So long, farewell

We bid adieu to Paris and our European adventure. On our last day, we visited the Musee d'Orsay which is a marvel for its late 19th century art collection as well as its home in the former Gare d'Orsay. While we enjoyed the Impressionist artists on the fifth floor, we stood for a long time in front of Chenavard's Divina Tragedia and picked out all the Roman gods that we could recognize (there's the benefit of reading 3 Percy Jackson novels). The girls posted their final pics here.

Our final afternoon was slowish, as we did some last-minute shopping (finding comfortable clothes for Anna who wore exactly 7 garments - not including a daily change of underwear - over the last 5 weeks). Once again facing a craving for non-French food, we had Indian food for dinner (yummmm) and then went home to pack.

The girls reflect on their trip and model their new French attire below.

The remains of the day

Authors' note: We lost internet connectivity during our last days in Paris. In the following posts we bid farewell to Europe.

How do you know when you're ready to wrap up a trip and come home? For us, it was the unremitting hunger for Chinese food. We had gone 4 weeks without a bowl of white rice and our bodies were aching for a little soy sauce, a piece of har gow, a stalk of gai lan dipped in oyster sauce. It was almost unbearable.

So, on Monday, we made another visit to the Louvre (this time with Daddy and the benefit of the audio tour instead of Mommy's best guess about the history of art), met Grandpa for lunch at the Ile de Cite and ran around in the Luxembourg Gardens (admiring the ducklings in the pond!). While wandering slowly back home through St.-Germain-des-Pres, we found a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant. Now, the French are not really known for their Chinese cuisine. Indeed, in an informal survey, we (really, Grandpa) found that most of the Chinese restaurants were in fact not owned by Chinese, but by Thais, Laotians and Cambodians. But, whatever...can we get a bowl of rice with a little soy sauce? Yes? Sold. Table for cinq personnes, s'il vous plait. Chicken with black mushrooms, tofu with greens, sauteed vegetables, fresh spring rolls (ok, those are Vietnamese), fried scallops. We were in heaven.

On Tuesday, we said a sad good-bye to Daddy. Grandpa went to investigate the Opera district while Sophie, Anna and Mommy wandered around the Left Bank (and got lost several times). We ended up back at the Luxembourg Gardens where the girls ran around in the super-deluxe playground and amazing climbing structure. Compelled to have an authentic French meal and introduce Grandpa to confit de canard, we went to our favorite neighborhood restaurant, Bistrot du 7. Not Chinese food, but the Chinese don't know how to make a good creme brulee.

Wednesday was Grandpa's 70th birthday and we spent it in Montmartre, a really beautiful district of winding, steep little streets. We found the Espace Dali gallery which our friends Bill Schneider and Lorraine Wong would love. The girls know enough about Dali to recognize the melting clocks and spindly-legged elephants and to speculate that, perhaps, Salvi was a bit odd. For Grandpa's birthday dinner, we had a lovely meal at Restaurant Lei, just around the corner from our apartment. Although Anna expressed deep concern about Grandpa eating lamb chops (she is partial to lambs, having been born in the Year of the Sheep), we got through it and enjoyed Grandpa's parade of stories (which are always entertaining but of dubious accuracy).

Tomorrow is our final full day in Paris and we are ready. Penultimate photo album is here.

Happy birthday, Grandpa!

Grandpa's in da House!

Grandpa arrived in Paris and we will celebrate his 70th birthday with him! What a milestone!

Even at 70, Grandpa doesn't like to waste a moment. As soon as he set down his bags, we all walked down the street to the Musee Rodin and its wonderful sculpture garden. Rodin has some, um, adult themes most of which emerge from his seminal work, The Gates of Hell. Take for example, Rodin's The Kiss. Why do Paolo and Francesca kiss? (They were reading romance novels together.) Is kissing bad? (Apparently, if it's your brother's wife, it's a 2d circle of Hell offense.) Why don't they have any clothes on? (Sigh.) The Musee Rodin has a completely different dimension from when Mommy visited it at 26. Find Sophie & Anna's pics here.

After a quick brasserie lunch, we headed to the Hotel des Invalides to explore the interior of Napoleon's Tomb. Grandpa has a longtime interest in the Emperor and a comprehensive collection of Napoleon figurines (we think it has something to do with the fact that Grandpa and Napoleon are the same height). There are actually a bunch of military commanders buried in the tomb with him, but Napoleon plainly dominates the dome. The huge sunken crypt is surrounded by images of Napoleon (dressed as Caesar?) bringing administrative order to France under the Napoleonic Code. As Anna would say, apparently, he was a little vain.

Paris encore

Yippee!! As we speed on the TGV (tay-jay-vay) toward Paris, Daddy extended his stay for 3 more days! We arrived at our apartment in the 7th Arrondisement and found big windows overlooking the Hotel des Invalides and the Tomb of Napoleon (and some other guys). Anna rightly identified the famous dome of the chapel as similar to St. Peter's Basilica -- indeed, the Baroque Eglise du Dome was inspired by the one in Rome. (Anna drew St. Peter's dome while we were in Rome. Maybe she'll grow up to be an architect....)

So, what was our first priority in Paris? FIND THE HARRY POTTER MOVIE. We've been waiting, like, a year to see the next installment, The Half-Blood Prince (Le Prince de Sang Mele en francais). And, here it was, right on the Champs-Elysee and in English. Paris-smaris. Get those tickets! Bear in mind that Anna and Sophie haven't seen an English language television program or movie in nearly 4 weeks. Sure, they've blandly watched a couple American movies dubbed in Italian and a funny game show in French. But it's just not the same. After 2 hours and 33 minutes of lush English dialogue and a visual feast of special effects, we agreed...it was sooooo awesome.

Beaujolais Nouveau anyone?

We arrived in the small town of Pommiers, just northwest of Lyon and right smack in the middle of the Beaujolais wine region. Our dear friends, Jean-Marc and Sophie, were wonderful hosts, along with their four children - Louis, Victoire, Columbe and Celeste. Of course, Grandmere Elizabeth, was generous and gracious in every way.

On the first night of our visit in Pommiers, we had dinner at the local Jean-Marc and Sophie castle in town, Chateau de Bagnols. This castle was perfect - just how Daddy pictured it as a kid. It was built in the 13th century and had a moat, a bridge crossing the moat, a central courtyard and beautiful gardens. The interior rooms are filled with Renaissance wall paintings, said to be the most extensive and best preserved in a provincial French chateau. And dinner? Prepared by Chef Matthieu Fontaine, it was simply magnifique. But can there be anything wrong with a meal that ends with 3 plates of dessert?

Every day was sunny and warm and unplanned. Their summer home is surrounded by vineyards planted generations ago by Jean-Marc's family. Our meals were simple but gorgeous. The girls - who have not seen each other since last summer in Lake Tahoe - reconnected immediately and swam, played and swung from the trees.

The highlight of our stay, by far, was Sophie and Anna's adventure on a local ropes course, Au Fil des Arbres. This included walking on tightrope wires between trees and zooming down zip lines (pictures here). Since the ropes course adventure, we have been talking non-stop about where to build a tree house and zip line in our backyard in Berkeley. Here are a couple videos:

We had a wonderful time! Hugs and kisses to all the Merlins!