Back in our room we noticed that Millie had sprouted two tiny teeth and I realised I had nothing to brush them with so, gathering pluck and taking Jessie along for the ride, I went to the front desk and began my conversation!! "Bonjour, Monsieur, J'ai une question..." As I spoke I suddenly thought for a horrifying moment that instead of saying J'ai.. I HAVE a question I had said Je Suis..... I AM a question...!!! ... I think it went ok! I stumbled on saying my little girl had two tiny teeth and I would like for the front desk man to draw me a map showing me how to find somewhere to buy a tiny teeth toothbrush!! I looked at him expectantly, he took a deep breath and went "blah blah blahhhadity blah blah?". o_O ?? I laughed, pointed at him and in English exclaimed I KNEW you would do that!! See, if you Do speak French they folks naturally assume you can understand them and so start talking to you, in French, at a rate of knots!! I hadn't a clue what he said! He looked at me askew and then e.v.e.r. s.o. s.l.o.w.l.y said "Do you want a Pharmacyeeeee????" LOL!!! Fine. Yes!! He kindly directed me, in English, to the nearest one and Jessie and I skipped off. I felt pretty silly but at the same time proud of myself that he at least understood ME!! I was wearing my boots with the heels and as we headed off towards the shops they clack clacked along the street. We waited at the traffic lights until the little green man showed up to say it was safe to cross and we ran across the street. Clack clack clackity. Further down the road a car beeped it's horn at another driver. Suddenly a FURIOUS French woman whipped around to challenge Jessie and me!!! "C'EST N'EST PAS NEW YORK!!" she scolded "Blah blah blah blah TRAVERSER LA ROUTE!!!" Basically "Watch out you Yanks, you'll get run over!!!" I was gobsmacked!! I had NOTHING to come back at her with!!! I had done nothing wrong, the guy wasn't beeping at ME!!! ALL I could think was "ah fermer la fenêtre you old bag!!!" Shut the window. That would have told her !!!! LOL!! I said nothing of course, but I was pretty steamed at being misjudged on our first day out!!! :D Never the less, we continued on, cautiously, and finally found the famed Phar-ma-ceeee but not before stumbling upon a genuine honest to goodness bibliothèque!! (library!) In all my French classes they were constantly in search of the bibliothèque and to find an actual one just right there on the street was like art imitating life!! ;D AND THEN a lovely old French lady approached us ... "Excuse moi.... blah blah blah blahdiddy blah blah??" ..... She was asking US directions!!! She thought WE were FRENCH!!!!! I was saddened to have to tell her "Je ne parle pas Francais, Madame... " but we were giddy at the idea that we might actually BLEND!!!
Anyhoo... we DID make it to the pharmacy, we WERE able to ask the lady, in French, for a baby toothbrush, ask how much it cost, say we did not need a "sac" and wish the proprietor a nice day so felt over all the mission had been a GREAT success! We hustled back to our room to find that Daddy had been busy with the camera.....!
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| Jack on the windowsill |
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| the view out the window! |
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| Millie 7 months old today! |
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| another view! |
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| The Seine in the daylight! |
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| Jack AND a view! :D |
So, we recounted our exciting adventure to everyone and then headed off to see the sights! ;D
Our hotel was only a short walk from the Eiffel Tower so we set off along the Seine towards the tower....
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| Our hotel is the one in the middle! |
It was pretty chilly so we stopped at a vendor right by the tower and picked up a hoodie for Jack and a lovely scarf for me Millie, to keep the chill off her face. :D
The line to climb the tower was veeeery long as it had been closed the one day they had snow so everyone who had planned to climb that day was in line today! Also two of the pillars were closed for renovations and construction ( they are building a new platform on the first level!) As it was SO cold and the line SO long, we decided that we would wait and instead would climb the tower tomorrow. What we needed, we thought, was a nice long bus tour!!!
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| Too Cold, Too Long... Tomorrow!! |
We stuck in our headphones and settled in for a tour....
Millie wanted to play "Secret Agent...!" :D
Beautiful architecture!
One thing that really struck us about Paris was how CLEAN it is!! It's beautifully clean!
Along the Champs Elysees.....
The beautiful Opera building! It has an entrance around the back large enough for Napolean to drive his carriage in...! And the GOLD on the tops of everything... shining so brightly!
A lovely street...!
The Love Locks Bridge...!
Booksellers and artists lined the Seine....!
Well look.... ANOTHER street scene!
Millie had fallen asleep here...!
Such a lot for little eyes to take in! :D
Notre Dame, people!! :D
The Thinker's Backside... in The Rodin Museum Garden....!
This bridge, Pont Alexander III. is featured in all sorts of movies including the James Bond movie, a View to a Kill and Adele's music video for Someone Like You too! It's such a pretty bridge!
OH! She waked up!! :D
Doesn't my her scarf suit her?!?! :D She got SO many compliments on our trip! Quite the celebrity, she was!
And just really.... So much going on here!!! This is the Place de la Concorde and the Obelisk you see is the Luxor Obelisk. I had to put a link in here because there is SO much fascinating history that you really MUST quickly read it! :D During the revolution, for instance, this is where many a head was "snicked off"....!!
..... So..... as you can see.... there's a lot to take in!!! And it's not even lunch time!! I'm going to stop here and tomorrow will present you with Day Two, part two!! :D
Goodnight for now! :D
1 comment:
A pithy French response to the awful woman in the street might've been "Ta geule!" which is a fairly abrupt way of saying "Shut your pie-hole" :P Looks like you had a great time. Did you get anywhere near the Place St-Michel? Great bars and brasseries and creperies round there :)
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