Summer? We had summer?
Monday, September 8th, 2008Ah, how fast and fleeting the days of summer!
So much for the poetry. You may have noticed that my blog was missing for most of the summer due to some glitch that it eventually took my eldest son days and days of rewriting code to repair before it showed back up online in late August. Thank you Aaron!
By that time the summer had sped by in a haze of noise (around our house primarily Guitar Hero and Rock Band—endless pounding of the drum set), the rush of boys (friends in and out; excursions to concerts and tournaments; not coming home from friends’ houses at night—Noah; and driving after curfew and pushing the envelope to separate from Mom and Dad before going off to college—Ben); and a hassle of trying to get Ben ready for that first college experience (trying to pin him down on bedding choices, about which he could have cared less; trying to get him to go buy clothes…equally frustrating, etc.).
Finally we managed to corral the two of them into a last minute (last time?) family vacation with an offer of Paris (about which they were excited) and Switzerland (less so). Unfortunately, Aaron couldn’t join us, as he had just returned from speaking at two conferences in Italy and was worn out from traveling. We made complete travel arrangements the week before we left (to the detriment of my blood pressure) but everything worked out fine and we had the most wonderful trip.
We had Paris:
or, rather, Paris had us…as we toured Ste. Chapelle and Notre Dame; took a boat ride down the Seine, seeing this original model of the Statue of Liberty (with the Eiffel Tower in the background):
and took a quick tour of the Louvre:
We stayed on the Left Bank in St. Germain des Pres
near the two famous haunts of Left Bank intellectuals (such as Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir)—the cafés Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore (where we had a stereotypically French waiter):
We spent a day at the Musée d’Orsay, feasting on Impressionists and Art Nouveau:
One of the original Metropolitain signs:
And some incredible Art Nouveau jewelry (the first a brooch by Tiffany):
We had the best ice cream in Paris:
and found that just strolling the streets was an adventure. We passed the house where Rudolf Nureyev spent the last years of his life:
and made a stop near the Académie des Arts at Sennelier, home to the best chalk pastels in the art world, surprised at the tiny size of the store inside:
We wandered the curving streets of the Marais district with its strange juxtaposition of quaint mosaic-clad storefronts and its Soho-like stores bearing the latest in avant-garde fashions:
We explored the Pompidou.
We had killer hot chocolate at Angelina and some phenomenal food at (yes) the Paris Hilton:
Warm tomato soup with basil sorbet and traditional French onion soup:
And then, of course, we waited 90 minutes to go up the Eiffel Tower as the sun was setting.
The tower became bathed in blue lights and then small white bulbs sparkled all up and down its height.
The view from the second level was spectacular. I kept walking around and around, picking out different Paris sights.
I loved being up there so much I never wanted to come down!
