Independence Day

Go figure! The French don't celebrate the Fourth of July ...

So we had to make our own celebration, minus the parades and fireworks (which will happen on July 14 in France). Luckily there is no shortage of things to do in Paris so we decided to go to the Le Jardin d'Acclimatation. It would be fun for Ella but also get us all out of the house; we were suffering from the blues after Chad and Nicole left.

The Jardin is like a park on steroids! There is always a carnival, a small farmette with animals, playground equipment, a mini-waterpark and flower gardens. The entrance price was 2,90 Euros (not bad), but the carnival rides were about 2 Euros each.

Here are Ella's adventures:

Ella riding her horse around the track!
I've never seen this type of ride back home.

Almost a mini-roller coaster

Bumper bikes and cars just for kids.
This was a "Girls Only" round!

Ella rides her first adult ride with Mama.
This thing went fast!

A trampoline! Isn't there a liability risk here?


Swinging at a playground


Ella checks out the pigs at the farm.

Eric and I had a good time, too! Eric said his favorite part was watching Ella's face on the rides.

After we got home, Eric and I watched two installments of the HBO mini-series John Adams. Pretty appropriate for July 4th. Here's a clip where Benjamin Franklin and John Adams are reviewing Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence. FABULOUS!!

Shopping like Paris in Paris

My brother Chad and his wife Nicole visited last week, and Nicole and I went shopping on their last full day in Paris. I enlisted my personal shopper/friend Heather Price to give us the "Paris Hilton" treatment.

We started the day at the salon. Nicole got a chic new Parisian haircut and color, and the stylist straightened her naturally curly locks. I can't wait to see what it looks like curly!


Then we headed to lunch, where we met a fashion designer with her own boutique in the neighborhood. We headed to the high-end boutique for Nicole to try on some killer fashions. These are my favorites:

Doesn't she look long and lean? So sleek!

Killer legs in a killer tunic!
The sign behind her says it was Sales Time in Paris,
but it was still not cheap enough to make a purchase here.

Cute and unique jacket for work.

After the boutique, we headed to the really swanky neighborhood, George V. We went into Dior like we owned the place and selected a couple of evening gowns for Nicole to try on. Heather and I lounged on leather sofas with fur pillows and were oblivious to the fact that Nicole was in a hot, stuffy dressing room.

I thought she'd get the royal treatment (this was Dior after all) and have help getting into the gowns ... but NO! She struggled her slightly damp, sweaty body into a silk gown and proceeded to button the millions of little buttons by herself! She finally emerged looking stunning in an Ivory gown. They wouldn't let me take pictures, but here is a shot from the Dior collection.

Not Nicky, but I'm not exaggerating when I say that she
looked BETTER than this model. She seriously looked like a goddess!
Price tag: 10,500 Euros.

We still didn't know her dressing room plight, so we had her try the other gown. It wasn't too great, so I'm not even going to post any pictures.

Between the sweat, the silk and the buttons, we were at Dior far too long! Plus we'd stopped at a salon to pick up some hair product ... also taking forever. Anyway, by the time we finally got to the shopping area that was in our budget, the stores were getting ready to close. Yes, some stores actually closed at 6:45 p.m.!

We found a Cop.Copine shop open until 7:30. So we dove in (and I say "we" because I also found a couple of items). Nicole bought a beautiful white dress and gray belt. Since we were pressed for time and I was trying on my own clothes, I didn't get a photo of it. But here is the "official" photo from Cop.Copine:

Again, not Nicole. The dress actually looked a lot different on her.
For starters, no trashy jewelry or pouty red mouth.

We got home shortly before 8 p.m. My brother could not believe that we'd been gone for 11 hours and came back with one outfit. He kept saying, "I should be happy, but I can't believe you only bought one dress!"

Cost of Cop.Copine dress and belt: 65 Euros
Cost of Parisian shopping experience: Priceless (and way under budget!)

