Bonjour de Paris!
I’m having a hard time believing that we have been in Paris for 5 days. If we were on vacation we could be leaving already but we’re not on vacation, and slowly the reality of it is sinking in.
It’s especially fantastic we are staying because we are on a crazy sleep schedule still. I think we underestimated the effect jet lag has on a three year old…today we woke up at noon! Hopefully we can get our sleep schedule back to normal really soon because we haven’t had much time to explore. Our crazy sleep schedule coupled with the fact the airline lost our kid carrier backpack means we have been staying with in walking distance from the apartment.
We were very happy when we got a phone call telling us that the carrier was being delivered today…and in case you were wondering, deliverymen in France also can’t tell time. Sometime in between 4 and 6 was really almost 7…but we were happy to get it.
With Nicholas safely in his carrier we headed out to explore. First we went to the park so Nicholas could play on the playground and in the sandbox. Brendan told him we were going so he could burn off some energy and Nicholas was very adamant he didn’t want to be on fire…Brendan quickly explained it was just an expression!
After the park we walked East and found ourselves in the Place de la Bastille, the square where the Bastille prison once stood. We took the long way back home and after looking on the map we discovered we went in a big triangle. But taking the long way is the best way to see the city!!
Love,
Laura, Brendan and Nicholas
Saturday, 24 September 2011
Our Travels: September 23rd, 2011
Hi,
Day 4 is now complete in Paris, and once again, experienced with Nicholas atop my shoulders.
Despite being told the carrier would arrive yesterday or today, it still hasn't. I did manage to get my point across to the guardian this afternoon (with some help from Google Translate, and a picture of the carrier from the web on my iPhone), so at lease we don't need to worry about it getting misplaced once it is delivered here. I can safely say that it was a necessity to bring with us, after much doubt in the months leading up to our departure. Nicholas is not willing to walk more than a few blocks before asking for a ride, and is then quite content to spend the rest of the journey in my arms or on my shoulders. I'm not sure if he's simply still worn out from the travel and adjustment to the time change, or if we vastly overestimated his stamina to walk long distances with us. Regardless, when the pack arrives, it will be a happy reunion. It's a much better system for Nicholas to ride in, as he sometimes complains that his legs are sore once I put him down off my shoulders... it's probably not the best long-term riding position for him.
Today we started out for Arènes de Lutèce, a remnant of the city of Lutetia during Roman-Gaulish times. It was unearthed during construction in the late 19th century, and was preserved as a city park. Unfortunately, after looking at it on the map briefly last night, neither one of us thought to write down instructions or memorize its location to take with us today. We realized this about 5 minutes after leaving the apartment and decided instead to simply pick a direction and wander. We walked pretty much the entire distance over to the Louvre, but turned short to head North and explore. (http://g.co/maps/
We returned to the apartment, and after a short rest went out to get a couple of items from the supermarche, and "finally" satisfy Nicholas' burning desire to ride the rocket ship merry-go-round. He was overjoyed with the two rides he was able to take, made extra special by the fact he could control the raising and lower, as well as tilt, of the rocket ship he rode in. We've promised to take him back tomorrow again.
We had a simple dinner of spaghetti tonight, and I did a bit of work while Laura cleaned the apartment. Nicholas is down for the night, and we're just going to relax now.
The weather here has been beautiful... perhaps too much so. It feels quite humid to us, and with temperatures in the mid 20's each afternoon, it's quite hot. It doesn't help that we had to pack for winter weather, understanding we might put up with a bit of heat as summer winds down here. The forecast calls for a bit of rain on Monday, but still a temperature of 24 degrees, so it's likely just going to make things more humid.
I think we're starting to settle in now, and get into a rhythm for what life is going to be like here. It will help things a lot once the carrier arrives, allowing us to head out a bit further during our daily excursions. We decided between the carrier and our shoes, there was about 850 dollars worth of value in that, so it will be difficult to swallow if it doesn't arrive. We'll probably purchase an inexpensive stroller in that event. We're sticking to our 50 Euro per day budget in spending, which should hopefully go down a bit now that we've purchased some of the staple grocery items, and the desire for cafe (a cost of 2.40 Euro each... for what is essentially a shot of espresso) is not as strong as it was when we arrived.
