An Amazing Day at Giverny (Wednesday)

So I know you all got to get dressed up on Wednesday, and I know there was the awesome neighborhood party and fun trick-or-treating in Heatherstone, and the Harvest Party at Westgate Chapel, and Trunk or Treating at The Church at MCA.  That all sounds great, and yes the kids were sad to miss it, but we spent our decidedly un-Halloween-ish October 31st at Monet's house in Giverny, where there was not a pumpkin in sight.  And. It. Was. Spectacular.

This was the first time there for all of us; it isn't somewhere Scott and I went when we were in Paris last time, nor did I do it when I was here by myself.  It was actually Nicole and Josie's idea.  We spent the 6 weeks before we left on our trip doing a unit study on France (history, culture, language, art) and we did a lot on the Impressionists.  One book we read was about a girl named Linnea who gets to take a trip to Paris and go to Giverny.  The girls really, really wanted us to go during out trip, too!

Waiting for the Metro - these guys are getting really good at this whole train thing!

Giverny

 

Giverny is just outside the modern-day town of Vernon, which is the closest train station.  We started the day with another train ride of about 45 minutes or so.  This time, however, it was not on either the Metro, or the RER commuter trains, but rather on an actual SNCF (national railways) train.  For this one we had to pre-buy tickets for a particular timed trains (on this line they run about 90 minutes to 2 hours.  For both the Metro and the RER you just show up and hop on one as they run continuously).  Just outside the Vernon train station there is a line of charter buses that wait for every arriving train and take you out to Giverny.

Once you arrive in Giverny you walk through several streets to get to Monet's house itself.  The town itself was so quaint and cute; it was like something out of movie.

A little soap shop in the town, nearly across the street from Monet's house, has a bubble machine going, which was a huge hit with the kids

 

The House

 

It is amazing to me that, after Monet's death, then that of his adult children, his home and gardens fell into total disrepair for many years.  Several years and a lot of money went into restoring both so that now they are supposedly just as in Monet's day.  Photography is not allowed inside the house, but the Fondation Claude Monet's website has beautiful photos of the inside if you are curious.

We were able to go into the house and see the studio (complete with a picture of Monet himself standing right where we were, with all the same furnishings and artwork!), as well as the kitchen and dining room.  Monet was well-known for entertaining fellow artists for dinner.  Being in the famous yellow dining room was especially cool, thinking how pretty much every other well-known impressionist and many other artists living in France over the 40+ years Monet lived at Giverny had sat around that same table discussing and debating art!  Upstairs you could walk through Monet's bedroom.  It has two large windows that open out over the garden.  Imagine waking up to this view every day - how could you help but be inspired?

The Gardens

The weather was absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed walking around the sunny gardens before heading to the pond.

The main path through the garden, which appears in so many of his paintings!

The Water Garden

 

The waterlily pond was definitely the highlight of the trip!  There is a bench placed at the far end of the pond, with a perfect view of the Japanese footbridge, just as you've seen it in so many paintings.  Sitting there, looking out over the pond you could just imagine Monet himself standing right in front of you, painting the scene over and over in different seasons and in different light.  It was very, very cool.

First view down the pond when you enter the water garden

Can I just say how excited I was to find two actual waterlilies still blooming on October 31st?!  There is a white one in the left-middle of the picture and a pink one just to the right of middle.  Yay!

Here we are on THE Japanese bridge!!!

And all of us on it!

This is the view from the bench, across the pond to the Japanese bridge

The girls were really excited to see it in person!  and I love, love, love Max's smile here!

And again I love, love, love Max popping out to say hi and smile in this one!

 Lastly, over on the other side of the bridge and the little floodgate that lets water into or stops water from entering the ponds we found the green boat, also seen in many paintings!

All in all it was an afternoon very well spent.  This is now on my list of must-see places for friends heading to Paris!

A Quick Refueling Stop on the Way Home

 

The train station where we caught the SNCF train out to Giverny happens to be at the top of a shopping mall.  Weird, huh?  Well when we came back into the station and headed down the escalator towards the Metro stops at the bottom of the mall what did we see but another Starbucks.  Snack, anyone?  Yes please!

