Paris with Chris and Karen

My brother had a conference in Paris the week before last, and decided to stay on for a few more days so that we'd have a chance to meet up. His wife also flew over for the trip, but a few days after him, so they wouldn't have to leave my nephew Owen for more than a week.

They offered to come meet us in Jena, to save us travelling, but after the trips with my parents went okay, we felt ready to travel with a five week old baby. We tried to meet somewhere other than Paris, somewhere in between, like Strasbourg, but the train fares were so ridiculous with SNCF (the French rail service) and the routes so inconvenient (for instance, we'd have to go to Paris first in order to get to Dijon), that we decided to just meet them in Paris. If we'd been able to book well in advance we could have saved some money on the tickets (both ours and theirs, had there been one), but we didn't want to decide until we were sure we'd be up for the trip. As such, it was more expensive than we'd have liked, but such is life.

Here Karen is meeting Béla for the first time, as they met us at the train station.
From there we walked with them to the hotel we'd booked near Gare du nord, and dropped our stuff off before heading out in search of lunch. We walked towards Montmartre, and ended up at a place where they served giant bowls of salad which were topped with a bunch of thinly sliced, deep fried potatoes. One of the more filling salads I've ever seen!

After our late lunch we headed up the hill toward Sacre Coeur. On the way we passed a bakery, and stopped in to pick up some bread and pastries for the morning, to save the price of breakfast at the hotel. The baguette we bought was still hot from the oven though, so we were forced to start eating it on the spot.
We finally made it up to the church, where we were rewarded with a lovely view over the city at night. Strangely, the place was hopping with the Gendarmerie, who were keeping people off the lawn and paths leading straight up the front. I'm not sure why, but it may have had to do with the fact that it was the night of Nuit Blanche, 2009, when museums, monuments, swimming pools etc. stay open all night, and artistic events take place. Perhaps something was going to happen on the grass later? Or maybe they were blocking off a crime scene. We'll never know.
A nice look back at Sacre Coeur as we continued down the side streets back to our hotel.
Also on one of the side streets we found this car, the Honda Joy-Machine, and had to take a picture for my mom. As Karen said, "you know how much Joy loves things with her name on them."
When we got back to the hotel room, we opened up the presents that Chris and Karen had brought us from Canada, including some more things from my mom, Gloria (who sent along this hat), and my uncle Bernie and aunt Joan. I hope he was relishing the experience of wearing a hat that is too big for him, as I'm sure it will pass soon. (His head is at the 97% percentile on the growth chart, and if he takes after my side of the family, including his cousin Owen, he'll likely continue this way.)
My cousin Jen also sent along some booties that she knit, seen modelled by Béla here. (Alas, his giant feet didn't fit into the smaller pair, but his feet are also too big for some 3 month sized sleepers already. He just has really big feet.)

The buttons on these are adorable - one pair has printed fabric showing the dish running away with the spoon, and the other shows humpty dumpty. A really adorable detail.

Here we are in our little hotel room, checking out all cool clothes he'll be able to wear over the next few months.
Here you can see the lovely wooden sign that my brother made with Béla's name on it. He was so taken with the gift, that he needed to have a little break with his aunt Karen.
The next day we met up with a friend of mine from McGill, Mathilde, and her husband and 2 year-old daughter for lunch at a family-friendly place they recommended in St-Germain. I'd lost touch with Mathilde since university, but met up with her again at my friend Dina's wedding in Greece in June. Her daughter had just gotten a new doll, who was promptly named Béla (or possibly Bella, as she thought it was a girl). It was good to see them all, but we unfortunately didn't get any pictures.

