Four Americans in Paris

When we first started planning this trip, we told the kids they could pick a country to visit for their birthday, and if it could be worked into the itinerary, we would go there. Emma immediately said Paris, and never wavered from that decision. She couldn’t say why, she just thought she would like it. She made a good choice.

This was my second trip to Paris, the first being 19 years ago. It is exactly as I remembered it; beautiful, with lots to see. Though we were there for an entire week, we never ran out of things to do, and for many of the things we did, there was not enough time.

Since this was Emma’s choice of places to visit, (though we would have visited it even if she had not chosen it), we let her plan our week here, with a little help from Margit. Day one we spent taking a bus tour of Paris (courtesy of one of the city buses, with Rick Steve’s Paris’ book as our guide), visiting Notre Dame, and then visiting the Shakespearre bookstore (Bjorn’s favorite thing we did in Paris).

The second day included a visit to the Rodin Museum sculpture gardens, a trip to Napoleon’s tomb, a tour through the Military Museums, and for Bjorn, another visit to the bookstore to hang out and read. It was a packed day, and fun. Rodin’s most famous sculpture is “The Thinker”, and it was worth the visit if only for that.

Napoleon’s Tomb was another impressive site. Tomb is really not the right word to describe it. It is a large building that looks somewhat like a cathedral, with a huge golden dome, visible for a long ways. It is hard to believe that they built such a large and impressive structure for one man, especially when one considers all the troubles he ultimately brought the French. I guess they mainly focus on his amazing, though in the end, transient, accomplishments. Connected with that are a series of museums, including ones on military history. We mainly focused on WW I and WW II. They were well-done, though I must say it is interesting to see their history from a French point of view. Like all nations, the French tend to gloss over some of the embarrassing aspects of those wars, and enlarged their contributions beyond what others have traditionally viewed them.

The third day was Emma’s birthday, and for that big occasion, I will let her describe the day’s activities. It was her 11th birthday, and that was certainly the highlight of a day full of highlights:

September 29
Today is my birthday. We woke up and had pancakes, and went to the Eiffel Tower. We took the stairs to the first floor. We could see all over Paris. Then we took the stairs to the second floor, which had pretty much the same view. We walked forty two stories of steps. Then we got in the line to go to the top. But we had the wrong ticket so we went to the Luxembourg gardens. We went to a large fountain where you could rent sailboats and push them around with sticks. After that, we went to the Red Wheelbarrow Bookshop

-Emma

The fourth day we spent at Versaille. It’s lavishness is amazing, both from the view of how nothing was spared to make it beautiful and impressive, and that they (read that the king) made the decision to spare no expense. In the end, too much money was spent, and it ended up being a major factor in causing the French Rebellion.

Day five was spent going to both the Louvre Museum and the Orsay. We knew that we would not have enough time to see either one by doing them in the same day, but we did not want to burn out the kids with museum overload by taking too long in them. In the end, I think we could have done it differently, as the kids both seemed quite interested in viewing things, even to the very end. Or perhaps it was the right decision, as they did remain interested.

Yesterday, day six, was our kick-back-and-relax day. Though there was still much to see, we thought the kids needed a day to relax. That afternoon, we finally headed out for a bit of shopping. When we said goodbye to our four year-old nephew, Zach, back in Minnesota before we left on the trip, he gave us one of his rubber ducks to take on the trip. His name was Fred. Unfortunately, back in Prague, he must have found a female companion, for he abandoned us there. He has been missed mightily since that time. (He has shown up in many of our pictures, and has been a source of entertainment both to us, and to spectators watching us position him for pictures). Since Italy, we have been searching for a suitable replacement, without success. Yesterday we decided to make a more concerted effort to find one, and we finally did. Following that bit of shopping, we split up, as Bjorn wanted to see the Catacombs, and Emma wanted to see the Monet paintings at the Orangerie Museum. Unfortunately, Bjorn and I got to the Catacombs just after they stopped letting people in for the day. Instead then, we went to Notre Dame, and visited the underground diggings under the plaza in front of the cathedral. Interesting, but it was not the equal of the Monet paintings, or probably the Catcombs.

Today we are on our way to Marrakech, our first stop in Morocco. We will have over three weeks there. Not enough time to see the entire country, but hopefully enough time to get a feel for what the country is about, and see some of the major sites. Because of the high cost of Europe, we had decided to do the Reader’s Digest version of it; quick and to the point. That pace would have burned us all out if we had kept it up. Now we will take our time more. For me, Morocco has great attraction, and I was the one who pushed most for going there. There will be Arabic architecture, age-old markets (think Indiana Jones), ocean beaches, tall mountains, and the Sahara. It should be interesting.

Mitch
October 3