The Louvre (Josiah)

On Monday, April 11, we went to the Louvre.  We took pictures of the pyramids while in line, and then my camera ran out of battery.  We had taken over 150 pictures the day before (Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe).  So, the pictures you see are from Dad.  If I had known. . .  Anyway, in getting to the Louvre, we got a paper that showed us how to get to the highlights of the museum.

First, we looked at the Code of Hammurabi.  I learned that on this code is the rules made by the Babylonian king about 4000 years ago.  They used hieroglyphics to make the rules and punishments for each rule if you didn't follow it.  Hieroglyphics are read top to bottom, right to left, unlike the alphabet you're used to.

Next is the Venus de Milo.  The Venus de Milo was found on an island called Milos, Greece 1820.  I like the way scientists are looking at the sculpture and trying to get information.  For example, they see that the right arm is turned to the left.  Since the left arm looks straight, it's possible that she was holding a baby or something.  It is called Venus because it looks like the Greek god, Venus.

After that, we saw the Winged Victory of Samothrace.  It was found in around 300 B.C in pieces, but scientists fixed it up, which is why the sculpture today doesn't look that good.  By looking at the painting, you can guess that the sculptor had experienced a victory on the sea, so he wanted to celebrate, but nobody can know for sure.

Next is the Mona Lisa.  As you can guess, the only people in the museum who weren't here were at the Venus de Milo.  Well, maybe not.  The Mona Lisa is famous for a few reasons.  First, the background of the painting makes you feel as if you are in the forest with the Mona Lisa.  Also, no matter how you look at her, she's always looking at you.  Kind of like a shadow.  Another thing is that Da Vinci named the painting La Jaconde.  Jaconde is the French word for happy.  That means things were going well in the palace!  And that's why the Mona Lisa is smiling (so I suppose her normal pose is mad and unhappy!).

We had a great time.

Venus de Milo

Mona Lisa

Deborah's Thoughts on Paris

Paris was, uh, crowded.  With people, cars, metro was also crowded.  Not that I thought it wouldn't be.  But living in Barcelona for a month and a half and being exposed to the crowds here seemed nothing compared to Paris.

Metro was similar to Barcelona's, and we figured out the metro lines easy enough.  But not only was it more crowded, it was not as clean (inside and out) and it was older.  Stations didn't have very many seats, so you stood a lot while waiting.  Metro maps were more difficult to read since there were 20 or so lines, and we're used to only 8-9? in Barcelona (which seemed like a lot when we first got here).  But it was an adventure to figure out which line to get on, where to connect, get off, how to get to the next place, etc.  And if most people generally don't look at you or smile or say much to you in Barcelona (they generally don't), they really keep to themselves in Paris.

We had several people refuse our (French) gospel tracts (even when offered by Marianna!)  In Barcelona, most people accept them--especially from a cute smiling child, and about half are friendly about it.  But there was this one man who we gave one to in Paris, and he seemed really interested.  Didn't speak English, but tried using hand motions to ask if he needed to fill out information on the back and mail in.  Also showed us a picture of a cathedral in a magazine and referred to the tract, as in connecting them.  All of this with a "Paris smile" even.

F

Man making crepes

Eager children waiting for crepes

Food in Paris:  as in Barcelona, lots of sandwiches on French bread sold at outside cafe's.  French fries we tried once, and weren't all that great--what's wrong with this picture?  Maybe because it was an outside place that specialized more in sandwiches and crepes.  Crepes we tried a few times.  Too sweet for me, but the children enjoyed them and it was neat to watch them being made.  Beignets were also too sweet for me, but were quite good for a pastry.  Children especially liked the ones filled with chocolate (actually Nutella).  Jam-filled ones were pretty good.  I enjoyed the fresh veggies, fruits, salads, unique juices, veggie quiche tarts, smoothies.  And the little cookies left in our rooms each day were nice too--not too sweet :o)  A bottle of water could range from 1 euro to 2 euros 50 cents, maybe even 3 euros.  Same with juice.  So we found the cheaper places and tried to get it there when we could.  But hey, you can only carry around so much in drinks.  Food in general was way expensive, which we expected.  We just tried to find affordable places to eat/snack, and "mostly" succeeded.  My favorite restaurant was actually a less expensive, less fancy one--a Turkish place (tender chicken kabobs, tasty rice, salad)--delicious!

Enjoying snacks outside the Eiffel Tower (crepes and churros)

Our hotel was small, but clean.  Beds were very comfortable, and the children loved sleeping on bunks.  Each room had a set of bunks and a single.  And having a girls room and a guys room was kind of fun.  At least the girls thought so. :o]



Buildings and structures were very impressive.

Outside Le Grand Palais

Le Grand Palais

Le Petit Palais ("small palace" . . . on a Paris scale, that is)

Le Petit Palais

In front of Le Petit Palais Gate

                              

                                   In Le Petit Palais Garden

Harpist playing outside of Sacre Couer (very nice playing)

"Live statue" outside of Sacre Couer (Funny guy actually; when people walk up close slowly, looking at him, he suddenly steps on hidden horn and scares these unsuspecting people.  Made a group of college age girls squeal--Everyone around laughed, including them, finally.  Hilarious)

Sacre Couer 

Front of Sacre Couer

The Pantheon

We decided Paris for us wouldn't be a preferable place to live, but was a great place to visit.

Here is how our last day in Paris went.  Walked to metro to go do some last day sight-seeing.  In afternoon, we got on metro again, and at last stop, we split up.  Jim and Josiah went to hotel to get luggage, the rest of us walked to tram stop.  We took tram to train station, they show up with luggage a little later.  We buy train tickets, took train to another tram station.  Took tram to airport, airplane to Barcelona, got on bus, off bus, walked to metro, took one line of metro, switched lines, took another metro, walked to apartment.  Makes me tired just thinking about it again.