Now remember that it was Halloween.  And Starbucks is of course an American company.  And the folks that work there, bless their little hearts, did their best to make it Halloween-ish.  The had a couple orange and black balloons taped up in a corner, a giant fake hairy spider on the front of the cash register, and a string of the weird black fake spiderweb stuff stretched across the front of the counter.  So far so good.  Then they had this:

It was a little smaller than a volleyball and I'm not sure what it was, exactly, but I know it was not a pumpkin.  We were joking that I guess in France you decorate anything you can find that orange and vague-ly roundish.  Then we walked over to the other side of the counter where you wait for your drinks and saw this cultural travesty:

Yes, yes, those are oranges.  Facepalm.  Toto, I don't think we're in American anymore.

On the plus side, they did give the girls candy and they didn't even have to say Trick or Treat.

Yes, Josie does look sad because Nicole had just told her that her candy bag was cola-flavored, but have no fear, we decreed that they had to share the other, fruity-flavored one, so her smile quickly returned.  :)

No Photos. Wait...what?! (Tuesday at the Musee d'Orsay)

Formerly Jet-Lagged Toddler Update

Yes indeed, Mr. Max slept all night again.  Whew.  I think, I hope, I pray that I will not need this heading in any more posts.  Yay for sleep!  And boy did we sleep.  One different thing about Disneyland Paris is that their nighttime show doesn't start, say, a half hour before the park closes.  They say it starts "at the closing of the park" and they mean it.  That show didn't start until 10pm sharp and it lasted a good 20+ minutes.  Then we had to get all the way out of the park with the giant mob of everyone else doing the same, get to the train station, take our 40 minutes train back into central Paris and change Metro lines.  We didn't get home until about midnight.  Everyone was so exhausted that the next morning we slept until 10am!

Musee d'Orsay

Yep, that's where we went Tuesday.  But you'll just have to trust us when I tell you that, because the Musee d'Orsay has a new (~1 year old) policy of no picture taking AT ALL in the museum!!!  Gah.  We have lots of lovely pictures from our last trip here of us with our favorite works of art and of the beautiful architecture and layout of this museum housed in a former train station; just not from this trip.  Double gah.  Well, ok, we have two contraband photos that Scott took before we realized that their annoying little graphic on the sign meant "No Photos" not "No Flash" like everywhere else.  At least our story is that they were taken before that...don't ask too many questions.

If you'd like to see what the rest of the Musee d'Orsay looks like inside, or see some of the collection, head to their website, 'cause we sure can't show you.  Triple gah.

In the past, the Musee d'Orsay was my favorite museum to go to, since it is the museum with the most Impressionist works.  Today, however, it was a bit chaotic and there were many fellow tourists there who were downright rude!  We had the stroller for Max and of course the girls were walking, and let me tell you, wherever these people come from they must have either figured out cloning of full-grown adults or they just ship kids off at birth to be raised in giant farms because they did NOT like children.  Many of the side rooms in the museum are quite small, so everyone files past each painting in a little moving circle, feeding into the next room.  More than once someone shoved in front of the stroller as Scott was pushing it, getting between him and the paintings; there was also much huffing and puffing and obvious annoyance at the girls, as though they certainly didn't belong there.  I'm happy to note, though, that the joke was on them as Nicole could clearly tell the difference from across the room between, say, paintings by Cezanne and those by Monet thanks to all the French art we studied leading up to our trip!  :)

We did however, get some stroller-love out of the trip, from the staff at the museum.  We arrived at the museum around 12:00 (having added a leisurely breakfast and getting ready time to our already leisurely morning sleeping in!) and found about 65,000 people waiting to buy tickets and enter.  Hooboy...so we got into the back of a long line that snaked back and forth and back and forth throughout the whole outdoor plaza and wondered how long this would take.  Then this incredibly nice man who I think was one of the chestnut roasters (more on them later) came up and told me we could use the side entrance because we had the stroller.  Wait, what?  That one all the way over to the right with the wheelchair sign on it?  That one without ANY line AT ALL?!  Really?  Sure enough, they let us walk right through.  Not so much as a moment's wait.  Ah, what a blessing with 3 kids who were not looking forward to the wait!

Our Little Corner of Paris

So, since we have no breathtaking photos for you from Tuesday I thought it would be a good time to show you around our little place.  The apartment we are staying in is right in the 7th arrondissement of Paris.  You can see where that is on this handy little map that I borrowed from another site.

That's us, down near the Tour Eiffel!

