Samedi le 11 septembre

After a rough night’s sleep (Norah woke up a few times crying – she is getting her molars in, yay!) we ate a hearty breakfast of french toast with yogurt and peaches, and coffee, of course, to keep us going for the morning. We left the house at just after 10am for a walking tour. Our first stop was the Place d’Aligre which we never made it to because on the way we ran into a garage sale or “boot sale” along the way. Because Parisians don’t have garages or yards, they rent a spot along a designated street and sell their goods. They are not really advertised so you end up just bumping into them along your way on a Saturday morning. Most sales stretch for a couple of blocks and it’s really fun to walk along and look at all the neat things they are selling. I do, however, find this much more amusing that Richard does… so after conceding that mom and I might look through, it was decided that we didn’t have enough time to go to the market. That was ok with us though, since it was much more fun to experience a Paris garage sale than a food market (we didn’t need food), though it would have been nice to have time for both. To be fair we had quite the docket for the day, so we didn’t really have time.

Next stop was the Jardin de Plantes there are beautiful flower gardens and paths, etc. as I have written before. Today it served as a beautiful walk through as we headed up to the 5th arrondissment to see L’Arène de Lutece – the old Roman ampitheatre we had visited previously.

The 5th arrondisment (or Latin quarter) itself is quite beautiful. Filled with many beautiful old churches, buildings and cobblestone streets. We had a great time walking and chatting and ogling everything around us.

Next was the pantheon, an amazing monument that was first built as a church and then later on after many changes was then turned into a secular mausoleum that houses the remains of many distinguished French citizens. Then a few blocks down we passed the Sorbonne (University of Paris). Eventually we hit a wonderful little area of narrow streets filled with vendors and restaurants. Although incredibly touristy, it hasn’t lost it’s charm. We took some pictures at the entrance, but I they do not come even close to catching the charm. Because we were enjoying the walk so much we forgot to take pictures as we walked. Anyway, we bought some touristy things and mom got me a cute hat. Thanks for the hat Mom O! There were many falafel and gyro stands. They looked so good that we decided to pick a couple up for lunch as we walked through the streets. It was a huge meal. They take a pita (or bun if your prefer) and add taztziki sauce, a salad of romaine and tomatoes, and then pack in tonnes of meat and french fries on top (so much you don’t think it’ll fit) and roll it up into a cone. Such a good idea and so yummy !

Because Opa knew of some organists who played at the Église St. Sulspice, we decided to make it on our way. Inside there was a beautiful and incredibly large organ. It would have been nice to hear someone play it. Norah especially loved this stop because she very quickly realized that the enormous space inside the church magnified her voice and echoed a little. So much fun!

By then we were getting pretty tired, so we headed back home to put the girls down for a nap and put our feet up for a while.

After some rest and coffee at home we decided to go see the Eiffel Tower. Pictures cannot begin to give you the feeling of how big it is! On our way Oma bought a few Eiffel tower key chains from one of the (seemingly) hundreds of men selling tourist trinkets along the way. 4, 5 or 6 for one euro, depending on how interested you look in the merchandise. The trick is to look interested for a minute and then say « no » and walk away. They will follow you lowering the price or offering you more for your euro. It reminded me of what Richard has told me about India…. though most of the men selling the trinkets are not originally parisian.

After waiting in line for about an hour to buy tickets (there was a huge line, but the way the set up the line, it doesn’t look like it’s that long until you have been waiting for about ½ an hour. You then look in front of you and realize that the line winds and turns more than you thought). The wait was totally worth it though. The Eiffel tower is quite an experience and not one you should miss if you are in Paris, especially at night! We were lucky, we got up just before sunset so we got the best of both worlds. By the time we got down, it was dark and we were able to see a bit of the city of lights at night! I think I like Paris at night best, It’s gorgeous and very inviting. It is, after all the « City of Lights »

Sorry I didn’t put up any pictures of our way home. The batteries died in our camera while we were up on the tower, so we used Opa’s and Oma’s camera (Ruth-Ann’s actually) to take pictures of the Eiffel tower all lit up. When we got home we realized that we couldn’t get the pictures onto our computer without the camera cord that was back in Ontario. Anyway, maybe Ruth-Ann will send me a few so I can post them… though I’m sure that by the end of this you are tired of looking at my pictures….

Lundi le 20 septembre

Today is a beautiful, clear, sunny day. I love Paris weather. The girls and I took a walk to pick up a few groceries and then headed to the park. Because the BnF (Biblioteque National Français) doesn’t open until 2pm on Mondays (parisians have weird hours! They are open late on Mondays and not at all on Tuesdays and this is not atypical) Richard is working at home. When he works here, we try to be out of his hair and stay out until lunch time around 1pm. So out we went to the park with my book, a bucket and shovel and Sydney’s trottinette (scooter). I have been reading Harry Potter in French! It has been a great way to practice reading French because there’s almost no complex sentence structure to be found.