That's all for today. Laura did post some pictures on Facebook today, but I'll keep on her to get an album put together on Picasa to upload more (and higher resolution) pictures.
Love, Brendan Laura & Nicholas
Our Travels: September 22nd, 2011
Hi,
After going to sleep at 1:30am last night, Nicholas was able to sleep through until 8:30am this morning... yay! It took him about 2 hours of tossing, turning, talking and crying to get to sleep last night, but it was apparently worth the effort. As I write this it is 7:15pm, and he will be going to bed (hopefully without too much resistance) in about 15 minutes. Hopefully we got lucky and corrected the sleep schedule in only 3 days!
Unfortunately, Laura attempted to go to bed around 3:00am last night, but wasn't able to sleep until 5:00am. I fell asleep on the couch around the same time while watching a movie on the computer, so we're both working on about 4 hours rest from last night. I guess we'll both be going to bed early tonight as well.
I was restless around 3:00am last night and decided to go for a walk. We still haven't gotten a SIM card for the iPad, and I don't want to use the data on my iPhone unless absolutely necessary. I intended to find the best route down to the Notre Dame from our apartment, and was successful despite the lack of a map. The streets here aren't remotely organized, but I managed to avoid getting lost. It's amazing how quiet the city becomes after about 2am, and while there are still people out and about, it is nothing compared to the foot and car traffic during the day. It's really quite peaceful, and a very different experience.
On my way to Notre Dame, I crossed a bridge which had mesh railing along the sides. Locked into the mesh were tens of thousands of padlocks, with various writing on each padlock. I looked this up once I returned to the apartment to discover they are "Love Padlocks" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Once everyone woke up this morning, we spent a few hours relaxing in the apartment before heading out on our first "adventure". We walked over to a nearby park (a different one than I mentioned previously... this one we discovered over by the closest supermache we have been shopping at) which had a small play area for Nicholas to release some energy on. He seemed "relieved" to finally be able to play at something familiar to him, and had a lot of fun going down the slide and climbing the rope ladders on the set. We stayed for about 45 minutes before departing on the route I had mapped out to the Notre Dame. Laura and I had visited there on our previous trip, and new there was a nice garden on the East where Nicholas could run around some more. In addition to this, he discovered a sand box area, and another little boy (English speaking, although we don't know where he was from) to play with. They had a lot of fun playing with sticks in the stand and chasing after eachother. After they finished playing, we continued walking around the area (full of tourists of course... do we count?) and then had our first "crepe" at a restaurant nearby. It was Limon et Sucre and Nicholas "loved" it... apparently we'll need to get those more often.
While looking at the cathedral today, we noticed something we hadn't seen on our last visit. There were groups of people high up on the towers at various levels looking down and taking pictures. I got quite excited by this because I think it would be amazing to go up into the inner areas and belfries to look around. As we walked around to leave, we saw the line up for these tours, and made a note of the days and times they ran... I think we'll probably go back to experience this before we leave.
It was getting later in the afternoon at this point, and we had to return to the apartment so I could get online and begin work. On our way in, I attempted to explain to the "guardian" (the man who looks after this building) that we should have a package arriving via courier (Nicholas' pack carrier) but he doesn't speak a word of English, and despite my best efforts, we weren't able to understand each other. I think I'll try translating an explanation tonight on Google Translate and take that to him tomorrow.
In regard to the carrier, I phoned the baggage department in London again this morning, and they had an update on the file which showed it was located in Glasgow, and was delivered to Paris last night. The man with whom I spoke indicated it should be delivered today or tomorrow, and I got him to confirm the address for delivery again. Everything was correct, so I now just need to make sure the guardian understands the situation when he receives the delivery.
Anyway, back to work... more tomorrow and hopefully some pictures posted as well.