This is a very, very quiet area of Paris.  Our area, on the east side of Les Invalides, is not actually touristy at all.  Our street itself (rue de Varenne) is where many embassies are located, as well as the homes of several of the French Ministers (Minister of Finance, Minister of Education, etc.)  At each corner of our street there are policemen on duty 24 hours a day.  There are also armed guards at each and every driveway of significance (each embassy, each minister's residence, etc).  We definitely don't feel like we have to worry about safety around here!

Our closest street corner.  The guys in black with their back to you are the policemen stationed on the corner 24/7.

The bakery just across the street from us

The blue door is our apartment building entrance.  We are up on the 7th floor.

The "Elevator"

Yes, you saw that right, we are on the 7th floor.  But luckily the listing said there was "an elevator."  Of course we wouldn't be here if it hadn't!  Ha!  We arrived the first morning and found that yes indeed, there is an "elevator" but it is what is known as a "luggage elevator."  This small format elevator was put into many older French buildings lacking space for real ones once they had become commonplace.  It is basically just deep enough for a big suitcase to fit in (not much deeper than a paper grocery bag is wide).  You can definitely use them for people to go up and down too, which we do daily, but it is definitely strange being in such a tiny little elevator.  I've taken pictures of Scott inside it so you get an idea of scale.  On the second one you can really see how shallow it is compared with his shoes.  The whole thing is about twice as wide as you can see, so we can fit one of us and two kids, or you could fit two adults if both stood straight, side-by-side and facing outward like he is.  Luckily the kids all love the mini-elevator!

Our Apartment

The apartment itself works well for us.  There is one big bedroom with a double bed, which the girls are sharing.  (These photos are from the apartment listing on the rental site we found it on, http://www.abritel.fr/)

The living room also has a couch/futon that turns into a bed, which is where we are sleeping

The kitchen area has a nice big table, as well as a fridge, stove, sink and washer.  Yes, in the kitchen.  In France washers are usually in your kitchen, though sometimes in a bathroom.  Laundry rooms are nearly unheard of, even in bigger homes.

Note that I said it has a washer, NOT a washer and dryer.  This is something I did not realize before we arrived.  After we packed quasi-lightly, planning to do laundry while we are here.  With 3 kids.  For 18 nights.  Oops.  The French actually typically don't like dryers, believing that they "cook" your clothes (which is kind of true, clothes do break down faster when they are dried.)  Since the French typically buy less clothing, but more expensive clothing meant to last, they do not subject much of it to the dryer.  So now we are learning to wash a small load at a time and hang them to dry.  The shower has a built in collapsible drying rack and we have a 2nd standalone one in the kitchen.  So eco-friendly (and y'all know that's my first concern.)  :)

Freshly washed jeans hung to dry over the tub

Distilled Water as a Controlled Substance

The one thing we haven't quite figured out is how to do this whole CPAP thing for Scott in France.  His machine has a humidifier and you're supposed to use distilled water in them for a variety of reasons.  Well distilled water isn't sold in the grocery store here in Paris like it is at home.  A search online revealed that is it usually only available at a "Pharmacie."  Now you have to understand that a Pharmacie is not like an American drugstore, like Rite Aid or Walgreens.

Pharmacies here do not sell makeup and nail polish, chips and beer.  They sell over-the-counter and presciption medications, as well as a few other "natural" products of the pharmacist's choosing.  In fact you cannot even buy OTC medication in most grocery stores, all of this passes through the Pharmacie.  Les Pharmaciens here are also not quite like Pharmacists in the US.  I'd say they are a bit more then Pharmacists, a bit less than Doctors (they are even specifically trained to be able to identify poisonous mushrooms!)  People often go to them first for various maladies, so sometimes you can have a wait to speak to one.  So I went into one of our local Pharmacies (they are all identified by large green neon crosses and each arrondissement has at least one that is open 24 hours, which is impressive in a city where you cannot find a grocery store open after 8pm or any grocery stores or restaurants open on a Sunday evening...).

