Madeline films Luxembourg

Madeline's Greeting from Versaille

Day 2 Paris

Today was our second day and we intended to hit the Eiffel Tour first thing before the lines developed and then use the second day of our open air tour bus pass. Problem was that we woke up middle of the night thinking that wouldn't get back to sleep and the next thing we knew, it was almost noon! This jet lag thing is a real bugger. We changed our plans and headed to the famous Luxembourg Gardens to relax and play. Madeline sailed a boat on the man-made lake, played with the Parisian children in the child's playground area, rode a carousel and saw a puppet show (all in French of course, but as we discovered in the morning, much like the Pink Panther, it didn't matter because you could tell what was going on). While we were at the Gardens, it clouded up and began to spit a little rain. People were running for cover and putting up their umbrellas and we were thinking that they were all wimps until the sky opened up on us. It was still warm -so wasn't so bad. We used the second day of our pass and rode the open air bus in the rain to the Madeline Church where we went in and were in awe of the massive structure and beautiful artwork. We stopped for a little espresso across the street to wait out the deluge that had developed and then hopped on the bus to head back to our Parisian home. We grabbed a french pannini and a baguette on the way back to eat with cheese we bought the day before and some wine we bought at the market right next to our apartment. The wine was chosen blindly off the shelf and wasn't very expensive - but it was very very nice! Denise is putting Madeline to sleep now and I'm going to wrap up this message. Tomorrow we will explore Versailles, take a boat tour of the Seine, walk through the Marais district and get some world famous ice cream at Berthillon Glacier. Monday and Tuesday are museum passes to hit the Louvre, de Orsay, Rodin, Arc de Triomphe andNotre Dame. Finally on Wednesday, we'll pack our bags, leave them here and explore the Montmartre and then head to the airport to move on to Italy.

Day 1 in Paris

Hey everyone. We got here safe and sound - finally! After a long 9 hour flight into Heathrow, we had a 6 hour layover that extended to 7 hours after delays to our connecting flight. Madeline slept a total of 3 hours for two days - you should have seen what that can do to this girl. When we got into Paris, we discovered that they lost my bags - luckily, Denise and Madeline's came through just fine. This meant a little more delay at the airport to straighten out the details and then off to our Paris home. My bags came middle of the next day - so no real harm done. Our first day consisted of getting pasteries and coffee in the morning, meeting with our Paris Genie (personal planners for $75 - fantastic suggestions and inside info on where to go!), waiting for my bag until around 1:00, exploring our neighborhood and then hitting the open air tour bus. This was a great way to soak in much of Paris on the quick. We got lots and lots of pictures and video while riding in comfortable 73 degree sunshine. This gave us a lay of the land and has helped provide some scale to the maps we've been studying.

More First Day in Paris

First Day in Paris

We are here! got in last night at 8:30 ish finally. Madeline finally fell asleep in the taxi on the way to the apartment and was un wake-able until 330 in the am when she was excited like it was Christmas morning. I finally got her back to sleep for awhile, now we are watching Pink Panther because everything else is in French. :)

I am showered, finally after 2 days of travel and the airline lost Eric's bag - it should be delivered today. So he will be on 3 days of same undies....

Update - Eric got his bag - said Gracias to the guy - now we are all good.

***This morning we went out and got croissants and espresso, Eric asked for another cup because it was too hot, the guy laughed and mimed the shape of a woman and pointed at him (translation: Eric is girly, can't take the hot ... ) then he shoved his fingers under the running espresso machine water to show how he could take the temp. Eric says - I think we have found our morning boulangerie.... !!! all is good.