We had a lovely trip to Paris this past weekend. We flew in late Friday night and left Sunday afternoon. The trip started out a little rough because Cooper decided not to sleep a wink during the flight, so when we got to our hotel at 11:00pm he was a total nutcase. And since we didn't have his elephant that he sleeps with every night, he woke up twice during the night (totally not the norm these days) and cried for almost an hour each time. I was positive that I packed Cooper's elephant, but it was no where to be found when we arrived in Paris. When we got home we found it hiding in a little seat in the corner of the living room...we think Cooper must have taken it out while the suitcase was open just before we left. So yeah, it was a rough night, but after a shower, a delightful buffet breakfast and this lovely fruit basket waiting for us in our room, I knew the weekend wouldn't turn out to be so bad after all.
We started out on the tube, but then walked the rest of the day.
The weather was perfect. I mean really, really perfect. I don't recall ever being cold or hot. I was just perfect all day and all night. It was so nice.
We went to see the Notre Dame Cathedral.
We basically just walked the streets of Paris all day and took in the beautiful sights. I was surprised at how clean the city was. Berlin is full of graffiti, but Paris was not.
We ate lunch at a little cafe and the nice man at the window gave Cooper an ice cream cone to snack on.
It totally sold him on the French.
It turned out not to be such a bad thing that Cooper didn't get much sleep the night before because he ended up falling asleep in his stroller so we didn't have to go back to the hotel for his nap. (He was just kickin' back for his nap)
And he slept for 3 full hours! Such a bonus for us! It was so nice to just stroll and not worry about entertaining the little monster.
Just how we like him... (pictured here with his frog, an inadequate substitute for his elephant, but perhaps a good napping companion?)
We went to the Louvre.
But didn't go inside since apparently I'm one of the things that's restricted?
We walked in the adjacent park and sat at a bench for a while and just relaxed.
More on this location later.
We then walked up the Champs Elysses where most of the street was barricaded off in preparation for
a little bike race that was ending there the next day.
We walked all the way to the Arc de Triomphe. There were tons of people.
There are twelve roads feeding off of the roundabout that encircles the arc. It is an automobile mad house. There are no signals and no lines so people just drive out there and push their way through the traffic. It was chaos. It made me a little nervous just watching.
Then we went on to the Eiffel Tower. It was quite spectacular.
Doesn't it look fake?
Later in the day we came up with a brilliant idea, which I don't know why we hadn't thought of previously. Cooper goes to bed around 7:00pm so we're generally tied to home after that point, but we decided to try and put him to sleep in his stroller and then go out for the evening. It took him a little while to fall asleep, but once he got there he was out. During the day he is a very light sleeper, but at night he's pretty much out like a log, which was the case this particular night. It was great. We were able to enjoy a nice long dinner without having to pay for a babysitter. So great!
Here's Pat with the name of the restaurant, Le Carre, in the background.
Pat had the house special chicken. He looked much happier after he had a bite, I promise.
And I had the duck. It was really good!
For dessert I really wanted to try the "hot up side Apple pie makes house" but opted for the creme brulee instead. It was good, but not great.
We had a really great time. I was sad to come home so quickly. But it was also nice to be home at a reasonable hour. I hope I get to go back to Paris one day. The place just makes me happy.
Since this was a very inexpensive cultural dinner, we decided to go bowling afterwards. Patrick and I almost didn't go because we didn't know how Cooper would do at the bowling hour at such a late hour. To our surprise, he did great. He was absolutely mesmerized by the balls going down the lanes and coming out of the ball return.
By the end of the night he was totally ready to throw a 14 pounder down the lane.
It was so funny to watch him! He would burst out with a spontaneous "WHOOOOOOOAAAAAA!!!" every couple of minutes. It was cracking us, and just about everyone else up the whole night. This video just doesn't do it justice, but it's a pretty good taste of what we heard all evening.
It was pretty late by the time we finished eating, but luckily Cooper kept himself entertained the whole time so I could enjoy my night out.