When it was my turn I explained to the Pharmacien that I needed distilled water.  He looked at my strangely and I explained that my husband has a CPAP machine that he needs it for.  He asks how much I need...a 1/2 liter?  A liter?  I said at least a liter, saying again what it is for (I think the machine holds at least 2 cups in the reservoir for each night!)  He thinks a moment and decides that, yes, he can sell me some, as apparently I had an appropriate justification.  He said he will have to go into the back "to fill it."  A few minutes later he comes back, I kid you not, with a glass bottle for which he has handwritten a tag.  It feels like something you would have gotten from the Apothecarist long ago.  He announces that it will cost 6.50 Euros.  That is about $8.50!!!  And this is for 1 liter.  At home I get about 4x that much (1 gallon) for about $1.00.  This had better be some dang awesome distilled water. 

Sneaky (Well-Rested) Parents and Happy Kids: Monday with The Mouse

(Formerly?) Jet-Lagged Toddler Update

Yep, you read that right.  Wahoo!  Max slept all night long.  We awoke feeling like brand new people; and he was the usual much happier version of himself, too.  It is a wonder what sleep will do!

Unsuspecting Kids

Sunday night the kids asked, as they do everyday, "What are we doing tomorrow?"  We said "It's a surprise."  Well of course then they REALLY wanted to know, but we stood firm and said "We'll tell you at breakfast."  The second I got back from the bakery with the breakfast goodies they were all over me "Ok, can you tell us now?  Now?  Now?!"  We all sat down to eat and we said "We're going to...Disneyland!"

Nicole's expression was priceless.  It was clear she was thinking "Huh?  Um, Disneyland is in California..."  LOL!  So thank you to those of you who knew we were indeed going to Disneyland Paris (or even knew that there WAS a Disneyland Paris) and kept mum on the matter.  They literally had no idea that such a thing existed, and were elated when we assured them that yes, we were seriously going to Disneyland!  Yay!

The Parks

Disneyland is about 75km outside Paris so we once again got to take one of the larger RER trains out there.  So much of it feels just like being in Disneyland in CA, but there are definitely some differences!  For example many of the "lesser" Disney characters get top billing on souvenirs and in the fireworks show.  Like Remy (the rat from Ratatouille), Lumiere (from Beauty and the Beast) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  But of course, ils sont tous francais!

They have many of the same rides, though of course the talking is mostly in French.  We went on It's A Small World (Max LOVED it!), which was already decorated for Christmas.  The music alternated between "It's A Small World" in French and "Jingle Bells" in English!  We also did Star Tours (in French), Pirates of the Caribbean (all dialogue in French, but the Yo Ho song in English), Peter Pan (in French) Dumbo, and rode the Carousel (which had way fancier horses than in our Disneyland).

It is the 20th anniversary celebration this year

In the entrance plaza

Just inside the main gate, in front of the train station.  You can see it is all decked out for the 20th anniversary AND for Halloween!

More Halloween decorations at the gazebo

In front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Alice in Wonderland is Nicole's favorite ride at Disneyland so she was disappointed that they don't have it here, but instead they have Alice's Curious Labyrinth.

In line for It's A Small World, Josie's favorite ride.  And now, Max's, too!  :)

Ok, so this is the best picture in Small World, but since Josie is blurry in it, here is another one where you can see her.

The Castle from the back side.  They have really beautiful stained glass!

Le Spectacle

One major difference was in what they call "Le Spectacle" (the show).  It is not just fireworks like we have seen them at Disneyland, but rather a show involving some fireworks, and lots of images projected onto the castle (which is supposedly Sleeping Beauty's castle, but looks WAY different from the Disneyland CA one!), and a bunch of water effects from the moat around the castle, a little bit like World of Color in California Adventure.  It was very, very cool.  If you're a Disneyphile I highly suggest you check out this video of the show that I found on YouTube.  If you watch nothing else, at least check out the Genie's song (from Aladdin) part that starts at about 6:50 and lasts a little over a minute.  In person I think it was seriously the coolest effect I've ever seen in a show at Disneyland.

Cool YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-xYKcJj0bw

The castle at night, waiting for the fireworks show

Max (wearing his new Disneyland Paris hat under his hood) pretty much just loved everything about the day!

Next Time

We'll have one more day there near the end of our trip, at which point it will theoretically be decorated for Christmas!!!  I can't wait!

There are actually two different parks, Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios.  We only made it into Disneyland this time, but will try to hit the other park next time too, where they have The Tower of Terror, a big Aerosmith-themed roller coaster (yes, you read that right), a Toy Story Land with several rides, and a Cars ride.