So, like, more old buildings and everything

You might think that after a couple weeks we'd have been in all the old buildings that are in Paris, but you'd be completely wrong. Every building here is old, so if you've got a free hour or two, there is always something more.

Here we are in front of the Pantheon, where many famous French are entombed.

I can't recite the whole histoire, but this building was once a church and is now a secular, public site. Not many tourists, and it was nice and cool inside. Especially in the crypts downstairs.

The tomb of Marie Curie, who cooked up the theory of radioactivity among other things. 

On our way to another ancient location, Ella discovered a subway vent. After inadvertently flashing all of Paris, she unwittingly reenacted a famous photo featuring another cute blonde.

Voila! Le chateau de Vincennes. Behind us is the "Donjon" where kings of old lived in luxury, and where centuries later the Marquis de Sade was imprisoned.

JJ listens to the exhaustive history provided by the audioguide.

Interesting tidbit: in the old days one could only access the ground floor of the main building by first going up at the gate tower, crossing the bridge to the 2nd floor, then going down the stairs. This was designed for security so invaders couldn't get in if they got over the first wall.

As someone once so wisely put it: "You've gotta get up to get down."

Visitors and Visiting Versailles

Instead of carrying your stuffed animal around town, you can just stuff it in your dress. Très chic!

So we have company! JJ's brother and sister-in-law arrived on Friday morning. So we dragged their jet-lagged bodies around Paris.

Chad, JJ and Ella didn't make it across the street because they paid attention to the pedestrian traffic lights. 

Eventually we had to eat, so this is what we had. The steak thing is mine and it was terrible. JJ had an egg on top of some kind of sandwich. Chad ate the salad and Nicky had an omelette.

The steak looks way more delicious than it tasted. The other food I guess was good.

Here's a Smart car parked in an open spot.

You-know-who died and Paris held a party in front of Notre Dame to remember his legacy

Returning home from a day out, we got caught up in the swirl of humanity who had gathered in front of the cathedral to celebrate the life of Michael Jackson. It was tense for a few minutes and we had to jump a barrier to escape the crush.

**************

Today we went over to Versailles to see the palace and gardens. Every one in Paris was there with us today. But Nicky had done this before and advised we hook up with a tour because that way we could skip the lines.

This was good advice, because even people with tickets had to stand in line to get in. The groups go in a secret side door, no line!

We were each given a little radio headset and the tour guide spoke into a microphone. That way we could hear the commentary. Understanding the commentary is a different story, however. The guide had a strong accent, spoke very quickly and sometimes other tour guides blasted there own gibberish over our frequency.

I don't think we missed much. The Palace is very large, ornate and fancy. I can understand why people decided to start chopping heads. The scale of the extravagances must have been insulting.

They call it a museum but today it was more like a zoo because there were so many people there.

Here we all are standing one tiny section of the gardens by the Chateau Versailles

They run the fountains on Saturdays and Sundays. It is supposed to cost more to get into the gardens, but our guides made a mistake and didn't charge us for it!

I think this sculpture just about sums it up!

M. Antoinette with kids

The Hall of Mirrors

You can see from this picture that the palace is a large crib

Okay, just imagine that I'm in this picture

Okay, imagine that these strangers aren't in front of the gilded gates of Versailles. This is the biggest problem with taking pictures at cool places in France. You can't get them without having a zillion other people in the shot. It's just toooooo crowded.

So Versailles is a very neat place. Unfortunately, you don't really get to soak it in because you're too busy holding your nose from the foul odors emanating from the press of people trying to squeeze through the rooms.

It's kind of like filling a sausage casing, except it's being filled with people (some of whom really reek).

The bathrooms situated in the gardens somewhere were free, so that meant the hand dryers didn't work. Pas de problème, just shake them and wipe them on your shirt.

Here's one of the emptier rooms. Whew! I can finally breathe some air that did not come directly out of someone else's lungs.

Sometimes all you need is a tortilla and some imagination!