We arrived in Paris the day before Christmas.
Down the street from our hotel, Nicholas found this restaurant... :)
Our first adventure was to see Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, or in English, Basilica of the Sacred Heart, which is a Roman Catholic church built atop a hill. The uphill journey to the church was good exercise, and the destination boasted nice views of Paris.
We took a different route on our way down through quaint old brick streets with French pastry shops, coffee shops, cafés, crêperies, etc. In front of one shop, we saw the most unusual Santa Claus...
We made our way to one of the major public squares in Paris, called Place de la Concorde.
The Fountain of River Commerce and Navigation
The Obelisk of Luxor, about 3500 years old.
It sits on top of a pedestal that shows how the obelisk was moved from Egypt.
From the Place de Conconrde, we walked down the famous shopping street of Champs-Élysées where there was a mammoth Christmas market. We did some last minute shopping...and eating, of course! Below, Jacob is ordering a raclette sandwich, where they scrape off the melting cheese from the top of a giant round block of cheese, and slather it on bread. These Europeans sure love melty cheese and bread together! (Remember the fondue in Switzerland?)
And so do we...since we keep buying it each time we see it!
And we can't go without the sweets!
In Paris, the boys and Ray kept spotting Ferraris and Lamborghinis...they counted 25 in all. That doesn't count all the Porsches and the Rolls Royce. The were relatively plentiful in Paris, but the boys first started seeing them in Geneva. Here's a Lamborghini; here we were quick enough to take out the camera for a photo; most of the time, they went by before the boys could get a good shot.
Christmas morning arrives!
Here is our Christmas morning buffet breakfast.
Here is our makeshift Christmas tree in the hotel room:
it consists of a table covered with towels and bathrobes to hide the presents underneath.
Our tree was a bathrobe belt rolled up with ribbon.
(It's all I could think of with our resources!) :)
View outside the our hotel window...
Gotta have chocolate for Christmas morning!
We could not bring all gifts to Paris. We will open the rest in Spain on January 6, King's Day,
when we return home. (Future blog post!)
Later on Christmas Day, we visited the famous Notre-Dame Cathedral
(of French Gothic architecture).
The boys are jump-posing for Ray, who is taking a SnapChat photo for their friends.
Then a backflip...
Nice entrance, huh?
Here is the organ, which started playing before we left...such beautiful sound!
Lots of stained glass...
Crossing the Seine River at dusk.
In the evening, Ray and I wanted to see the Nutcracker Ballet, being performed at the modern and amazing Opéra Bastille (there is also another historic and ornate opera house in Paris). Having found no tickets online except for exorbitant prices, we decided to stand in line before the show to see if we could get last minute tickets that might become available. We were ready to go...in our wintery, touristy street clothes! There were probably 50 people in line with us, and as tickets became available, they would announce to the crowd as sets of seats became available...how many and at what price. We ended up getting four tickets (two sets of two)! Only 7 tickets total became available that evening. No one else wanted the ones we bought because they were a little pricier...most people were waiting for the $5 nosebleed seats that often come available...but not this night, Christmas night. We asked if the seats were good, and the guy said, "Well, if the President shows up, he gets your seats!"
In the Place de la Bastille (a public square created in 1803), where the Opera House is located, is this column called Colonne de Juillet, to commemorate a 3-day revolution in 1830.
It has a "Spirit of Liberty" statue on top.
On our last day, we took a bus tour around Paris.
The first stop we made was the Eiffel Tower (built for the World Exhibition in 1889).
Across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower, is a site called Trocadéro (named after the Battle of Trocadéro, in which the island of Trocadero in Southern Spain was captured). The Palais of Chaillot is on this site and is pictured below (in part). It was built for the Exposition Internationale of 1937, replacing the previous Palais of Trocadéro built for the 1878 World's Fair. The Palais of Chaillot is home to several museums. There's lots more to say about this site, but I think that's enough for now.
That bubble under the Tower had pine trees beneath it,
as if they were meant for sale as Christmas trees or something.
After waiting a VERY long time in line for tickets to take the stairs (vs. the elevator) part way up the Eiffel Tower, there was yet another LONG line to take the elevator (the only way up) to the very top. If we took the time to go to the top, we would have no daylight time left to see more of Paris on the bus tour. We opted for the bus tour, a decision that Jacob tried hard to convince us otherwise. His position: we spent all this time going only half way?? He desperately wanted to go to the top. However, we promised him we will do it when we are back in Paris with my parents when they come in the springtime. (He was not convinced, but outnumbered.)
SO...these are "halfway photos"...photos of the top coming in the spring. :)
Streets and famous window displays at Printemps (a big shopping center)...
A curious way to advertise the Eiffel Tower in the airport (we think that's what they were doing)...
those golden girls were getting lots of attention!
Overall, we loved spending Christmas in Paris! We must admit that the hoards of people everywhere, along with the cold and rain, have us looking forward to a warmer and slightly more mellow time to be here in the spring. That's when we'll hit the museums, too. For now...
goodbye, Paris!
