by speaking in French to the merchants, we bought some cordon bleu and fresh vegetables and then Greg and Tracey went for a typical French crepe at the market. We showed Marsh how to weigh produce at the grocery store and walked home with all of our groceries in our wheelie cart. :))

Afterwards, the four of us went by car to Versailles…we toured the stables, reading about Versailles’ history and viewing the carriages.  Then we walked out toward the gardens.  Chris was fantastic as a tour guide throughout all of this.  He has learned a lot about French history from teaching Social Studies this year at ASP.  On the way home we stopped at the La Fayette Memorial in St. Cloud Parc to see the extent to which the French honoured the Americans who volunteered in World War I.

Versailles stables

La Fayette Memorial

That evening we went into Paris again since it was the last night before Tracey and Marsh left for the Netherlands.  We decided an ideal night out would be at Montmartre to see the artistic district and visit Sacre Ceour (the famous basilica).  We took the train to the Abbesses metro stop to walk up the 200 stairs to Montmartre (whew!).  Then we enjoyed the artistic district, had a beer on the steps of Sacre Ceour and were lucky enough to walk through the Basilica during a Mass. It was very moving to hear the beautiful singing in French and we lit a candle for the families suffering from the loss of their sons in Saskatchewan.   After we ate a typical French dinner on the square watching while artists painted across from us.  We ordered typical French food; a Croque Monsiuer and Madame, and omelette complet.  Then we walked down the main strip to Moulin Rouge and our red light district (lots of interesting shops!)  At about 9:00pm we took the Pigalle metro back to La Defense and then a bus once again to Garches…(looked for a bus and found it with 3 minutes to spare!).

We were home at 9:30pm for drinks and a comedy show on TV.  Greg had stuck with us all day – the first time he had hung in there with visitors, but we knew it meant a lot to him to see Marshall and Tracey!

Sunday: Colour Run, Mona Lisa and dinner at Caravaggio’s

The four of us (Wayling) ran a 5km run in Paris – the Color run!!  During this time, Marshall and Tracey went inside the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa and tour at their own pace.  They navigated the trains on their own and we ended the day with a fantastic dinner out at our favourite restaurant – Caravaggio’s in Vaucresson.  The food and wine was excellent and we were served by our very own Daniel Craig who enjoys meeting our visitors each time we go!

Louvre, for an inside look!

Color run; so fun!

Caravaggios, Vaucresson

The next morning, Tracey and Marshall shocked us by being up and gone by 8am without making a sound!!  I had set my alarm for 8:15am to be up before they left to go into Paris and pick up their car, but they were already gone!! We had helped them change their plans last minute to hit Bruges on the way to Amsterdam so they would be able to see 2 different countries during their excursion from Paris. Hopefully they loved both and we can’t wait to hear all about it when we see them this summer!

Thanks for coming to visit Tracey and Marshall!! We wish you could have brought Mike and Brielle, but hope you agree that no matter what, no matter how difficult France can make things,  “Paris is always a good idea!”

Another very interesting weekend abroad! Chris is the Director of the Model United Nations Club at our school and they had a Conference in Madrid this weekend. It required a female chaperone, so I was able to go along. We left Friday morning at 6am in an Uber for the airport, and met 14 students there to board a flight to Madrid. These are intellectual 12-14  year olds and because of their age, it is like we are living a comedy show…they are really too funny for words! Basically ‘young teen’ versions of the characters in Big Bang Theory.

Anyway, we landed in Madrid and had a luxurious coach bus meet us at the airport and take us to our hotel to check in. Only Chris and I stay at a hotel and the students are all housed with families from the conference.

After we checked in, we walked them to a nearby Botanical garden in an old train station and we had lunch there.  Then we returned to the hotel after some souvenier shopping and took our shuttle bus out to the American School of Madrid. The students went to their conference rooms and we had the rest of the day to ourselves. After returning to the hotel, Chris and I walked to a restaurant and had some Spanish croquettes and Dougall’s.

Saturday was a full day, 9am to 9pm at the American School of Madrid, although we are not required to ‘do’ anything during that time, so we went to a nearby shopping centre and found a Tim Hortons.  By the time we got into the hotel that night it was too late to go into the old city centre so we stayed close to the hotel district.

The next day the conference ended at 1pm and so we had the rest of the day until 5:30 in the old centre. It was a magnificent surprise. Madrid has some beautiful squares and a great vibe. Here are some pics of the palace and cathedral.

More than any other city we’ve been to in the EU, Madrid had the most human sculptures in the city (with real humans who set themselves up as statues). I only took a small # of photos of them, but they were everywhere we went!

One of our favourite places was Plaza Mayor and I enjoyed San Miguel market and walking in the old centre. It was a highlight of the trip, this area.

There were so many street performers too and we stopped to watch a couple of them. Here is a very short video of one…

Thank you Madrid and ASP- it was a fun weekend away!

WTF – What? No water?!! Here we were welcoming our good friends the Geens family, and there was a plumber in our kitchen smashing at a massive pipe for the afternoon and our water was cut off for the weekend. WTF! Not only that, the problem wasn’t even in our apartment, it was in the one under us, but they had to access the leak from our kitchen. It smelled terrible because of the old pipes and the wall being opened up and the work was SO loud when they needed to sleep!! We were so sorry about the timing. I was home at lunch (it was a Friday) to welcome them and to give the plumber my two cents in French about the work being done! I asked them to be quick about it and get it finished because I had company needing to sleep. Unfortunately it still took them 2 more hours of banging and cutting through a very large pipe. Following that we had no ‘kitchen water’ for the weekend.

A great reason to go eat at our favourite Italian restaurant in the next village though!!

On the Saturday, we went to the market (clementines, avocado and cheeses!!).  Kerri Lou and I scootered there, then handed the scooters to the boys to come home on. It was down hill all the way for them, so they got the easy ‘share’!

Then all of us (minus Greg who was working) went in on the metro to Trocadero to see the Eiffel Tower up close. It was a fun experience because we met a ‘salesperson’ from Senegal, Africa trying to sell us trinkets, and when he found out we were from Canada, he was very gracious because he explained that Canada helped his village in Senegal.  So he set the kids up for photos and took pics of them. Then he serenaded Carter because he thought it was Carter’s birthday (when Kerri Lou told him it was Carter’s ‘first day‘ here).  After he gave the kids Eiffel tower momentos.

After the Eiffel tower, we walked to the Champs Elysees, towards the Concord. Around the George V metro stop, the boys left us girls to go to the PSG game and then Bri, Kerri Lou and I went for a quaint, traditional French lunch at a cafe near the Louvre.  Greg was trying to meet up with the boys to go to the game because he had been working, and somehow they found each other as planned at the top of the metro by the stadium. Luckily they were all able to sit together at the game (originally their seats weren’t together). Then we met up with the boys again after the game, at the Louvre, which is so majestic at night!

The Geens were wise to take advantage of being in Europe to go see something else during the week; they went to Barcelona for 3 nights. The weather was better than Paris and it sounded like an amazing get-a-way with lots to see and do! I don’t have photos of Barcelona, but looking back at our photos – you would think there were no adults around the whole week; it’s all about the kids! They had fun reuniting and didn’t even notice when the adults were around anyway. It was so easy and fun to host the Geens and to tour with them in Paris. We can’t thank them enough for coming to visit because it was a highlight in our year as well! It’s too bad that our work (and coaching, M.U.N and plumbing problems got in the way of us having EVEN MORE fun together!).

As the phrase goes:  Welcome To France!

…à bientôt Geens family!