THE List

We've been home for 5 days.  Publishing these final posts to conclude our French adventures has just made me more grateful.  Grateful for 33 days together as a family, with only one thing to focus on:  each other.  Grateful for new perspective.  Grateful for this once in a life time opportunity.  Grateful for each member in our family, just a little more.  It's probably been the hardest for me to come home.  The realities of distraction are here.  Hopefully I will get distracted from the most important things a little less because of these 33 days.

Throughout the trip I asked the family two questions:  

1.  What are you SO glad we brought with us or purchased on the trip?

2.  What did you think you couldn't live without, but found that you can?

Things we couldn’t live without:

CLOTHES- Thank you Emme for stating the obvious!

Toothbrushes- We had to buy a few, which were forgotten.

Tide To Go Stick-  Wish I had brought 2 more. One for Grace. One for Anthon. One for the rest of us.

Bandaids- Had to purchase another box in France.

Ipads with portable, chargeable speakers so all could enjoy the stories

Chargers including car chargers for all electronics

Greathall Productions- Stories on Ipod-  Totally check this website out.  www.greathall.com

Cameras with extra batteries or car chargers

Kung Fu Panda- Thank you Anthon for your contribution to the list.

Laptops

Converters for the outlets

Umbrellas- For rain and shine.

A very good map

Cash & change

Good strollers that recline!

Skype on iphones

"Wiffy"

Things that we thought we couldn’t live with out but found out we can:

Chi flat iron- Can do it, but it's not pretty.

Sippy cups

Clothes dryer

Full size fridge

TELEVISION-  Thank you Grace for your contribution.

Good pillows

Good mattresses

Shower curtains

Air conditioning

Backyard

Legos

Trains

Tape

P.S.  Matt will be concluding our journeys with one final post on Why France? and a brief description of our travels home....when he gets home from work.  He's got a little catching up to do!

Luxemburg Gardens

Our week in Paris has been a fun filled, metro riding, famous site seeing week!  We could not have spent any less than a week in this culturally rich city and felt like we had gotten to see and feel the rhythm of Paris.  On Friday when we evaluated our Paris “Wish List” and then consulted with the Olsons and Thorns, they agreed that we had seen all we had hope to see and experience for the week, so we decided a day at the park and lots of patisseries were in order for our final day in Paris.  Paris has many amazing parks to chose from.

Saint Dennis Arch

Our last day to ride the Metro.  A man was playing an accordian
in the tunnel so Grace & George took a few spins.

We once again took a few tips from Rick Steve’s and his list of great parks in Paris and headed to the Luxemburg Gardens for a Puppet Show in the park.  They present puppet shows every Saturday in a little puppetering theater in the park.  Although the show was in French, it was animated, clever, bright and attention keeping and worth every euro.

  

We then spent hours and hours playing, laughing and eating our picnic in this fabulous park right next to the puppetering theater.

Grace couldn't get enough of this rockin' ride.

Matt models his toga.  It was a little chilly.

The final croissant.
Emme will go through withdrawls.
She had at least one every single day.

Emme's ingenuity.  A cardboard spoon.

I've gotten very good at using my lap as a cutting board.

Mr. Erik getting a spin.

A mini Statue of Liberty

After the park we purchased a last souvenir or two, hit the Patisserie for a few last indulgences, bought the kids their last gelatto, and grabbed a few goodies from the choclatier.  Can you tell what we are going to miss in America?  We concluded the perfect day with our last dinner in Paris and then home for packing and bed.

Oh, I could have cleared out the entire store, but I had discipline!
(Which by the way I totally regret now.)

Tomorrow our adventure comes to an end as we head for home.

Date Night

An entire month without a date night, we think not!

We enjoyed two date nights with the Erik and Katie in Saint Aignan, enjoying good food and adult company.  We’ve spent many weeks together, but these evenings were our most treasured time to connect and talk as adults, without focusing on the children. And while the parents were away, the children did play!  (and eat, and watch movies, and…..)

We felt comfortable in going out because we were literally across the street from the children, because delicious restaurants were right next door.

"Okay already, when are you
going to leave on your date?"

The gang enjoying their French pizza dinner...

Gourmet! (But our dinner out was better.....)

You'd think they have been deprived of television or something.

2nd Date night

We found out the restaurant didn't begin dinner serving until
7:30, so we went for a lovely walk up to the chateau.

Note the candid approach....loved the honesty and
they were much better speakers than they let on!

Erik & Katie

Delicious dessert!

When we arrived in Paris, however, we did not feel comfortable leaving the children alone without a phone and any way of getting a hold of us in a gigantic city, so we traded off.  Papa & Grammie watched our children while we went out art shopping and to dinner and we were able to do the same for Erik and Katie.  It was fun to just hang out with the kids and eat a delicious patisserie (Thanks Olsons for the treat!).

Paris Date Night

Paris patisserie visit.  Absolutely divine!

Little boys playing Knights.
Big boys spinning on swivel chair.
Big girls planning the next big dramatic performance.

Views from Above

The magnum opus of the Paris experience is The Eiffel Tower.  Today was our day!

A few months before we came.....thankfully.....we purchased our tickets to the top.  With much anticipation the children waited in the line for the first elevator.

Surprise!!  Papa and Grammie did not have advanced tickets....because they did know they were coming to Paris until just two weeks ago, so we were sad that they would not be able to go up with us.  We had planned to meet them at the bottom at 11:00 a.m., but when we got off the elevator, there they were!!  They had arrived early in the morning and had stood in the line to purchase the "Walking" (stair climbing) tickets....and that's what they did and TOTALLY surprised us!  It was so fun for us that they were not left out of this experience.  Several times the children had said, "It is so sad that Papa and Grammie can not got on top of the tower with us."  They did it again....tricky grandparents!

"Papa, hey, how did you get up here?!
And look, I have a loose tooth!"

Erik drives a hard bargain for two Eiffel towers...

Look at him really checking them out...
amoungst the 49 other vendors selling the same souviners!

A quick bite at a street side "take away" stand... Can you ever get enough chocolate crepes?

Next, we headed to the Arc de Triumph, which is the structure Napoleon comissioned to be built to honor his great military victories.  Such a humble man.

L'arc de Triomphe

The tomb of the unknown soldier.

A five lane round-about intersecting with six main roads means no driving rules.

A view of the Champs-Elysees from the L'arch de Triomphe

Dad Grimmer, this photo is for you.
We thought you'd get a kick out of it....

Ice cream for the walk on the Champs-Elysees.

Our final Metro ride home for the evening.