Paris

Yesterday we finally made it to Paris. Not through Paris on the plane, or in a Paris train station during a strike, but really to Paris.

We had an early start, getting up at 6 a.m. for a 7:15 a.m. train. (Remarkably, we left the apartment a minute before our deadline - a first in our family! I guess that's the difference between taking the train and driving yourself!) On the train, Mark and I had to sit in one half of a club car (two sets of seats facing each other), while the kids sat together a few rows back. We've had good luck up to this point with our TGV train reservations, usually being able to get a club car as a family. However, this time the train was very full, and we had to take what we could get.

It was a slightly uncomfortable trip as we sat across the club car with a mother and son who didn't seem inclined to talk. Usually if people take an interest in us (especially our English), we chat with them about who we are and what we're doing, but this pair just didn't seem interested. It's not surprising, because most French people try hard to give everyone their own space. This might not be a French thing, but possibly a fact of life where many people are forced to live together in a small space. By ignoring other people in the tram, train, or bus, you have the illusion of privacy.

As the train rolled through the outskirts of Paris, Mark and I discussed how little we thought the city would impact us. I commented that no matter what else Paris is, it's just another city - a big collection of buildings and people. As we were entertained on the Paris metro by an enterprising duo with a trumpet and saxophone, I started to change my view, to think that maybe there is something special about Paris. And then we got to the Louvre. I just wasn't prepared for how the sheer immenseness and beauty of it took my breath away - and we weren't even inside the museum yet!

The first thing we did was to track down the Mona Lisa. We got lost a few times and went around in a circle once, but we (and about 100 other people) finally found her. It's a wonderful painting, but I think a bit overrated now. Her image is everywhere, and it almost seems anticlimactic to actually see the painting. You can't even get very close to the painting anymore, and if you want to see it without 20 people in front, you have to queue up with the 100 other people there to shuffle between a set of ropes. I had thought that photography wasn't allowed in the museum, but I was shocked to see many people pull out their digital cameras and take a picture, flash and all. I cringed for them, as I thought for sure they would be wrestled to the ground by a group of security guards. However, when that didn't happen, I reluctantly took out my camera and snapped a shot of Mona (because you can't go to the Louvre and not get a picture of Mona!) I was so unenthusiastic about getting a picture that both kids took the camera and got their own shots. I think we ended up with two semi-recognizable pics out of the 10 shots that we took.

Once we got Mona over with, we spent a bit more time looking at paintings on the way to the Roman and Greek statues. We had gone to the Louvre with a mission in mind - to combine the kids' Fine Arts and Social Studies classes with a comparison/contrast essay on Greek and Roman art. Although Meghan is in grade 5 this year, our teacher had suggested that both of the kids do grade 7 Social Studies, which covers ancient civilizations. It's a great idea, allowing the kids to work together on projects and study something that is more relevant to them this year. We'll be able to do some incredible field trips!

Around lunch time we exited the Louvre and headed out to look for something to eat. We found a little stand between the Louvre and the Tuileries gardens and grabbed some petit pain fromage (Cameron loved them) and a sandwich poulet for Mark and me. We camped out on the grass with several other people and some very brave pigeons and sparrows and ate our lunch in the sun. We could see the Eiffel Tower in the background and debated about whether to return to the Louvre for the afternoon or strike out for some other attraction. In the end the Louvre won out, partly because we had already sprung for the tickets for the day, and partly because we didn't know how far we would have to walk to see anything else.

For some reason both Mark and I were a little disheartened by the morning in the Louvre, and so we returned with heavy steps. However, the afternoon turned out to be a more enriching experience for all of us. The kids were absorbed with finding and taking pictures of the statues that they would use for their reports, and we got to see some really interesting parts of the Louvre like the dungeons of the original building, a chateau built by Charles V. Although we hadn't planned it, we also spent some time looking at the Egyptian and Mesopotamian rooms.

About 5:30 p.m., exhausted and hungry, we gave up and went to find some supper. We headed back to the train station on the metro and looked at the menus of a few restaurants before deciding that we didn't really want to spend 50€ on a meal that might not work for all of us. We ended up buying some groceries and eating supper while camped out at the train station. (I did regret our decision to not eat in a restaurant after biting into my third baguette/bun/pastry of the day. I could have killed for some hot food!)

After a three-hour train ride and an eight-minute walk from the train station, we were home at the apartment in Strasbourg again. I was so tired that I don't even know when the kids and Mark got to sleep, because I beat them all to bed!

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