Heading Home to Holland

After a long day in Paris, no one was anxious to go back to the hustle and bustle. We had seen everything Garth and Preston wanted to see, so I guess I will have to come back to the Musee d'Orsay (where the Impressionist paintings are) another time. We decided to stop at a couple of places on the way home. Our first stop was at Chantilly. They have a grass horse race track where they have a big horse race every year with 3 year old Arabian horses. There is also the Chantilly Chateau (castle). It was a beautiful chateau and so different from the ones we had seen in Germany and Belgium.
Here is proof that Garth is secure in his manhood, he actually put the flower behind his ears himself and he is thinking of turning in his Chevy Avalanche for a Mini Cooper next year. What will be next, will he give up his favorite chair and sports?
It was a long walk to the chateau and we decided we just wanted to walk around the gardens, not inside. Well, did we get ripped off! Most of the gardens were being redone and there wasn't anything to see.

Naturally, Jip and Preston were drawn to the mote to check out the fish in it. If only we had had some bread to feed them instead of just rocks.
We walked and walked and couldn't even find a place to stop and have a drink that wasn't a complete rip off. We figured that in a few years it would be a good place to come visit when the trees had gotten big but they definitely shouldn't have charged us 5 euros to get in. I guess we should have figured something was up when there was hardly anyone else around. Here's the view of the master's house
and here's the view of the servant's house.
It really was a pretty chateau and so we had to take a few more pictures before we left because Preston was just dying to have his picture taken.

We made another stop at Ghent, Belgium and we were so impressed with this city. My guidebook said that it was a medieval city that hadn't been touched by tourism yet. Well we agreed with that because there was a lack of souvenir shops, but the day we were there it was packed with people. Every town and village has a fun fair one weekend in the summer and this was the weekend for Ghent's fun fair.
Everywhere we turned there were beautiful sites - amazing buildings, churches and food booths. We didn't go in any churches because as I have told you, Preston is done seeing the inside of them.
There were street performers and several large stages set up with performers at them, many of which were really good. It was great to hear these bagpipes echoing through this ancient city.

These pictures of Garth and I are from the same bridge just looking different directions from it.

Right in the middle of town and just down the street from the french fry shop was this amazing old castle. Garth said there were tons of castles just like it in England, but I am always impressed by the endless number of castles here.
We had to make a snack/drink stop and went to this shop that was recommended to us by a young girl we met on the street handing out fliers. I'm not sure if you know that french fries were invented by the Belgium's and not the French as was mayonnaise. After getting a "snack" (it was more like a meal) of french fries which come complete with mayonnaise (I guess they felt as though their two great contributions to the culinary world needed to be put together and they are quite good), we headed down to take a look at the castle.
Garth is still working on his french fries and would continue to do so for quite some time because look how big they are, as we all did.

None of us felt the need to spend 8 euros to go wander around inside so we just looked from the entrance.

Then we headed back along the canal bank towards the car.
I don't think I've ever seen a city like this in the US before. "Toto, I guess we're not in Kansas any more."

By the time we got home we were all tired and glad to be out of the car but it had been a great trip to France.

Paris

Friday morning we got an early start because we had about a half hour train ride into Paris. The train station was just across the street from our hotel and we got our all-day transportation passes and just had to wait a few minutes for the train. Everyone was still moving quite slowly this morning and you can see how Garth's ride was on the last video below. Anita and I had our route all mapped out and we switched to the subway and were headed for the the Arc de Triomphe when the subway stopped and a lady near Anita told her we all had to get out of the car. There was construction at the next three subway stops and there was a bus that would take us to where we could get back on the subway. By the time we got to the Arc de Triomphe, it had taken us over an hour and Anita and I saw how we could have taken the train almost to the Arc and then just had one short subway ride and saved ourselves about 1/2 hour. We decided not to tell Garth and the boys.

The Arc was built by Napoleon to celebrate all of his military victories. All the battles he fought and cites that he conquered are inscribed on the walls. The traffic around the Arc is crazy and Preston and Jip just watched for an accident to happen and checked out all the expensive cars.
This picture was taken while I quickly walked across the street with cars headed my way, thus the tilt of the arc.
We walked to the Trocadero and got our first of many shots of the Eiffel Tower. It looks like a dreary day but actually it was perfect. It was warm but not hot because the sun wasn't shining on us. The only place it was really hot was in the subways where there isn't any air movement and lots of people.
All around the Trocadero (and the Eiffel Tower area) there are Africans selling Eiffel Tower replicas, large and small. It is hard to walk around without being accosted by them. "Three for 1 euro." they say as they shake them at you. After a look at the base of the Tower and the lines to buy tickets to go up it, we decided to head to Notre-Dame. While we were waiting at the subway station, several of the African sellers came tearing through the station and ran down some stairs to hide. Garth, Preston and I had no idea what was going on but Anita informed us that they are illegals and that the police were after them. It was kind of exciting to watch but the Africans all got away.