As we were finishing dinner we noticed people starting to gather outside the red carpet and the bright lights turned on. Of course we had to join the crowd and find out what was going on.
The girl in the spotlight in this photo is not a celebrity. She was just some chick that took, I don't know, maybe, 800 pictures of herself standing there? Here's a close up of her during one of the few moments that she wasn't posing for a picture.
Here is Cooper just before he started freaking out.
I decided to leave without my "Brad sighting" so as not to be labeled as crazed-fan-who-keeps-her-son-out-until-11:00pm-just-to-catch-a-glimpse-of-Brad-Pitt. Cooper was actually totally fine and happy again by the time we got to the train station. I think Pat was surprised to see him awake and laughing when he got home since it was 4 hours past his bedtime. I was really hoping Cooper would tack those 4 hours on to the time that he normally wakes up in the morning, but no luck for me.
Turns out it's not very authentic at all, but it was way delish. The owner was an exchange student in Canada as a teenager and that is where he first experienced pizza without a red sauce, so when he opened up this pizza joint with untraditional pies he called them Canadian. And it just happens to be a good marketing ploy too. They had Dr. Pepper and A&W, so what's not to love? I had the potato, sweet potato, and rosemary pizza with feta sauce and a Dr. Pepper. It was so good. Best of all you can get a big wad of rocket on the top of any pizza.
Cooper loved it too.
He also liked this little chair they had for kids, but he wasn't entirely sure how to sit in it.
Sabrina got the proscuitto, red onion, and cheddar with sour cream sauce. And of course the arugula and an A&W. Her's was also delicious.
They even had a dessert pizza which we were too full to try, but it looked really good with bananas, brownie slices and a custard sauce. I'll definitely have to go back and try that one.
We started out on the tube, but then walked the rest of the day.
The weather was perfect. I mean really, really perfect. I don't recall ever being cold or hot. I was just perfect all day and all night. It was so nice.
We basically just walked the streets of Paris all day and took in the beautiful sights. I was surprised at how clean the city was. Berlin is full of graffiti, but Paris was not.
We ate lunch at a little cafe and the nice man at the window gave Cooper an ice cream cone to snack on.
It totally sold him on the French.
It turned out not to be such a bad thing that Cooper didn't get much sleep the night before because he ended up falling asleep in his stroller so we didn't have to go back to the hotel for his nap. (He was just kickin' back for his nap)
And he slept for 3 full hours! Such a bonus for us! It was so nice to just stroll and not worry about entertaining the little monster.
We went to the Louvre.
But didn't go inside since apparently I'm one of the things that's restricted?
We walked in the adjacent park and sat at a bench for a while and just relaxed.
More on this location later.
We then walked up the Champs Elysses where most of the street was barricaded off in preparation for a little bike race that was ending there the next day.
We walked all the way to the Arc de Triomphe. There were tons of people.
There are twelve roads feeding off of the roundabout that encircles the arc. It is an automobile mad house. There are no signals and no lines so people just drive out there and push their way through the traffic. It was chaos. It made me a little nervous just watching.
Then we went on to the Eiffel Tower. It was quite spectacular.
Doesn't it look fake?
Later in the day we came up with a brilliant idea, which I don't know why we hadn't thought of previously. Cooper goes to bed around 7:00pm so we're generally tied to home after that point, but we decided to try and put him to sleep in his stroller and then go out for the evening. It took him a little while to fall asleep, but once he got there he was out. During the day he is a very light sleeper, but at night he's pretty much out like a log, which was the case this particular night. It was great. We were able to enjoy a nice long dinner without having to pay for a babysitter. So great!
Pat had the house special chicken. He looked much happier after he had a bite, I promise.
And I had the duck. It was really good!
For dessert I really wanted to try the "hot up side Apple pie makes house" but opted for the creme brulee instead. It was good, but not great.
We had a really great time. I was sad to come home so quickly. But it was also nice to be home at a reasonable hour. I hope I get to go back to Paris one day. The place just makes me happy.