Love, Brendan Laura & Nicholas
Our Travels: September 21st, 2011
Hi,
I'll begin this where we left off in the last... cleaning up puke.
Nicholas was indeed just stressed from the previous day, and didn't have any more episodes of "big burps" as he so accurately described it. The washing machine worked great for the soiled towels, but when I put in a larger load of clothes later in the afternoon the dry cycle left everything very very wrinkled. There's going to be a bit of a learning curve I guess.
Around 5:30pm, I took a break from work and we left the apartment to go out and explore a bit. Our main task was to find something for dinner, and also get acquainted a little with the area around us. We walked due East from the apartment and discovered a large square park called Place des Vosges. (http://g.co/maps/vb4cc) We were excited to see that the far side of the park contained play equipment for small children, complete with climbing ropes, sandboxes, and swings. Score! Nicholas played in a sandbox for a few minutes before throwing sand one too many times and got pulled out by Daddy. We decided it was best to find some food first, and re-visit the play area later.
From the park we walked South, back towards the St-Paul metro station where we had arrived a day earlier (http://g.co/maps/5fye7). There is a carousel near the metro entrance Nicholas had seen when we arrived. It has rocket ships for young children to ride in and Nicholas was quite excited at the prospect (http://g.co/maps/4w94e). However, before we reached it he fell asleep in my arms as I carried him (remember, no backpack carrier to use yet). Laura and I optimistically thought he might be out for the night, as it was close to 7:00pm by this time. We decided to pick up a few things for dinner at a supermarche nearby, and headed back to the apartment.
Nicholas was put down as soon as we returned, and Laura and I sat down to munch on a dinner of baguette... we were both too tired to bother cooking the pasta we'd bought. Laura followed Nicholas to bed at around 9:00pm and I sat down to work, figuring everyone would be down for the night...
At approx. 10:00pm Nicholas woke back up from his "nap" and was ready to face the day (night). Nothing exciting transpired from this point on, as Nicholas was repeatedly reminded that he had to play quietly, and I got some more work done while Laura read a book. Laura went back to sleep again at 5:00am and I stayed up with Nicholas until 7:30am when we finally went to sleep. Laura woke up at 12:00 noon, checked the time, and inexplicably decided to go back to sleep rather than wake us all up. As a result, when 5:00pm rolled around and we all finally woke up, she got a dirty look from me for this transgression.
So, we'll now attempt to get Nicholas to go back to sleep around midnight or 1:00am. Even if he wakes up at 4:00 or 5:00am, we'll keep him up from that point on tomorrow, as grumpy as he will be, to try to right the sleeping schedule again. I suppose this was all to be expected given the time difference and messed up travel day getting here.
This evening we all went out for about an hour long walk around. We stopped by the supermarche again for some fruit, cheese and milk, then finally found a real Boulongarie and bought some baguettes and treats for Nicholas (yesterday's baguette was just from a grocery store and not nearly as good). I'm quite pleased with my abilities to converse with people so far, and have had a couple of meaningful interactions since we arrived... all this without breaking out Rosetta Stone again since we have arrived. It makes me confident that we can both go away with a better grasp of the language after 2 months.
We've now just finished our dinner of the best Brie cheese I've ever tasted, grapes, strawberries, baguettes and water. Another thing I've come to realize is that we will both likely loose a lot of weight here in the next 2 months. I had always thought that in the city of cheese, pastries, crepes, etc... that we would be doomed. However, with Nicholas, it is a very different eating experience than it was last time. Because he is so picky with his palette, we "need" to go to the supermarket for meals and get the few items he will eat. I don't doubt we'll have crepes and pastries here and there, but the majority of our eating will be of the healthy variety. Together with all the walking we'll be doing, it is encouraging to think we might shed some pounds during this adventure :-)
Time to get to work.
Love, Brendan Laura & Nicholas
Our Travels: September 20th, 2011
Bonjour de Paris!
I woke up this morning to the traffic sounds on the street below, and it finally sunk in we were actually in Paris. Yesterday was very long and hectic and I don't think I fully appreciated our situation until today.
