After some very fattening buffet breakfast at the Toledo Parador we headed up to the Madrid airport. On the way we were going to stop and see a really big palace but we couldn't find it and just ended up driving around in circles until we just stopped at a Starbucks for a pick me up and gave up. We got lost again on the way to the airport and when we finally got there we were definitely glad we hadn't stopped at the palace because if we had we would have missed our plane. Gramps went off in a taxi to drop off Zander and Sarah at the hotel where mommy and daddy would meet them later while the rest of us checked in. Then came the normal airport routine and the 2hour flight to Charles de Gaulle.
We were welcomed at the airport by a guy named Paul in his shiny black Mercedes-Benz. Arrival in style!!! That car was nice! And now we have bragging rights to Zander for having actually been inside a Benz. Our apartment, however was of very different quality to the Benz. We cruised up to the plain red door, fumbled around with the sticky lock, and then dragged our bags up two flights of stairs in a tight spiral. Our door had butterfly stickers on it and the apartment was about half the size of the hotel room we had occupied the night before. It was, as the guy who was letting us use it rightly said, cavelike. There was a tiny room that served as the bedroom, living room, and dining room, and three even tinier rooms containing the kitchen, bathroom, and itty bitty toilet room. The ceiling was sagging , and It was decorated with a ramshackle array of stuff. It was incredibly cute, and incredibly french!
We got organized and rested a bit and then went out to dinner at a brasserie a few blocks from the apartment. It was almost midnight by then, but everything was still open and hopping. The brasserie was one of those places with all the random but funny signs tacked all over the walls. In addition to street signs, funny signs, and hotel signs, there were random nicknacks, old looking books, and all sorts of other stuff on every available surface. If you just glance at it all you would think that some one had raided a flea market and spread it out randomly over the room. But, if you look closely, you see little things that show incredible effort. The colored stones hot glued to the edges of a shelf. The stains on the walls that become ghostly people upon closer inspection. The way everything is placed perfectly for maximum crookedness and cuteness. Someone obviously spent a lot of time trying to make this look carelessly ramshackle. It was fantastic!
The first full day in Paris we went to breakfast at a cafe on our the "food street". The street was lined with artisan shops selling cheese, meats and bread, patisseries (one of which was visited by the Queen of England according to all the postcards out front), pharmacies, grocery stores, and of course about a million and one cafes. Also there was the Palais de Fruit which was a big shop full of the most yummy looking fruit ever!!
After breakfast we went to the island in the middle of the Siene river that has the historic center. We went to Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle, and the Conciergerie. I think you all know what Notre Dame is, but Saint Chapelle is a little church that was made to house the crown of thorns, so it is shaped sort of like a relic box and the walls are almost entirely stained glass. The Conciergerie was the prison for all the people sentenced to death by guillotine during the French revolution. There were four levels of cells: the poor got a little room with straw on the floor and three roommates, the rich could buy a room with a bed and only one roommate, the rich and famous got a room to themselves with a desk and everything, and Marie Antoinette had a room twice the size of the others, with a tapestry on the wall, a table and chair, a nicer bed, and a little alter thingy. Its pretty crazy how different the queen of France's cell was from even the rich and famous people's cells.
By the time we were out of the Conciergerie we were really tired but we used the last drop of energy to stop by the Eifel Tower for like twenty minutes. We just took our pictures and left and don't bother to go to the top. We were too tired! Then we took the ferry back down the Seine and went back to the cave and rested a bit before Bippy and Gramps's friend Sue Ann came. We ate bread and cheese in the main room before they all went out to dinner. I stayed home because I was really tired and not that hungry.
The next day we went to the Louvre which was huge beyond belief so we only visited the most famous things like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. I'm not sure why the Mona Lisa is so famous because it is really small and dark compared to all the other paintings in the room with it. There was a huge crowd around it anyway, and they had it covered in a big glass case. We also saw Napolean III's apartments which were really fancy (lots of big chandeliers). After the Louvre we walked through the Tuileries to Avenue Champs Élysées. We walked up that, stopping in the middle at a cafe near the biggest Sephora in France. We had some really good ice cream there and I walked around in the Sephora. I didn't buy anything because the lines to the cashiers were about a mile long. It was so crowded you could barely move! By the time we reached the Arc de Triomphe at the en of the Avenue, there was no way we would be able to walk back, so Gramps hailed a cab and we got driven home.
For our last dinner in Paris we went across the street to a more modern cafe which had really good Cesar salad. We got there at about 8:30 and the place was absolutely deserted. It was just picking up when we left at 11!! Those Parisians eat late! The next day was Sunday, so all the museums were free entry. We were going to the Musee d'Orsay to see impressionist paintings. On the way there we passed the Louvre and then line was out the courtyard and almost turning the corner of the building! And trust me, with the Louvre that is extremely long; that place is so big! Just past the Louvre we ducked inside a little cathedral just out of curiosity, and we ended up staying for an entire Sunday mass. That is what happens when you travel with Bippy. It was cool, even though I almost fell asleep because a sermon in French is about as good as a lullaby.
Then we walked to the museum and waited in line for about an hour. The line wasn't as bad as the one at the Louvre, but still pretty long! The Musee d'Orsay is full of impressionist art;both paintings and statues. We focused on the famous stuff like Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh. Then we had lunch at a really cool cafe in the museum with awesome Cesar salad and really good ice cream.There was like a fifty fifty ratio of ice cream to whipped cream!! I love the food in France!! By then it was time to walk back to the apartment to pack up and get ready for Paul and his Benz to take Kayley, Gramps, and me to the airport. Bippy and Gramps were staying for a few more days and Kayley and I were flying back to Madrid by ourselves!
Flying by ourselves was not that different from flying with other people. Sure, there was a flight attendant monitoring our every move, and while we were waiting to board we sat behind the desk with them, but other than that it was the same. It was really cool to listen to them talking even though we don't understand French. Their English is pretty much limited to a few scripted phrases including "the plane is delayed 15minutes, but we expect to arrive in Madrid in time". it was delayed more than fifteen minutes, and we did not arrive in Madrid on time.
The flight was uneventful, and when we got to Madrid at around midnight we were escorted to the arrivals place by another flight attendant. This time there was another 'unaccompanied minor' with us. He was a little nine year old kid who claimed to speak nine languages including japonese and Chinese, English, German, and some others. The flight attendant obviously couldn't decide whether he was telling the truth or not! It was the cutest thing ever! Then the little kid said that his mom could speak sixteen languages! I didn't even know there were that many languages in existance!
We met daddy at the arrivals place and then piled in the car to drive to Churriana. It was a sunday night and we had school the next morning. We didn't get home until 2 am! I skipped the first period of school the next day because I was sleeping. It was just study hall so it was okay. Paris was so fun, it was totally worth the lack of sleep, though! We caught up on sleep lying on a beach in Motril for several hours that afternoon, though.
No comments:
Post a Comment