Sydney and Norah played nicely in the sand and I stretched out onto a bench to read in the sun. Pretty ideal. And I only had to get up every so often to yell “Non, Non, Non!” take Norah away from what ever toy she had stollen from another kid, or stop Sydney from getting more water for the sandbox.  Sydney is only allowed to get water once… maybe twice, otherwise she gets soaking wet from the faucet and then covered in sand and ends up carrying it all home with her. Also, she doesn’t understand when there is enough water and so the game becomes a giggling fest with the other kids who have now spotted her and are ALL filling up their buckets and dumping water into the sandpit! And little Norah in the midst of it all, as happy as could be, and just as wet.

Soon it was one o’clock, so we gathered all of our things, went down one more slide and walked home.

Vendredi le 10 septembre – Mom and Dad Oosterhoff come to Paris!

Last minute Mom and Dad decided to come to visit us in Paris! They had friends and family in Holland that they hadn’t seen in years, so they first landed in Amsterdam and spent a few days there and then took the train down to Paris on Friday night. When they arrived we had some dinner and then took the girls out for a walk to the park before bed. Not 3 blocks away from our place, you can find a great kids park and a large grass field (where I have taken the girls a couple of times to run around on). The Promenade Plantée continues through this area and over the field by way of a lovely arching wooden bridge. Sydney just loves running up across it, over and over again… almost more than the park itself. After Sydney and Norah finished screaming through the park, they just love being loud, we walked back home, put them to bed and stayed up chatting for a while.

On Frenglish

Dad: “C’est dommage, vraiment.”

Sydney: “Dommage!”

Mom: “C’est dommage.”

Sydney: “I already said it!”

Le 28 août

Today we went to the Cemetière du Père-Lachaise, which was established by Napoleon in 1804. It is a very beautifully laid out cemetery set on a hill in the 20th arrondissment. Here many famous people were burried over the last 200 years as well as WW1 memorials and some French presidents. It is said to be the most visited cemetary in the world. We saw many famous gravestones but the two that left the most impression on me were those of Oscar Wilde and Peter Abelard and Heloise. Oscar Wilde’s grave is visited by many admirers who now leave lipstick prints (kisses) and their names signed on his gravestone. If any of you speak French (though I believe you can find all of them with English subtitles anyway), Paris je t’aime is a great set of films set in each of the 20 arrondissments. Some are even in English. Though you can’t find all of them on youtube, some are there. One in particular is set in the Père Lachaise and you will recognize the actors even! Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek4D7Rrq144. Apparently there is also a New York, I love you but we haven’t seen it yet and so I am not recommending it. Paris Je t’aime is lots of fun though and give you a little sense of what Paris is like.

Anyway, back to Père Lachaise. The story of Peter Abelard and Heloise is most commonly believed to be “one of the greatest love stories of all time”. Some believe that it was not so and that the story was sensationalized. I am going to give a brief and unworthy summary of the love story. If you are interested, I’m sure you can read more on it online. Here goes: Heloise was considered one of the most educated women of her time and incredibly beautiful and Abelard one of the greatest thinkers of the 12^th century (Richard could probably tell you much more of his exploits, but for now he was very famous and even set up his own school at the age of 22!). They fell in love and had an affair behind her uncle’s back. When he found out they were forced to separate, but that didn’t stop them from seeing each other. They continued their affair behind his back and later found out that Heloise was pregnant. Abelard then asked for forgiveness from her uncle and asked for permission to marry her. The uncle assented to the marriage, but Heloise was reluctant to marry Abelard because of the shame it would bring to his name. She finally relented but they married in secret and left with Abelard’s sister. Heloise went to stay with the nuns at Argenteuil. Thinking that Abelard had cast her off, in his vengeance her uncle he snuck into Abelard’s room in the middle of the night and castrated him! Afterwards, they both committed themselves to God and lived lives of celibacy in monasteries. Despite all this, throughout their lives they continued to write love letters to each other which have become very famous. After Abelard’s death he was buried at St. Marcel. However, later on in secret his remains were carried to Heloise and given to her care. When she died in 1163 she was buried next to him. Their tomb was moved many times, but now rests at Père Lachaise.

We really enjoyed walking through the cemetery. There are many old beautiful tombs, much more elaborate than the ones I’ve seen back home. Norah loved figuring out how to walk along the cobblestones. After we hoped back onto our bikes and road home. It was a beautiful day, warm, but showing signs of fall. We even found a Parisian garage sale on our way and Richard bought a couple Asterix and Obèlix books. I think we will really miss Paris weather when we return home…especially since we will be coming from a Paris December of something around 8 degrees celcius (around 46 degrees F for those in the US) to an Indiana December….

YAY! I got my new computer !

Hello All !

Richard’s parents came to visit (I will blog about that shortly) and so we had my new computer shipped to them so that they could bring it with them. We didn’t want to buy one here for a few reasons. One in particular being that I didn’t want a French keyboard. I’m too old to learn new things, lol! Right now I am spending time getting my computer updated, finding old documents and pictures, etc. Luckily, Richard had the more important things on my old computer backed-up online ! Anyway, it is taking a little bit of time to get everything back in order, but I haven’t forgotten you all and hope to have at least one more post up today or tomorrow.
Love to  you all, Elora

Having some fun around the apartment…