FAMILY AND FUN - PART ONE

It's been a sad week in Paris with the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral early in the week.  Many articles have been written, many posts have been blogged and many photos have been taken.  There is nothing I can add to any of what has already been said.  It is immensely sad to see this beautiful structure on fire, but in the outpouring of blessings, prayers and well wishes, Parisians (and French in all the country) are encouraged and hopeful.  Certainly, it was an historic moment we will never forget when we remember our adventure here.

Taken the day after the fire when we  went over..us and everybody else!

Nor will Sam and Levi as they return to school from the Spring Break they spent with us last week.  Nikki and her family arrived Thursday early afternoon, and we hit the road.  We joked Nikki had a "schedule" for the week for us, which she did, but it only served as a guide so we never spent time "discussing" what we were going to do today.  Amendments were made when necessary and activities were added when desired.

We boarded the Batobus (a hop-on-hop-off boat) on the Seine and went to Eglise  St. Germain des Pres to show the kids "my star", the star in the renovated ceiling David purchased whose proceeds go toward the renovation of the church.  This is also one of our favorite churches.   Bexley was next on our walk.  It's a men's store David likes that Sam wanted to visit.  He walked out with a scarf that he wore the rest of the trip (and really needed as the temps were pretty cold some days)!!  By then we were needing a little treat so we walked to Odette's (our favorite mini cream puff cafe) for a treat and a hot chocolate and browsed Shakespeare and Company.  Over to Notre Dame (pre-fire) but, as usual, lines were huge so we just walked around then back on the Batobus.

Waiting to board

The next stop was Jardin des Tuilleries that looks beautiful right now with all the blooming trees and spring flowers.

And after all that walking and riding, a little boy needs a great hill to roll down...

These jeans needed washing after this!!!

...with permission, of course!!  A walk to WHSmith where Sam could look for a book he's been wanting and we were all done!!!  We packed our first afternoon with lots of Parisian life - walking, public transportation and cafe-ing (not for coffee for us!!!).  I think we had a good first afternoon and now needed a good night's sleep to get our week rolling.