The Eiffel Tower! Carousels! Notre Dame! Carousels! The Musee D'Orsay! Carousels! These are some of the highlights of a trip to Paris with Pascale and Josephine. They definitely had a good time and they both agreed that we should go back there.
Pascale enjoyed the trip to Paris. She really wanted to go there because she learns about Paris in her French classes at school. She got to practice her French a bit while we were there. She speaks better than I would have thought. Josephine enjoyed it too, I guess, but at 2, she's completely unaware of travel. When we got home and were wiped out from the trip, she was watching Little Einsteins. When they showed the Eiffel Tower on the screen, she said to Bernie, "Will you take me there?" I wonder what she thinks we're doing when we queue for immigration and security and get on the train and sit there for a couple of hours. Does she think we're just tormenting her?
We stayed at a hotel just across from the Tuileries, where they have the crucial carousel and pony rides. It was wonderful to go there and hang out where the kids could have some fun.
I did manage to get to some shops that I really wanted to see. One was La Droguerie, which is mostly a knitting shop, but they sell lots of findings for jewelry making, beads, buttons, etc. I've sometimes thought about taking up spinning, and they had a nice selection of roving there. It's the first time I've seen roving in person. Everything in the shop was beautifully arranged (they are French, after all), but the queue to get someone to help you get at the stuff you need was like half an hour long. The employees simply would not be rushed (they are French, after all). Anyway, it's a wonderful shop and if you're into that kind of thing, I would highly recommend it. And, sort of randomly, I ran into my friend Nina from the US there. The other shop I went to is Tissues Reine. I'm sure you remember it from the Project Runway episode. They had some great stuff, and, again, very nicely arranged. Most of the fabric shops where I shop are to-the-trade sorts of places, and they're a mess. It was a pleasure to shop somewhere well-lit and nicely arranged. Also at Tissues Reine they had these half-size mannequins wearing clothes made from the fabrics in the shop. They were a little creepy and very chic.
But here's what you've been waiting for. The photos!
The Tuileries Gardens. That's the Louvre in the far background. We did not quite make it there, so we'll have to go there next time.
I love this pic of Pascale
At the top (or maybe the 2ieme etage) of the Eiffel Tower
Near Notre Dame
Taking a rest
Bernie pretending he's a statue.
They "Horray I'm in Paris!" dance
The bit that they're sitting in spins around when you turn that blue disc in the middle. Some older kids could really make it fly.
A playground right outside Notre Dame. It's nice to let the kids blow off some steam while you're touring around
Penguin Pastries
The pony rides were almost as big a hit as the carousels.
Montmartre has a double-decker carousel!
A Playground near Sacre Coeur
The gelateria at Galleries Lafayette shapes your ice cream into a flower shape!!!
Of all the art installations in the Tuileries (and there are many), this was the biggest hit. It's a house made of dark wood, with chalk provided to write on it with.
Musee D'Orsay
There's a diorama of Paris under a glass floor at the Musee D'Orsay. The kids went wild for it.
Josephine just loves sculpture, and her favorite sculptural theme is mommies and babies.
On the Eurostar on the way home 
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