We had another long subway ride that ended in a bus ride also because three subway stops were closed for construction again. We were a bit frustrated that there was no information given to let you know that there were closures ahead. At any rate we finally made it to Notre-Dame. The cathedral is quite impressive (I guess that is why it's so famous), with all the intricate work done on the outside. You can just see the excitement on Garth and Preston's faces! Yesterday at Versailles we had over heard a girl saying that she couldn't hold her camera steady because she was shaking from the excitement of finally being there. I don't think that is the case with Garth and Preston right here.

A shot from the front doors looking strait up the towers.
Of course, the most famous part of the building are the rose windows. They really are amazing. The building is the most beautiful at night though.
From Notre-Dame we walked over to the Louvre. This was the city palace for the kings and queens, and at times it was hard to remember to look at the building along with the works of art because it too is a work of art.
Here my amazing child is balancing the pyramid on his nose! Jason would be so jealous.
So what do you look at the ancient Greek statues or the ceiling?

Here are just a few of the famous painting/sculptures in the Louvre that you might recognize. The Winged Victory.
I'm sure you can guess this one. The picture is bad because of the glass in front of it or at least that is my excuse. Jip and Preston had gotten to the room before Anita, Garth and I and they said that the room was empty and they just walked right up to the painting. But the huge room that houses the Mona Lisa was full when we got there. Jip and Preston assured me that they would get me up to the front of the crowd to take a picture. Instead of going ahead of me, they pushed me from behind! Needless to say, there were some unhappy Muslims as the boys forced me into them from behind.
Some of you might not recognize one of Michelangelo's slave sculptures.
Preston wanted to know just what made the Venus di Milo so famous, just what do you say to that? I don't know. I guess I should have explained that great art is made because usually the artist did something new, developed a new style or had a special technique or unusual skill but I just looked and said, "I don't know." Good answer, former Art Master Presenter.

After a little rest and a drink we made our plans for the rest of the day. Anita and Jip decided to head back to the hotel and Garth and Preston and I headed for Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur. We made it with no interruptions on the subway and while we were waiting in line to take the tram to the top of Montmartre Hill (it is a very steep climb and we had already walked about half of Paris or what seemed like half of it) we noticed this book camp that was going on next to us. If you can see, the guys are doing push ups on their knuckles and on the cobblestones! We also saw a guy doing squats while he climbed the stairs. We decided that we didn't ever want to be in that good of shape.
When we reached the top you can't help but be impressed with the Sacre Coeru, it is so much whiter and cleaner than the rest of the buildings we had seen in Paris and the views of the city were breath taking. There were lots of people sitting on the stairs watching street performers and there was even a couple taking wedding pictures and in their tux and bridal gown and the crowd cheered for them. We saw them again later back at the Eiffel Tower. Paris is definitely a people watching city.

I went in to look in the church (knowing Preston's aversion to the inside of churches and since Garth had gone to find a bathroom) and found that they were having mass. It was so beautiful to hear the Priest and congregation singing in Latin. I felt lucky to have timed it right. I did end up talking Preston and Garth into checking it out.
Views from the highest stop in Paris.
Our next stop was dinner and then we headed back down the hill and looked for a crepe shop. Even though we'd had crepes for dinner, Preston and Garth wanted a dessert one. They make them right on the street and are quite expert at it as you might well expect. You can check out the video below and see the guy make one and finish Preston's with cinnamon and sugar on top. Preston loves those the best.
We then headed back to the Eiffel Tower to catch a boat ride down the Seine and look at Paris at night. We had to wait until 10:00 for all the lights to be on and while we waited we watched the police chase more of the Africans. You could tell the police didn't want to catch them just chase them away. But we watched two Africans run into the subway followed by two policemen and two Africans came and set up shop right were the others had just left. It was just a game for them all and it amused us to watch. The police could easily have caught the illegals since they were on bikes but they didn't want to you could tell. Not at all like Sheriff Joe in Arizona.

As we waited we watched the lights come on on the Eiffel Tower and I continuously took pictures of Preston as the night got darker. It really annoyed him, so I kept taking more and more. There are the European Union stars on the front of the tower and the blue lights were such a pretty color on it. On the hour there are white twinkling lights that go on for about 5 minutes. You can see the video at the end of the blog. When Preston took the video the middle section wasn't working but later at 11:00 they were all on.

We had a great time on the boat tour and watching the Italian family whose mom was yelling at the dad and didn't make it a pleasant trip for any of them. We had no idea what she was saying but she didn't let up and never let the dad get a word in edgewise. Her boys were laughing in back of her but didn't dare let her see. Garth decided that the Italian language is really beautiful and wished his mom had yelled at him in Italian and he wouldn't have minded.
Preston and I had played around with our camera trying to get it to take good pictures at night. We took lots of pictures but on a moving boat it was had have it on a setting where the shutter stayed open longer because everything moved and blurred. We ended up with just a few good opens and unfortunately none of the prettiest building, Notre-Dame.
We went under 27 bridges and all of them were unique and beautiful. Garth declared Paris a beautiful city at night, I guess that is why it is called the City of Lights. We were really glad we had waited until late to take the boat ride.
Just a couple more pictures of the Eiffel Tower all lite up.
We headed straight to the subway station and then to the train station and didn't have to wait but just a couple of minutes for each. We were back at our hotel in about 1/2 hour. It had been a tiring but fun day. Paris is just full - full of people, food, sites, art, tourists, buildings and cars - I guess that is why it holds such a special place in so many peoples heart.