It was good to get back "home" to Barcelona.  Funny that it felt that way.  Now we can relax a little, slow down some, have some space, and get back to somewhat of a routine.  Sort of.

Notre Dame and Sacre Couer(Kathryn)

Notre Dame and Sacre Couer are both cathedrals.  They have similarities and differences.  Here are a few:

 Notre Dame                     Both                                Sacre Couer

                                       cathedrals

 loud                                                                                quiet

 singing coming from a speaker                        singing coming from real people

                                  many tourists inside

 things being sold inside                                        things being sold outside

As you can see from my charts, Sacre Couer is very reverent.  Notre Dame is older and isn't, well, very supervised.  We didn't see them both on the same day because we had a little misunderstanding.  

You see, Dad was ready to go to the Louvre and Mom wasn't.  So Dad told Mom to meet him, Josiah, Liam, and me at the Louvre when they were ready.  He worked out with her how to get there and everything, and we left.  The Louvre was great and we saw many great sculptures and paintings.  Then we went to Notre Dame and got some crepes.  We went back to the hotel and since Mom and Marianna weren't there, we ate supper by ourselves.  It started to get dark and we got worried they were lost.  Eventually we found them(er, more like they found us)and apparently they weren't lost.  They had a great time.  

Anyways, I'm getting off subject.  We went to the Sacre Couer the day we flew back to Barcelona.  We had enough time, since the flight was at night.  It was better than the Notre Dame, in my opinion, although they were pretty similar.  Sacre Couer had a playground and carousel outside after you walk down all those steps(no wonder it's almost as tall as the Eiffel tower!).  Notre Dame had a few restaurants close by and some places to sit down.

Since Mom's video of her on the swingy thing was such a big hit, I just wanted to let you know that I took a couple pictures of Dad, and Mom also got a picture of Liam.  Here's how they turned out: 

Liam on the swingy thing

Dad trying to swing--you can see Liam in the background

It's not as easy as it looks!  Liam walking in the background again.
Josiah wants to be in the picture too!

Where's the tower?

In a variation of the "Where's Waldo?" game, find the Eiffel Tower in the following pictures:

Ok - this is an easy one

Picture taken looking from the Pantheon

Getting tougher? Taken from the
steps of Sacre Couer

At night, the Eiffel tower "sparkles" for about 5 minutes every hour.

Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Champs d' Elysees (Josiah)

Our first day in Paris, Sunday, we went to the Eiffel Tower, along with the Arc de Triomphe and Champs d' Elysees.  The Eiffel Tower was very high, and eventually we made it up there.  At first, the very top observation deck was closed off.  So, we looked from the 2nd level, and we could see all of Paris.  After we had been there for awhile, Dad got us tickets for a lift to the top, because it eventually opened back up.  Mom and Liam didn't want to go, so they got treats down below, way down below.  There was a fence for people's safety, but don't worry, I didn't get the fence in the pictures.  We came down after about an hour or so.  Then, we had lunch.

Something else I want to mention is that on the walkways within 200 meters of the Eiffel Tower, there are gangs of guys that try to sell replica Eiffel Towers.  Some are keychains, some are bigger, and we noticed that when some guys are selling them, they'll look down the street.  We guessed that they were looking out for police.  Anyway, we bought tons of Eiffel Towers.  Well, not quite that much, but pretty close.

From the Eiffel tower, we walked to the Arc de Triomphe.  There was a wide street around the Arc, however, so we had to take an underground passage.  Some people attempted life-threatening dashes across the 50 yard wide street.  One no-minded guy actually walked across the street!  He gave one car a kick, but it certainly wasn't the car's fault. (See video below.)  Even without people, there's tons of traffic.  Anyway, the Arc de Triomphe bears the names of French generals that helped Napolean during the French War, and also it contains the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a grave that contains an anonymous soldier who died during the First World War.

After taking pictures and looking around, we headed towards the Champs d' Elysees.  The Champs Elysees is a long long road right next to the Arc de Triomphe that has some of the most famous stores in the world along it.  It also contains some souvenir shops.  We ate dinner at a pizza restaurant.

Entrance to Eiffel Tower

All in all, we had a great day.  Time for the pics:

Eiffel Tower

View of people from top of Eiffel Tower

Arc de Triomphe

Names of French generals

More Outings in Barcelona (Deborah)

Marianna on a ride in mall

Marianna and Liam on the Metro

A common sight here--flower covered balconies

Another common sight--picture menu boards at outside cafe's.  "Bocadillas" (long sandwiches on French-type bread) are sold at almost every cafe'.

Enjoying lunch at a cafe' on the way to our walk to the mall

Kathryn plays a Sonatina at music store in mall

Josiah plays "Linus and Lucy" at music store

Getting drinks at street water spouts (and some taking breaks from walking)

Marianna and Liam help choose some fruits at nearby produce stand (there are about 3 of these within a block of our apartment)

The supermercat nearest us that we use most (about a 2-minute walk from our apartment)

Outside small museum (Frederic Mares) in Gothic area of town

Up above at "Museu" Frederic Mares

Down below at "Museu" Frederic Mares 

Spoke slowly, trying to ask a lady to take our picture.  She said, it's okay--I speak English.  We laughed.  

Marianna and Mom outside science museum

Enjoying a rest on Metro ride after a long day of walking and sightseeing

Yet another common sight--large recycle bins on the streets (very Eco-friendly here)

Marianna likes to push the bar to open the recycle bin and throw her stuff in--all by herself