From there we wandered around the neighbourhood a bit, and through le Jardin de Luxembourg. We were all pretty amazed with the playground there, and even more amazed that there was an entry fee (something like 2,60 for a child, and 1,60 for an adult, but I don't remember exactly). The equipment was pretty good though.
The gardens themselves were pretty impressive as well.
And Chris was incredibly taken with the sailboats that kids were directing around the big fountain. They had wooden sticks that they could use to adjust the sails and send them off in another direction once they'd reached the side of the fountain.
After hanging out in the park for a bit, we headed back to our hotel for a short break before going out again for supper, around Odéon station, at a nice restaurant down a picturesque alley. Béla was a bit fussy when we first sat down, but after walking with him a bit, and feeding him, he was content to sleep in my arms for the rest of the meal.
The waiter was quite a charmer, and even took a picture of the five of us after we'd finished eating.
The unconscious Béla, before getting put back into the sling for the trip home.
On the way back, we walked by Notre Dame, to enjoy the view at night. Along the way, we were admiring all the carved faces on the supports under this bridge.
Perhaps the official "Chris and Karen in Paris" picture?
The moon and clouds did their best to add to the atmosphere.
A sleepy Béla, upon arriving back at the room. I love when he doesn't even wake up when we take the sling off.
Monday was rainy, after Chris had spent more than a week in sunny, warm conditions, so we opted to do some indoor shopping to look for some souvenirs for Owen and some other things that Chris and Karen wanted to pick up. Because it was so nasty out, we headed to Les Halles, an indoor shopping centre where there used to be a wholesale food market in the centre of Paris.

After leaving Les Halles we wandered around for a bit, stopping at a pharmacy where we bought diapers for almost three times the cost in Jena. (Everything is more expensive in Paris than in Jena, but this was over the top.) We passed by the Centre Pompidou, where something was going on with a firetruck and people dressed as firefighters who may or may not have been children. (Karen and I were convinced that they were kids, but Chris was sure that it was just a perspective issue that made them look short, and it was because they were either on their knees, or because of where they were standing on the balcony.) We're not really sure what was going on, but there were hundreds of people standing around and watching. We watched for a while too, until we noticed that there was an Amarino gelato shop just behind us. Karen had had this gelato recommended to her, and we'd spent the evening before searching for one of their shop, being tantalized by finding empty ice cream cups scattered throughout the streets, sure we'd find the shop just around the corner. We finally did get to taste it, and it was really good, if rather pricey. (They did make the gelato in their cones look like rose petals, mind you.)
Béla at the Centre Pompidou:

Since we had a bit of time left before supper, we searched for a café or bar with somewhat more reasonable happy hour prices. We ended up at a place that didn't look so wonderful from the outside, but which had a pretty cool interior that made me want to come back later and drink like I was 18 again (though I guess that's not going to happen so often anymore).

The view from the little patio was nice though, looking straight across to the Tour St-Jacques,...and down a charming alley.
Once we left the bar we headed again to the entrance of Notre Dame, where we were meeting up with Rona, a former coworker of mine from Jena, who's been working at an institution near Paris since January. She brought us to a small restaurant she'd been to before near St-Michel, which was lovely. Alas, we have no pictures from this meal, or from our meeting with Rona at all.

Since all of us had visited Paris before and seen many of the main sites and museums, we decided to spend our last day at the palace of Versailles, which none of us had seen before. This required taking a commuter train for about 40 minutes out from the centre. During the train ride Béla made himself quite comfortable in Karen's arms.
By the end of the train ride, he'd settled right in, and was giving his soon-to-be-born cousin a big hug.
And so we arrived at the palace belonging to this guy, Louis the 14th...
...who wasn't exactly known for his good taste and discretion when it came to décor. Do you think there's enough gold on the front of this building?

Upon arriving there, we had to wait in a fairly long line for tickets. We realized that after buying the tickets we'd have to wait in another long line to get in, so we decided to split up, with Chris and Karen waiting in the admission line while Jeremi and I bought tickets, and met them there. This was a good idea, until Béla needed to be fed. There were no benches around, so I ended up sitting on some steps near the line. It was also raining, and the steps were wet and pretty dirty, but I didn't have a lot of choice, and I didn't want Jeremi to have to leave the line. We had an umbrella with us, but I knew I wouldn't be able to feed him while holding an umbrella. It wasn't raining too hard though, and I figured it would only take 10 minutes or so to give him enough to calm down, so it wouldn't be too bad.

