Reagan continued the tradition and made Rock a home made cherry pie with
cherries picked from our cherry tree!
If you look closely you can see Reagan up in the tree.
The kids were all too happy to give Rock his gift; a fire pit! Ok, I was too.
I
have to say, this was a long day. I wanted to give Rock a break and so I
did the lion's share of kid duty today, as I try to do on most Father's days.
The kids were already super hyper and excited about the fire pit and then I let
them have some of the brownies I took to my dad, cherry pie, and then s'mores to top it
all off. Next Father's day we are only feeding the kids vegetables and they
will watch Sunday movies ALL DAY. Rock is so wonderful he put the kids to
bed because he knew I'd had it. He does it on most nights and I wanted to
give him a break today. No, I really did! Proof he is an awesome
father AND husband!
After days of constant walking and sight seeing the most famous of sights, we decided to take it easy our last full day in Paris. We slept in, had our usual crepe for breakfast and bought our souvenirs. We stayed in the hotel much of the day. I blogged, Rock slept. We had one thing planned for the day and that was a concert in the Sainte Chappelle, a beautiful old cathedral with more stained glass than I have ever seen! On our way to the concert we did stop at the Luxembourg Gardens.
Luxembourg Palace
One of my favorite pics!
Love the square trees.
The sun finally peaked through on our last evening in Paris.
Then it was on to the Sainte Chappelle Cathedral, a chapel built by our favorite king, Louis XIV to house France's important religious relics like the crown of thorns. The relics are no longer kept there, but the chapel is such a gem, they had us go through as much security as the Eiffel tower or the airport!
The chapel was so much smaller than the other massive cathedrals we had seen. It was a beautiful and intimate setting for the concert, a string quartet with an accompanying harpsichord. They played Pachelbel's Canon, The Four Seasons and Chaconne by Vitali. With the twilight shining through the stained glass and the amazing acoustics of the room it was the perfect ending to an almost perfect trip to Paris.
Here's a video of Pachelbel's canon. I didn't want to invade other people's viewing so I just filmed the windows. Sorry. You can see the cellist and that's about it. Still fun to listen to, though. I mostly recorded it so that Reagan could here this one. He knows how to play it.
The cafe across the street.
One of my favorite things about France is the medieval architecture mixed with the modern cafes.
We left France the next morning. Our plane left an hour late, so we missed our connection in DC. We were re-routed to Chicago and then had to stay the night there when I got sick. Ironically enough we stayed in the same hotel at the airport that we stayed in when our honeymoon was hijacked by a hurricane and a volcano fifteen years ago. This trip to Europe was our fifteen year anniversary trip so I guess that was apropos, to borrow a french term. But I told Rock I never want to fly to O'hare again. Only bad things happen there. However, I do consider it a bragging point that we have now walked the entire length and breadth of the Chicago O'hare airport. Every terminal, every concourse. When you are stuck there all day and want to exercise, that's what you do. Just in case you wondered, there is at least two McDonald's, one Chili's and several Starbucks in every terminal.
It is good to be back in America. There are things I appreciate now that I never did before. Free public bathrooms-with toilet seats, my native tongue, colorful clothing. In France everyone wore black or dark colors and I stuck out like a sore thumb in my bright pink coat. There were times when I was the only one on a crowded subway car wearing a color other than black. One of these is not like the others... In America people wear bright colors and I am grateful. But I will miss the crepes and the cafes. I will miss the history that oozes from every turret and spire, the amazing architecture and the beauty.
People keep asking me which I liked better, London or Paris. I don't know how to answer that. They were both so different. In England everything was more orderly, its people more reserved, but it felt more like home, less foreign. In France things are big and messy, more flamboyant. The buildings are huge, the street signs crooked and covered with stickers people stuck on randomly. The people more loud, more emotional. It felt more strange, but I loved the personality of Paris. It was a wonderful adventure to see these two countries, these two cities, and compare them to each other, compare them to New York and America, to home. I guess that's what world traveling is all about. I'm a lucky girl to have seen them all.
