Ottawa to Paris: 2012

Monday, December 31, 2012

Chateau de Versailles

The Château de Versailles, which has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage List for 30 years, is one of the most beautiful achievements of 18th-century French art. The site began as Louis XIII’s hunting lodge before his son Louis XIV transformed and expanded it, moving the court and government of France to Versailles in 1682. Each of the three French kings who lived there added improvements to make it more beautiful...so many improvements that its lavishness helped fuel the French Revolution.

We took the metro out to the end of the line, took a bus to the end of the line, and about 45 minutes later we were at the gates of the palace. The girls were impressed by all of the gold. I was impressed by the crowds. I thought this would be a slow time, but I guess spending Christmas and New Years in Paris is popular.

Impromptu dance in the hallway. Girls Rule!

Hall of Mirrors

Back of Versailles

After touring the palace, we took a lunch break and then returned to the gardens. Kids were tired and it soon the wind was blowing and the rain was falling.

These three were very brave and very helpful in the blustery rain. They were also good sports on the soggy bus ride home.

We did not get to see any of the other buildings or to get a good look at the gardens. We will be back when the flowers are out and the sun is shining.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Mémé and Pépé have arrived!

Pierre's parents are here to help us celebrate the holidays!

They arrived on Christmas day and we did a little celebrating before they arrived. The girls opened these llamas from my parents. My parents bought llamas from the Heifer International and bought stuffed animals for their grandkids. Here are some other grandkids showing off their llamas.

When Mémé and Pépé arrived, we took them on a stroll to the Eiffel Tower. There are lots of tourists in Paris for Christmas. The girls rode their scooters. Lillian has a new, bigger scooter from Mémé and Pépé. Yes, I am the only mother in Paris who requires my children to wear helmets while scooting. No, it is not popular.

Very Happy to have Mémé and Pépé here!

We missed sharing Christmas dinner with Valerie and family as we have the past couple of years. Thanks, Val! After dinner, we enjoyed our bûche de Noël. Ours was a yummy chocolate mousse concoction.

Bûche de Noël are a big deal here. All of the fancy chocolate shops and bakeries sell them. At the fancy places, you can pay more than 100 Euros for a yule log. There are also advertisements for champagne wherever you look. I recently learned (post coming soon) that France drinks half of the champagne it makes and exports the other half--that is a lot of champagne.

We walked by this fancy bakery in the eighth arrondissement today.

For 119 Euros you could get a dessert and an edible chocolate box!

Monday, December 24, 2012

Skating at the Grand Palais with a fabulous dad

The Grand Palais has a rink inside for the first time ever (I think). Pierre took the girls to check it out.

Here is a little history of the Grand Palais from its website:

As from 1867, Paris organised Universal Exhibitions at eleven-year intervals. The French capital witnessed a succession of ephemeral buildings, but some were so popular that they were saved for posterity: the most famous is of course the Eiffel Tower, though it should originally have been demolished when the Universal Exhibition was over. The Grand Palais, on the other hand, was designed to last.

The success of these World Fairs, as they are also known, can be gauged by the ever bigger areas occupied over the years: the Champ-de-Mars at the foot of the Eiffel Tower; the Esplanade des Invalides further up the Seine; a section of the Champs-Élysées; and then both banks of the Seine between the Trocadéro and the Champs-Élysées. The figures speak for themselves: the area used grew from 40 acres in 1855 to 335 in 1900, the year when the Grand Palais was built.
Over this same period, the exhibitions drew ever-bigger crowds, over 50 million people flocking to the event in 1900.

Petit Palais across the street was also built for the Universal Exhibition in 1900

After they grabbed some lunch at the Christmas market on the Champs-Elysées

Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Busy no school Wednesday

Today is the last Wednesday before Christmas break. We are Canadian, so we thought we would ice skate. Actually, if you say "ice skate" in Canada, we Canadians will laugh and say, "you mean skate." Once, when I was not yet Canadian, I wrote a note about a class going "ice skating." I was quickly corrected. Now that I am Canadian, I really wanted to take the girls to skate at The new Grand Palais rink. Unfortunately, it was closed today. However, we have tickets and we will be going.

I thought we should go to Notre Dame and check out the nativity scene there. On our way to the bus, we walked by the Trocadero rink and had to stop for an impromptu skate.

Yes, both top front teeth are now history.

A short bus ride took us to this famous 850 year old cathedral.

I thought the creche would be big and have life sized figures. Instead, it was sprawling and had a river running through it and fires with electric lights that looked like they were burning; the holy family was in a grotto. It was very strange in the middle of the 850 year old splendor.

We headed to the back of the cathedral and played.

Once we were home and had recuperated, we decided that we had better get busy baking some Christmas cookies. We wanted to make peanut butter reindeer cookies and thanks to Aunt Ella, we could!