Monday 6/24

  Scotland here we come! Monday morning we got up early and left the apartment at seven fifteen. I had creme brulee for breakfast with coffee. It was delicious. We rode the metro to Gare du Nord, which was crazy. Then, again, we rode under the chunnel, which was nice because I got to sleep for a bit. But only until about an hour before our stop did I find a comfortable place to sleep. After getting off, we did some Mr. Bean videos where someone would pretend to walk leisurely to the door of the train and then they would trip or run into someone. It was fun stuff.
    After having lunch in the London station and a little bit if looking around st the shops, we crossed the street to the King's Cross train station where I looked around some shops (with no luck once again). We then boarded our train,where our seats said on a tag that they were reserved for Wright. Awesomesauce.
    After an uneventful time in the train, I got some coffee at the cafe car about three cars behind us. It was very fun walking back. Not to mention listening to all the accents!  I. Couldn't, and still can't understand most of the Scottish people talking. Let alone the kids! Anyways, I took photos on the train, just kind of chatted with the folks, not really much. We talked also with the family across the isle, whose dad was from Ireland, mom from the US, the kids were born in Scotland, and they live in Colorado. The older kid was very interested in what my dad does (he's a laser physicist at JPL). He said, in a nice almost-Irish accent, "I'm actually interested in physics, architecture, and linguistics." It was really cute.
    We got off the train and out Keiren, dad, and Maia in a taxi with all our suitcases, while Jaden, Mom and I walked the mile from the train station to our hotel. We stayed at a Marriott Residence Inn, which was really nice. Except that they said only two per room, so we snuck the four of us kids into a suite with two queens with a couch, while my parents stayed in another room. Two people in their big of room? Sheesh.
    Then we stayed up watching Miss Congeniality 2...

Au revoir Paris! ^

St Pancras station is pretty cool! ^

Scotland here we come! ^

SO GREEN!

The walk through town was just really nice :) 

Oh so beautiful :) 

Sunday 6/23

Notre Dame! Oh what a service. We went to the Gregorian service, in French and Latin! I understood some French and Jaden understood some Latin. It was awesome! Absolutely beautiful. I can't believe it was constructed almost 850 years ago; on December 11! I loved looking at the inside and outside and everything about it. I can't believe I was actually there. And at a service! It was very different, but priceless.
    Afterwards we visited a semiformal restaurant, which was fantastic. Our waiter didn't speak any English, which made it very fun. I had boeuf boignon (beef marinated in Boignon, a wine). Which was delicious. Absolutely amazing. It melted in my mouth, with a hint of wine. Mmmmm! It was a wonderful experience topped with excellent service and a hot, chocolate minicake. Yum!
   I did a little shopping after lunch with no luck. At all. I found some things, but after trying them on, they didn't work out. One I really came close to getting! Oh well! The others went to Saint Chapel, my mom came with me. It was fun though, because I got to talk in French to some people. Which I loved.
     After that, we went to the Neal's church. The Neals used to go to our church here in Pasadena, but moved to start a church in Paris. It was very fun, and I loved listening to all the French! And I was able to sing along perfectly. Not that I understood all of what I was saying. Buy we saw Shannon and Stephanie then went to drinks with them and the Neals afterwards. That was very amusing! Californians in Paris. Very different cultures!
   We turned in early, after we bought last minute souvenirs. I got a charm bracelet, earrings, a wallet and key chain. Maybe I should have bought a snow globe, maybe not.  Late at night, a crowd/parade/riot went by!  think it was just another one of those equality parades.
    Not to mention I had many people tell me that day that I was very elegant. Lovely!

Ah Notre Dame! It was the 850th anniversary that year, so there were these HUGE bleachers right in front of the cathedral, so you couldn't get any pictures. That absolutely ruined it's beauty. 

And so, you can see that we couldn't get very good photos in front. 

But the back you could!

The trees were shaped so cool over on the nicer parts of town. 

A minipark behind Notre Dame :) 

Our restaurant ^

Jaden got foi goi! ^

These bugs were about the size of softballs!

Cafe with friends :) 

And our street didn't look so nice at night.... 

