Errant dans la neige

We woke up well rested after a great night’s sleep. The beds in our apartment are so comfortable. We were really keen to get out and see Paris, and headed out for breakfast at the bakery around the corner. The kids had “NutellaBananae” crepes again (this has become a daily ritual), and we went for delicious crepes with ham, cheese and egg. We have been speaking french as much as possible, and Callum did really well ordering. There was a large line in the bakery and the owner thought that he was ordering four crepes for himself. She kept asking if he was sure he wanted four, and he kept insisting that yes he did want that many. Finally someone in the line who spoke english translated that they were for the kids too (Les enfants), and the entire bakery exploded in laughter! We have found that everyone here is really nice, especially when you try and speak the language. It can get overwhelming at times, but we are all picking it up, and Maya even ordered in french the other day.

We set off from there to go to Notre Dame, which we had only seen from outside. There really are no words to describe how beautiful it is, except to say it is enough to make lapsed Catholics like us feel very spiritual. I lit a candle there and we had a chance to write in the visitor’s book. Unfortunately for us there was a American woman there who was yelling into her mobile phone, she obviously never went to catholic school or she would know not to yell in a church :) We will go back tomorrow as it is so close by and our photos from the first time did not turn out very well.

We made the mistake of going to a café for a coffee and hot chocolate for the kids. All up for four hot drinks it cost us 30 Euro! We decided to make the best of it and stay warm for a while as it was snowing again, and we watched Wham videos on the French version of MTV. Needless to say we now ask how much everything is before ordering.
We braved the snow with the intention of visiting the Louvre. It turned into one of those situations where it really is the journey not the destination. We managed to always be a few blocks away but discovered some great things; a space shop, a carousel and a beautiful park covered in snow. Finally we decided that we had been wandering for hours, and we were grumpier than the kids and we headed for the Metro. The first try was a disaster - even though we ordered in french the guy in the booth would not sell us tickets – he just kept referring us to the machines, which only took coins (which we did not have). We gave up and walked the short distance to the next Metro station, and managed to get our tickets sorted easily. The kids were excited to catch the train, and we were excited to warm up (slightly). That night we went out for dinner to try out one of the set menus. Overall it was pretty average until dessert which was a tasty chocolate mousse. We headed home exhausted and determined to see the Louvre the next day.