I missed the fourth of July and all the fireworks since I was at the beach in Corsica. So today my dad took me to 56 Rue Jacob, the spot where the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783.
The Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolutionary War between the United States of America and Great Britian.
Here I am standing where Benjamin Franklin and John Adams were 230 years ago!
Me, in front of 56 Rue Jacob (was Hotel d’York)
Beach!
Pool!
Kayaking!
Ping pong!
My mom and dad signed me up for Mini Club Med. The first day was tennis and stuff and then we went to the pool and had a swimming test. It was really easy.
I met a new friend from Poland.
The next day I went kayaking then I went to my mom and dad. Then my dad and I went kayaking and then had lunch. Then my dad and I went kayaking again with my mom.
Every night they had funny plays. My favorite one was the slow motion races because the performers kept beating each other up and it was really funny (and in French!).
On our last day we walked to the front of the resort and the taxi was five minutes late. When we got the airport I was kind of upset because it was small. We had to walk to our plane. Our plane was Airbus A319.
We landed in Paris and took a train to our apartment. The train was packed! I was smooshed between a lot of strangers. Layli’s head was smooshed in some guy’s backpack.
On Sunday we went to the Paris flea market (Marché aux Puces).
There was really boring stuff like clothes (which are not fun to look at all) and purses and other stuff. While my mom and sister shopped, my dad and I listened to street performers playing guitar. He really liked it.
For lunch we had pizza. It rained like crazy and then suddenly stopped!
At dinner time we weren’t really hungry. Mom suggested we just have crêpes. We went to this place by our apartment. The guy who made crêpes was very interesting. He is from Turkey, lived in Scotland and now lives in Paris and makes crêpes!
Yesterday we took three trains to get to Versailles.
We took a guided tour of the palace. The tour guide asked if I wanted to be a king or president and I said no. Parts of this place have been around since 1623 – almost 400 years!
I learned a lot about French history too. I learned that kings had several bedrooms and secret doors to their other bedrooms. Some bedrooms were just for people to watch the king wake up!
We took a snack break at Angelina’s before going out to the gardens. The gardens are huge! Nearly 1000 acres! My mom rented a golf cart and drove us around.
[Carin has a good set of pictures from her visit this past Friday.]
“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.” ~ Oscar Wilde
Paris is awesome!
We went to a place called Rose Bakery [Editor’s thanks: thank you parisinfourmonths.com!]. We (not me!) ate all this weird stuff [it was an assortiment de légumes].
Afterwards, my grandma, my mom, and my sister went to the mall [Galeries Lafayette] and looked at all this girly stuff.
My dad and I went to a hobby store [EOL] and looked at all these models. Then we went to a gelato place and I got some lemon gelato. As we paid, the cashier dropped the coins in the trash!
Then we went to a bridge with a whole bunch of locks. Each lock means you are in love with someone. Then we walked back to the apartment and rested our feet.
[This is a special three-author post. The Dad had an opportunity to visit before the other shoes arrived.]
The Dad (Sunday, June 16, 2013)
I’ve been to Paris many times. I’ve walked around the Louvre Palace and the Pyramid. I’ve imagined Robert Langdon discovering that the Grail is buried under La Pyramide Inversée.
But I’ve never been inside the Louvre.
I had the opportunity to visit the Louvre with someone who studied art history.
Four hours and 37,228 steps later we were both out of energy.
Layli
Winged Victory
Naked Aphrodite!
We went to the museum. We saw lots of nice things like a picture of Mona Lisa and Winged Victory [Winged Victory of Samothrace]. There was a section for everything. My favorite sections where the Egyptian and Persian sections.
William
The museum that we went to was okay. It’s also kind of cool because all the statues and things were real. There were mostly naked statues so that was boring. Then we left and had hamburgers for dinner and then we came home and started typing this.
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” ~ St. Augustine
Last night was amazing.
It was very hot yesterday. My dad really wanted to go get gelato so we took the subway to the place my cousin told us to go to, Berthillon. I had a scoop of cherry gelato – or cerise in French.
[Editor’s note: the previously discussed Grom is better. ~ The Dad]
While we ate our gelato we walked along the river Seine towards Notre Dame. So many people were out having picnics.
Notre-Dame de Paris, “Our Lady of Paris”
I was at Notre Dame last year and fed the birds outside and visited the inside. This time I stopped to take pictures and watched a guy who was imitating other people. He thought my dad was George Clooney – he was funny!
My dad really wanted us to see the Eiffel Tower at night but I was starving so we stopped at Chez Alexandre not too far from Pont des Arts for pizza. By the time we got to the Eiffel Tower the sun was setting and tower was all lit up.
The Dad made us watch the lights.
At 11:00pm the tower started to sparkle like a Christmas tree. I thought this was boring because it was just blinking lights that hurt my eyes.
But my dad says his heart skipped a beat when he saw the sparkling lights. Breath taking he says. Il aime cette ville et pense que le tour est magnifique la nuit!
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” ~ Dr. Seuss, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”
I’m getting ready for my trip. It is going to be awesome!
To get ready, Mom took us shopping for new shoes. I got dark blue Nike shoes with neon green laces. My sister got black ones with sky blue laces.
I also got a new pair of black sandals. They are very comfortable. I bet walking to the beach will be very comfortable for me now.
Hopefully this will make walking around shopping with my Mom easier (I don’t like shopping. It’ll never be easier.).
4 shoes traveling the world 