Saturday 6/22

 Tour Eiffel! L'Arc de Triumphe! Champs-Elyssees! Magnifique! I had a wonderful day. First I went to the bakery with my dad and got some croissants for breakfast. Then we headed to the Eiffel Tower until about one thirty. Ah! The Eiffel tower. We took the elevator to the very top. It was gorgeous. I could see so far! But oh the crowds. That was not do nice! It made it veeery hard to take a picture. Or a million pictures. Either way. We then walked all the way down the steps (but you had to get the elevator back to the second level from the top). I think it was some two hundred steps. But it was easy since we were going down. We then got our Eiffel tower pictures at the bottom and walked to the metro. Then we arrived at the Arc de Triumphe.You have to walk under the street in order to get to it, which Maia loved.
  We got tickets to the top! While in line a German girl asked us in perfect English if she could go to the top with us, since she was only fifteen she could not go up without an adult with a ticket (only adults have to pay for a ticket). So we adopted her and her friend into our family for twenty minutes. They were both fifteen, my age! So sweet. At the top of the arc we.could see.really far, and it was extremely fun to watch the crazy traffic (in the circle around the arc it's a free-for-all). I loved it. At the bottom we looked around a bit, at the military shrine and whatnot, and then went down the Champs-Elyssees. I loved it! So many people. We stopped at a cafe outside which was awful. I am guessing we offended the waiter because he did not serve us readily or whatever. Oh well. He didn't even want to let us try to speak French. Not to mention I couldn't get anything since what I wanted was only served in the morning. Oh well. I then went to a French Sephora and bought a plum lipstick, which I thought was pretty French. There was not a single worker who spoke English. I am still not sure if I like the lipstick, because it is somewhat purply. It was a fun experience since no one spoke English.
     We then went home and bought some crepes on the way. Mmmm! I had a jambon-fromage-oeuf crepe (ham, cheese, egg) it was delish. But I was only able to eat about half, since it was so filling. But I did get some treats afterwards at the grocery store. Then Maia and I knocked on the wrong apartment door. Whoops! Je suis desole!
    All in all it was a fabtastic day. Cold and windy, but excellent. I am so grateful to Jesus for his generosity towards our family! We are so blessed.

^This view is from the second level.

It was sooo windy at the very top!

My Eiffel Tower picture. 

Keiren: you can turn it vertical. Sometimes you hafta.

L'Arc de Triumphe ^

Oh Champs-Elyssees!

This staircase was so long. but not nearly half the amount of stairs to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral!

At the top of the Arc de Triumphe :) 

It was windy up there too. And it started to rain. 

A typical Parisian landscape. 

This is McDonalds. With croissants and cake and baguettes. It was ridiculous. Too bad there was probably 100+ people in that McDonalds! 

Champs-Elyssees. :) 

Please don't mind the terrible picture, but this is my lipstick. It's a little warmer, I think, in real life. The picture doesn't do it justice. Plus my hair is aaaawful!

Friday 6/21

The Louvre. What a beautiful place. And not to mention all the beautiful stuff inside! I saw my favorite painting, the Coronation of the Empress Josephine and Consecration of Napoleon by J.L. David. We also saw the renown Mona Lisa, which I shoved my way through the huge crowd to get to the front and get my picture with. It was incredible.
   We also saw the Venus de Milo, a few Vermeers, Napoleon's apartments, and many more incredible works of art (oeuvres d'art). I loved seeing all the goooorgeous sculptures I studied in art history this past year, and saying a little about some of them to my family.
   Ah! C'est magnifique! I loved every bit of that beautiful place. I wish I could have spent days there! But no, one day will do for now. Then we walked home, stopped at a small crepe thing as well as a little bakery. I had a pain chocolate, which was deeeelicious. When home, the folks went to the grocery store and then we ate a very French meal of bread, fruit, and even some chicken. Then chocolate and brulee was a must. Afterwards we took a stroll where the others got some ice cream and we walked to the end of the island where Notre Dame is located on. There were quite a lot of people along the Seine, and maaany in the town too, because if a Friday night music festival. But ah! I love listening to the French talk, even if they are all drunk. I decided I will have to marry a Frenchman and move to Africa with him. We then all fell asleep listening to the many drunk French people, which was weirdly nice

We crossed this bridge many times over, it just felt so Parisian in the light rain.

This picture. It's gonna be framed in my room. I absolutely LOVED the Louvre, and I cannot wait to get back there!

It's just so cool.

'Psyche Revived with a Kiss'. It's so breath taking, romantic, and incredible! And I'm not one to like romance!

SO Pretty!

Awwww yeaaaaah. The Mona Lisa! 

^ My current favorite painting. Mostly because it's huge. 

The Winged Victory of Samothrace (The Nike of Samothrace) SO old! And amazing!

Okay. This room was AMAZING. Gorgeous sculptures, amazing architecture, and essentially ALL marble. But that ugly, UGLY thing up there is made from T-shirts by some gypsies when they were leaving their camp. It would have been so much more amazing without it. We sat in that room for a while, but it just wasn't as serene as it would be without that thing. 

Her copy was pretty amazing! Except... I wasn't supposed to take a photo...

My current favorite artist, Jacques-Louis David (this is his self portrait)

The marble staircases were so much fun to walk up, and listen to your shoes tap! 

^ The very image of Roman beauty. And that nice statue. :D (Venus de Milo)

A view just outside a Dutch room, where my dad's favorite Vermeer was. 

^Part of Napoleon's apartments. SO pretty! And SO gold!

These vents blew our (Maia and me) dresses up like crazy! We stepped out of one elevator and I think a vent was blowing so strongly that somebody probably got a nice glimpse of my underwear. Awwwkward.

The famous elevator in the Louvre. 

The end of the island! You can just barely see on the right a group of teens (there were so many groups of teens out), and most of them were either drinking alcohol or mixing alcohol into their Red Bulls. 

^Just outside the entrance to our apartment.

A cute mini park at the end of the island.

^ A little snip of the very busy neighborhood!