Snapshots of Paris

This is also me, looking at my Father
who seemed to never stop taking photos...
 till I stole his camera to get the next picture while at a stop light.

<----This is one of our bus signs.

Momma, acting like she is by herself.

One of the few things that makes Isaac look small.

This is a neat building, and we have no idea

 what it is!

 Belle's thinking that the picture I want has been deleted. I agree.

Bear...listening to the tour guide while
 watching Micky take a picture of the aforesaid unknown building.

First Bear chased Belle... but she didn't like that....

SO she chased him!

In the Neighborhood ... Jaulzy

Jaulzy ... north of Paris ... midpoint between Compiegne and Soissons ... small village featuring the pearl-of-a-gite discovered by my dear husband via the internet ... home-base for the first half of our French get-away.

After traveling through a few extra countries along a more scenic route than we had planned (thanks to the non-driver neglecting to check the appropriate boxes on the navigation screen), we turned off the main "highway" and attempted to mimic the windy, magenta path of the little car on the GPS screen.   Upon arriving, we met an older, bubbly, French lady who gave us the grand tour of the gite, explained the keypad outside the front door, and asked us some personal (purely speculative on my part) questions ... all in French.  Not a lick of English.  My "Bonjour, Madame" did not advance the conversation a bit!  Still, even with this incredible lack of communication, she handed us the keys and let herself out the door with an "Au revoir." 

While most of us began to settle in or to prepare dinner, others took to exploring their immediate surroundings. 

The narrow one-way lane running in front of the gite

The church just up the hill from the gite

After dinner, the rest of us joined in the explorations of the neighborhood.  Two cameras snapping consistently still could not keep up with all our eyes beheld.

A small chateau down the hill from the gite

A neighbor's lovely garden and view of the valley

Sometimes seeing is not enough ... sometimes you just need to become one with your surroundings ...

One of the things that I think surprised my mom (yes, she is brave to travel with us!) was how patient you need to be in order to see the sun set in our neck of the woods.  The photograph below was taken around 10 PM-ish! 

View from just outside the front of the gite

Throughout the week, we shopped the Compiegne market, caught a scene of "Merlin" being filmed at Pierrefonds Castle, visited Noyons - the birthplace of John Calvin, and endured the rain to investigate the ruins of Chateau de Coucy.  At the end of the day, it was good to come "home."

Hangin' out at/of the gite

Paris ... A View From Atop

Let me say right up front, one day in Paris is NOT enough. And one blog post containing a handful of pictures will not do it justice, but allow me this attempt at an overview.

After a hearty breakfast at “our” gite in Jaulzy, we piled into the mini-van, drove 30 minutes or so to Compiegne, hopped on a train to Paris, paid our 50cent-Euro (per person) to the keeper of the toilette in Paris-Nord (second busiest train station in the world after Grand Central Station in NY!), navigated our way through a few city-blocks of Parisian foot-traffic to the appropriate Metro station, purchased tickets and eventually pushed everyone (and stroller) successfully through the turnstiles and onto the waiting train, found seats or poles to hang on to for the 10-minute ride to the Opera House station, climbed the stairs and emerged to this …

Oh, the sights and sounds of Paris --

but alas, our next objective was to find one of these …

If you are trying to pack as much Paris as you can into a single day, we highly recommend the Hop On / Hop Off Bus. Here are some of the captured moments (and who did some of the capturing) atop the big red bus …

Inching through traffic along
the Avenue des Champs-Elysées toward the Arc de Triomphe

While we know Micaiah's shutter had little rest,
we are somewhat less confident that Bear was listening to the English-audio tour! 

No Paris-post would be complete without a shot of the Eiffel Tower.

Did I mention it was an incredibly beautiful day for sightseeing?

Or for a wedding?! 
This is probably a common occurrence, but we found it entertaining!

26 million visitors to Paris each year ... we call this one
"Lonely Man on the Bridge"

OK -- this is a ground-level view of
The Louvre
Our final destination

Ahhh, the sights and sounds of Paris...
Maybe one day is too much.