The Paris Opera house, also known as the Palais Garnier after the architect, might be my favorite building we toured in Paris. It was extraordinary! And we wouldn't have had time to see it if the Seine had not flooded and wrecked our other plans. This is the opera house Phantom of the Opera was based on. Turns out there really was an accident in this opera house that gave the author the idea for the novel. Just after it opened, a counterweight that held up the chandelier (not the chandelier itself) fell on some poor woman in the audience and killed her. And there were rumors back when it was being built that one of the workers asked to live underneath the Opera house and was never seen again. And there IS a lake under the opera house. When Garnier was digging the foundation he ran into an offshoot of the Seine and no matter how they tried to work around it, they couldn't fill it in. So he finally decided to create a cistern type place down underneath that just held the water. There was also a young opera singer named Christine who was supposed to sing the night the opera house opened, but mysteriously canceled and never actually performed there.
There were a lot of people there the day we went and so I will use some pictures from the internet so you can see it without all the tourists in the way. Besides which, all of these buildings look better in the sun, which did not show its face on our trip until the very last few hours of the last day we were there.
Entryway
The Grand Staircase
Me!
The auditorium
While we were on our tour they had this mostly closed off because of a practice going on. But they let us peak through a small window to see a single ballerina dancing on the stage.
The Door to the Phantom's Box
The Grand Foyer, where guests would gather for h'orderves at "intervals".
Here's a video of this amazing ceiling.
The lake underneath the opera
We didn't get to see the lake on our tour because apparently you have to pay for a guided tour to see it. We didn't find that out until after the fact.
View from the balcony
Ballet costumes from the Paris Ballet Company
A statue on the outside of the building
Phantom of the Opera has always been one of my favorite plays, but I've never read the book. I started it as soon as we got home. I'm hooked already.
Opening paragraph:
"The Opera ghost really existed. He was not, as was long believed, a creature of the imagination of the artists, the superstition of the managers, or a product of the absurd and impressionable brains of the young ladies of the ballet, their mothers, the box-keepers, the cloak-room attendants or the concierge. Yes, he existed in flesh and blood, although he assumed the complete appearance of a real phantom; that is to say, of a spectral shade."
Saturday morning we
braved the crowds to finally see the Eiffel Tower up close
and personal. Just like everything in France, it doesn't
look that big in pictures but when you get up to it, it's HUGE! Honestly I did not expect to like it as much as I did. For a big metal structure it's
quite beautiful. And even
nonprofessional photographers can get amazing pictures of this thing. You will probably get sick of all the
pictures, Rock got sick of me taking all of them. I would ask him a question and then see a good
shot and stop to take it while he kept walking and talking…to himself. But there were just so many great shots. I'm sure the family photographer, Sam Hymas,
could teach me a thing or two about quantity vs. quality.
Believe it or
not, I think this was a light day for tourists because of all the
bad weather.
We decided to skip the lines for the elevators and walk up the stairs. 330
steps to the first upper level and then 370 more to the 2nd upper level!
We earned our crepes that day!
Here's the view from the first level of the Champs de
Mars
Our view was cluttered by
preparations for a big soccer tournament happening a few days later.
So here is an uncluttered view for you.
I love the buildings and square trees all over Paris.
A cool display showing all the different ways they have lit
up the Eiffel Tower.
Another view of the flooding Seine. One of these boats was
going to take us down the river on a romantic evening cruise.
Mother Nature had other plans.
Panoramic view of the Seine
View from the North
We left the tower to go tour the Paris Opera House and then came back that evening to watch it light up.
Got this one on the way.
More flooding...
Even though there were signs that warned, "For your own
safety, please do not buy from street vendors," Rock
risked his life to buy me some roses.
Some beautiful wildlife in the park below.
For five minutes at the top of every hour the Eiffel Tower
Sparkles!
Thank you for taking me to see the Eiffel Tower, Rock.