As we were riding the Tube from London Heathrow airport into the city to St. Pancras station to catch our train to France I started laughing to myself. Nicholas had passed out on my lap, and I had a suitcase wedged between my legs to prevent it from rolling around as the train jostled back and forth. Laura looked at me from across the aisle (she had her own suitcase to contend with, as well as 30lbs of backpack) and asked me what I was laughing about, but I couldn't hear her because both my ears were plugged from my head cold and the descent into London on the airplane. I continued laughing, and told her I'd explain later. The explanation would involve the revelation (not a big one) that we should never attempt a travel day such as this again...
Sunday morning was relatively stress free as we checked out of the hotel and made a quick stop at the drugstore for cold medication before we dropped off the car in storage. After we got the car locked up, our cab arrived within a few minutes and we were off to the airport. Nicholas got to experience his first booster seat riding in the taxi and he liked it a lot. I guess he might graduate to something similar depending on how much he grows in the next four months.
We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, and got our luggage checked in, but took our carrier with us to be gate checked. The first leg of the flight to Iceland was uneventful. Nicholas watched a lot of movies on the iPad and managed to get about an hour of sleep before we landed. Neither Laura nor I got any sleep on this flight though. Nicholas woke up during our transfer in Keflavik, and was pretty grumpy. Our carrier was not available to us in Iceland, and we were told it would be available for pickup in London with the rest of our luggage... kind of sucked, but that's ok. Nicholas settled down about 10 minutes into the next flight, and fell asleep again for the 2.5 hours as we flew to London. When we arrived, he woke up in a fairly good mood, and he navigated the terminal with us on my shoulders.
We retrieved our two bags from the luggage carousel and went to the oversize luggage area to wait for our carrier... which didn't arrive. After checking with the baggage claims department, and showing them our claim slip for the carrier, we discovered it had been checked under the name "Congo", and was to be delivered to Glasgow... ??... awesome! So, we left our information with the claims department, and it should hopefully be delivered to us in Paris once they track it down... fingers crossed.
Left with the fact we had no carrier for Nicholas for the rest of our journey, he settled in to travelling on my shoulders for the remainder of the trip. As I mentioned earlier, he fell asleep again on the Tube ride into London, but after that was wide awake for the rest of the trip.
Despite the delay at Heathrow dealing with our lost carrier, we made it into London in time to catch our train on to Paris. The train ride was, believe it or not, more cramped than the airline flights, and the three of us had to wedge into 2 seats on a very full train. Luckily there was plenty of room for our luggage in the racks above the seats.
Once we arrived in Paris, Nicholas again took his spot on my shoulders and we worked our way towards the closest Metro station to figure out the details for our last ride of the journey. A quick ride on two lines of the Metro got us to the apartment. The host was waiting for us at the apartment, and after a quick tour we were left to get settled down... finally!
I went out and got got us some dinner from a cafe close by, and we all fell asleep around 9:30.
So... all in all, the trip went pretty well. The carrier was a setback, but we managed to make do without it. Hopefully it gets delivered here ok because it contains all of our second pairs of shoes.
...
This morning I woke up at about 9:30 and went and had my "cafe double" I had been looking forward to so much. I asked the waitress where the closest "supermarche" was, and went and picked up some staples for breakfast. Nicholas and Laura stayed at the apartment and both slept until around noon.
After waking up, Nicholas had some peanut butter toast, milk, and cereal for breakfast. After he finished, he mentioned his tummy hurt... which was quickly followed by a massive puking episode all over the couch and floor. After cleaning things up, and a 15 minute session figuring out how to wash the dirtied towels in the washer/dryer combination machine, he now seems fine. He just ate some more toast with jam and had some more milk. Hopefully it was simply a case of eating too much after the stressful day yesterday. This all occurred about 2 hours ago, and he seems ok.
I should finish up now, as it's 8am in Houston and time to get to work. I've purchased some Skype credits to make phone calls with while we're here, so we will contact you in the next couple of days to chat.
Hope all is well at home.
Love, Brendan Laura & Nicholas
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