sept. 13.  2012

day four

we woke up to a surprise today, and not a good one.  it sounded like someone was drilling right in our room, it was so extremely loud.  right outside our window some guys were working, and it was so loud that we left that side of the flat and went to other rooms and closed the doors.  i finally went back to sleep, and so did the others that had woken up, but it wasn’t enjoyable at all.  of course, the people we rented the flat from, never pick up their phone, and then after emailing them, they said they can’t help work that is being done in paris.  unacceptable!  obviously, that’s why we got a good deal!  it’s a cute flat, i will take pic’s tomorrow before we leave.  jarom was joking, that that’s probably why the owners rented it out this week, because of the construction.

we left the flat this afternoon, with the lovely smell of fall in the air today.  oh, so breezy and cool.  september is such a great time to visit paris.  we have not had lines anywhere we’ve gone, including the louvre.  we showed them our museum pass, and walked right in.  it wasn’t very crowded in the louvre either.  seeing the mona lisa the first time two years ago, there were hundreds of people vying and pushing with shoulders to catch a glimpse and raise their arms over others to get a pic.  today, only maybe 40 people were standing in front of mona, it was easy to get to the front, much more enjoyable.  walking the halls of the louvre, with the old stone, and all the historic artifacts is very exciting.  all this history, each telling a story from the past, needing to be told.  it’s fantastic.  we saw “mona” and other beautiful art by leonardo di vinci, “venus di milo,” and a lot of  other beautiful paintings and sculptures that we have no idea about.  you walk through seeing people getting dowloaded on info either with a tour guide or headphones with info, and we were happy just hitting the few important sites in our eyes with four kids!   we teach our kids to not look at inappropriate pictures, obviously, so it’s a little shocking to them as we walked around seeing many naked sculptures left and right.  alex said, “i’m going to take pictures of the guys showing just the upper part.”  good idea!

we walked out of the louvre through the pyramid, and enjoyed the front of the grounds, which are immense!  we kept walking the opposite direction of the louvre, toward the obelisk, with the trees changing and beautiful lanes to stroll down, it was breathtaking to look at.  of course, everyone needed an ice cream along our stroll, which made the view even better!

after the louvre, we headed to the mall, called-galleries lafayette.  we did get to pass the opera house, which is gorgeous.  we made it to the mall…i don’t really care for the mall here, probably because the prices seem double to triple.  but we did grab some healthy food in the mall, which isn’t a normal thing in the u.s.-quite the opposite!  the girls kept saying they wanted to go to the mall and shop, so it was good for them to see it, and realize we really didn’t “want” to buy anything there.

we finally headed home, exhausted, and ready to journal our day and get to bed.  also, we are bummed the bread stores are closed, because we ate what leftover baguettes we had when we got home, and it’s kinda gross how much you really enjoy snacking on bread!  plus, it’s pretty cheap.  we can get 6 croissants, 2 baguettes, 2 chocolate rolls, and 2 chocolate baguettes for 12, 50 euros.   we have an early day tomorrow, packing up all our garb and setting off for switzerland.

good night.