Notre Dame, Orangina and Ice Cream!

Life With a Jet-Setting Toddler

Thursday night after our très française pizza we all settled happily into bed.  Until about midnight when Max woke up.  We got him settled back down, then returned to bed.  Until 2am, when Max woke up crying.  Then he was wide awake wanting to play.  Ahhh, jet-lag.  We brought him into bed with us where he continued to fuss and try to get us to play, then finally fell asleep where he kicked and twisted and turned and rolled over keeping us all 3 in a state of half-sleep until we finally got up at 11:00am.  Again I say ahhh, jet-lag!

After a quick trip to the boulangérie (bakery) across the street we fueled up with croissants, pain au chocolat, mini beignets and chouquettes.  Yum!  Then it was off to Notre Dame!

While waiting for the Metro, however, we made the girls’ day and bought a bottle of Orangina from the vending machine.  They are both seriously in love with this classic French drink!

Notre Dame de Paris

One thing Scott and I had been really looking forward to was seeing Notre Dame without the front being covered by scaffolding.  For many years in the 90s Notre Dame underwent a major renovation and cleaning on the outside, so there was literally scaffolding covering parts of its front for years.  It was there on part when I came to Paris alone in 1996, and there was even more of it when we came together in 1998.  So we came up the stairs from the Metro, turned the corner and were greeted with this sight

So yes, the front of the church is clear, but the lovely little plaza in front of it, filled with plants, benches and open space which usually houses various street performers and musicians is no more!  Apparently next year is Notre Dame’s 850^th anniversary and one of the projects they are doing to mark it is re-doing the plaza and adding a “Jubilee Path,” (whatever that is).  Oh well, perhaps someday we will come here and actually get a clear frontal view of the entire cathedral.  It’s a good excuse to come back, anyhow!

The girls liked the cathedral and all the stained glass and couldn’t believe how old it is! 

While we were inside we purchased lit candles in memory of my mom and Scott’s grandma who passed away this summer.
 

Nicole's candle for Grandma Beth

Josie's candle for Meemie

We didn’t make it into the towers of the church today, since the line to do so was very long and we had 3 hungry little tummies with us, having gotten such a late start!  However we did take time to play at the little playground right next to the church.  Check out Max hanging out on a bouncer with the Notre Dame in the background.  How cool is that?

We Finally Eat Some Real French Food

After our chilly, windy play session we strolled along the Seine (oh, how I LOVE the sound of that) reading menus from bistros and cafes we passed until we found one that sounded irresistible and popped in for lunch.  Max charmed the heck out of the 2 older French women sitting at the table next to us with a dog and we had a nice conversation with them before leaving.  After escargot, paté, boeuf bourguignon and penne au basilic we were ready for ice cream!  Yes, it was less than 50 degrees, windy and threatening rain and we went for ice cream!  There is a world-famous ice cream place called Berthillon which is near Notre Dame and we had promised our small traveling companions a post-cathedral stop there so we had to deliver!  It was delicious, but we were all so busy eating that there are no pictures for you to salivate over.  Too bad, too, because Max couldn’t stop taking big messy baby bites of my dark chocolate ice cream and was the cutest, most chocolate-faced little guy you have ever seen!

We headed home so Max could take a nap, let the girls put on a movie then I did a bunch of running around on little errands, including getting French SIM cards for our phones, so we can now call and text each other while here and we now have mobile data again – boy is that annoying to live without when you’re used to having it!  That also means that if you need or want to call us in Paris we each have a phone number you can reach us at.  If you’d like it just send me an email and I’ll give it to you!

One of my errands took me to the grocery store so I stocked up on cheeses, meats and other goodies and brought it all home for a delicious, truly français dinner at home (so much better than that pizza…)