At this point, a sweet young woman who was waiting in line with some friends took pity on me, and came over to hold an umbrella over me. She was probably about 20, from Beijing, and on a 2 week trip through Europe with friends. She was incredibly sweet.

In the end we all made it in, and after a rapid diaper change on the stairs at the admission, and another quick feed while Jeremi and Chris got us audioguides, we were ready to tour through the palace for a few hours, while Béla slept contentedly in his carrier. Inside there was room upon room with varicoloured jacquard on the painting-lined walls, but I'll jump ahead to a few of the highlights, such as the famous Hall of Mirrors:
Many of the candle holders in this room had fat little figurines as part of the base. I tried to explain to Béla that he had to keep eating until his bum cheeks were at least this dimpled.
Chris and Karen in the hall of mirrors. (Another one in the running for the official "Chris and Karen in Paris" photo.)
This is in Louis XIV's bed chamber, which was possibly the most ornate room we saw. (Though this was not the only bed with a canopy accented with sprays of ostrich feathers - it seemed standard throughout the palace. I hope this doesn't influence the expectations of our little dauphin too much...)
After going through a tour of a good part of the palace, we headed out into the fine weather to enjoy the gardens. This was the view from the rear of the palace, over the long canal, with gardens on either side. The haze and particulate in the air made the background look like a painting.
This was my favourite of the many fountains, as most of the spouts were coming out of the mouths of frogs and turtles. Unfortunately none of the fountains were running while we were there. I'm not sure why, but it seems that they only turn them on occasionally, when they have special events on the weekend with the fountains running and classical music playing. Perhaps it's just a clever strategy to get people to come back again...
We finally made it to one of the food kiosks in the garden, only to find that the people two ahead of us in line bought the last paninis, and there were no more sandwiches or paninis avaiable at all. In fact, the only thing they were still selling (aside from drinks) were crepes filled with nutella. We split a couple of these, which took the edge off, but we were all pretty ready to eat. This was only made worse by the fact that, while sitting there and feeding Béla, we had to watch all the other people who were ahead of us in line eating their delicious, melty, cheesy paninis. Between pregnant Karen and breastfeeding me, we were ready to rip the sandwiches out of people's hands. It was clearly time to head further into the gardens to look for sandwiches elsewhere. Here Béla is being protected from his ravenous mother by his uncle Chris.

Here we are sitting by the water, where we enjoyed our hard-won paninis, entertained by the ducks, swans, and giant catfish inhabiting the canal.

I think he looks so sad and sweet in this picture. Of course, he wasn't sad at all, but rather was getting more cuddles from his aunt Karen.
The view from below back up toward the palace shows some of the ornate gardens. It seemed as if every one of the small topiary trees was cut into a different design. The floral gardens here looked incredible, as if everything was at its peak, though it was already early October, and they were incredibly fragrant. Each bed was edged with the smallest of hedges, only about 5 cm off the ground, and perfectly squared off.
Another of the lovely, ornate fountains, with a quadriga (and serpents) emerging from the depths.
Enjoying the weather, at the end of one of the many tree-lined passages.

That last night we were all exhausted after a long day out, and we opted to go to a little Italian restaurant that was on the same block as the hotel. The food was tasty, and the distance was just right. Here Béla was charming his dad.
Chris and Karen had to get a cab to the airport the next morning at 7:30, so we said a quick goodbye as they headed downstairs, and Jer and I headed back to bed for a couple more hours before starting on our way to the train station. We were able to stop at a cheese store on the way there, stocking up for the next little while. The trip home was uneventful, and Béla travelled like a champ as usual. Now we're just taking care of a few administrative things (more on that in another post), and getting ready for the arrival of Jer's parents, Paul and Betty Ann, on Monday. What a busy couple of months we're having!