The Eiffel Tower's light show.



The making of crepes.




Garth's train ride in.

Monet's house and Louis XIV's palace

Again we hit the grocery store for breakfast and can you see why Garth is so tempted by the pastries? Of course they had to be part of our breakfast along with some croissants, cheese and good juice today. We packed up our food and decided to head just a few minutes to Giverny and find a nice place to eat. Anita was right Giverny is a beautiful place and we found a great little spot for our meal.
We just had one unwelcome visitor that absolutely wouldn't leave us alone.
Here in Giverny, Claude Monet lived for over 40 years. The house was really interesting because each room was a different color and they were very bright colors of blue, green and yellow. I asked on of the docents if they were the original colors and he said they were. It was filled with Japanese artwork and photographs of Monet in his home with the same paintings hanging on the walls.

Most of Monet's really famous paintings are of the gardens and landscapes here and the actual landscapes and gardens are as spectacular as his paintings. It was exciting to be in places that were so recognizable in Monet's work.
Monet had numerous huge painting of this lilly pond and the Japanese bridge in the background. If you are a Monet fan you can almost see some of his paintings in these next few pictures.


We sat in the gardens for quite awhile and I have about 100 pictures from different spots but I won't make you look at them all. I forgot to add the picture of the boat that he painted so much and without redoing all the pictures of this blog, I can't add it. I guess you will have to come and look at all my pictures when I get home if you want to see it. This is an action shot of Preston and Jip, not much action though.

From Giverny we headed to Paris with a stop just outside at Versailles. This huge summer palace was built by Louis the XIV and every inch of it is excess, from the extravagant gates and courtyard that lead to it, to the ornately decorated rooms, furniture and ceilings, to the expansive gardens in the back. Here we are just entering the first set of gates and you can see how far away the palace still is. It was the hottest day we had had in Europe and the lines to get in were so long and in the sun! Because it was late in the day by the time we got to the ticket booth, the tickets were half price. At least that was some consolation after waiting all that time.Here Preston and Garth are standing facing the palace with the main gate and courtyard behind them. In this picture you would think that there was no one but us at Versailles but you couldn't be more wrong! There were tons of people and the most rude ones were the Japanese. I had forgotten how rude they can be, but after being pushed by their undisciplined children and even the adults, it all came back to me.
Just one of the many elaborate ceilings in the palace.

This was the room Preston had been waiting to see. Can you guess the name? If you guessed the Hall of Mirrors you are right. It was here that the treaty for WWI was signed.
This is a statue to Napoleon and behind it is the famous painting of Napoleon crowning Josephine as empress.
This is the back view of Versailles at the first level of fountains and gardens.
Here you can see Versailles way in the background and we are just at the end of the first grass path on the second level of gardens.
This was as far as we could walk today because it was just too hot and too far. There were golf carts that you could rent to get around the gardens but we didn't ever see where. That would be the only way you could possibly see all of the gardens. As you look behind Garth there is an emince amount of water and the water goes in a cross cutting through the trees. Louis XIV used to bring full sailing ships into the water here and watch battles each other.

This shot is looking out at the gardens from the first level where Preston was standing a couple of pictures ago.
One last shot of the backside of Versailles. After Preston had walked through Louis' bedroom he said he would have started a revolution too if he had seen the king's bedroom and the waste of money it was. It really is something beyond any one's imagination at the scale and ornamentation of the place. Louis almost bankrupted the country by building it. It was used for 200 years and then during the French Revolution it was ransacked.
From Versailles we headed to our hotel room which was on the other side of Paris towards Euro Disney. Anita had told us that the rooms were newer, nicer and cheaper over there and it was easy to get into Paris because there was a fast train. I had booked the room and had know idea if this would be the case of our room. When we set the navigation system in Anita's car it told us it should take us 26 minutes to get there. I guess the system wasn't considering the amount of traffic around Paris. Over an hour later we finally arrived at our hotel and it was in a dumpy area but at least the rooms were nice and clean and the staff was very friendly.

Since it was still a little early (10:00) we decided to head to Euro Disney and watch the fireworks that go off at 11;00 and get a treat. We ended up at the Disney Village and had an ice cream and waited for the fireworks.
It was really weird to be in Euro Disney were it is just like Disneyland and Disney World and we had just been at Giverny and Versailles earlier in the day. Disney is Disney and just the same no matter where you go in the world. The fireworks didn't end up going off until 11:30 and by the time we got back to the hotel it was late and we had a big day tomorrow, Paris!
We were trying to figure out the best night setting for our camera, obviously we didn't find it. Scott, where are you when we need you?!