Paris-Day 2



Ready for our first full day of Paris adventures!!



Our first full day in Paris, we planned to see the Eiffel Tower, the Arc De Triomphe, stroll along the Champs Elysses, and finish up our day at the Louvre. 

The Eiffel Tower was a pretty long walk from the apartment...so we thought we would tackle it first, while we were fresh!  It was a beautiful walk...we saw lots of neat things along the way!

We can see it off in the background!!  Doesn't look that far away, right?

Little R doing some posing!

The walk was BEAUTIFUL!!!

Getting closer!!

Fountains everywhere!

The Seine River

R happened upon his next new car on the walk over to the Eiffel Tower.

We finally made it!  When we got to the Eiffel Tower, only one lift was working, so the line was outrageously long to go up the lift or the stairs...over a 2-hr wait!!  So we decided to enjoy it from the ground.  A was very disappointed...she had hopes of going to the top! 

It is absolutely HUGE up close!

Amazing!

This was a bit surprisng to us...those are some major guns!!

We found a carousel at the Eiffel Tower...everyone loves a carousel!

Even T wanted to ride...although she wasn't too sure after she got on!

Gettin' some exercise!

The view of the tower as we left...

It really was amazing!

After the tower, we decided to find a place to eat lunch.  We wanted something French, so we stopped at a little Bistro that looked good.  It was a neat atmosphere, and the food was really good!

Cute little Bistro where we ate our first lunch!

R tried duck for the first time!

T had a smoked salmon club sandwich.  A had crepes.  I played it safe and had Tomato Basil Pasta! : )

We learned pretty quick that the best part of Paris is the desserts!!  This molten chocolate cake was AWESOME!!!

After lunch we marched on to the Arc De Triomphe.  I wasn't too crazy about the crowded underground pedestrian crossing to get over to it...but we made it!

Pretty cool, huh?  Do you see all the traffic in this roundabout??  It was crazy!

Impressive!

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I

After the Arc De Triomphe, we headed down the Champs Elysses for some window shopping!!

R picked out a watch...only 29,000 euros!

A was excited about this one.  There was a line to get into the store, so we didn't go in...which was probably a good thing, because she wanted a LV bag SO bad...and she wasn't getting one! : )

This was paradise for T!!!

After our window-shopping, we started our walk to the Louvre.  Again, a beautiful walk, and lots of fun!  When we got to the Louvre, the line was outrageously long!  But my Paris book had another ticket location, so after some excellent map-reading skills by R, we found the location and got tickets!  The Louvre is not very stroller friendly, but there was no way we could let little R loose in that crowd...so it was a definite struggle!!  R's crowd tolerance was way over-limit by the time we left!!  And A's toes were all smooshed from being stepped on!!  But we got to see the main things we wanted to see.  I would love to take T back someday and just let her roam for an entire day.  But even she was ready to get out of the chaos!!

Pretty flowers along the way.

Beautiful tree!

Happy Daddy!!  : )  There is another pic of the girls and me doing our "jump for joy", but since I am the blog poster, it will not be making an appearance! : )

The Louvre

SO many people!!!

The girls with Venus De Milo

Beautiful!

The ceilings were as pretty as the artwork hanging on the walls!

The Lady of the Louvre!! 

After the Louvre, we headed back to our apartment for dinner and to rest our aching feet!!  It was a great day, but we were all exhausted!!  After dinner little R played "Daddy Dress Up"....it was kinda cute!

"Look, I'm Daddy!"

"Cool Daddy"

Paris-Day 1

We took so many pictures, and had so many adventures there is no way I could fit it all in one post!  So we are going to do a daily recap of our trip to Paris. 

The day before we were scheduled to leave, R did a test-run on the local train down to the main train station in Stuttgart where we could catch our train to Paris.  He came back feeling nauseous, and with a report of 15 minutes underground on the train route.  I worried about this ALL night long (I don't do well underground!), and by morning had decided maybe we should call a taxi to take us downtown to the train station.  R made the call, and a taxi was scheduled to pick all 5 of us (and our luggage) at our house.  When the taxi arrived, it was a 5-passenger vehicle with some cargo space or a 7-passenger vehicle with NO cargo space!  We had to put little R on my lap...illegal...and scary with the way people drive here!!  But we made it to the train station, had some lunch (surrounded by pigeons, inside the train station) and made it to our train and seats in plenty of time.  WHEW!!

The train trip was great!  Very smooth ride (although our seats were facing backward)!  We were a bit surprised by the ear pain going through the tunnels, but it gave both girls (who aren't allowed to chew gum) the rare privilage of chewing gum!!  T kept it in her mouth for hours...just savoring the experience!! : )  We also discovered on the train ride that the memory card to my camera was in the computer at home...oops!  I had to borrow A's very small memory card to get us by until we could find a place to buy a memory card.

We arrived in Paris, and started looking for a way to get to our apartment.  We decided to take a taxi, and then realized there are very few taxis equipped to handle 5 people and luggage!!  We finally found one that would take us (again with little R on my lap...EEEK).  He was VERY unfriendly, and his driving was absolutely scary!!  Paris traffic is like nothing I have EVER seen before in my life!!

We made it to our apartment, got checked in with the owner, and unloaded!!  Our apartment was very nice...just perfect for what we needed!  And located just a few minutes from the Louvre, it was within walking distance of the main attractions.

Our apartment...we had already unloaded and cluttered it up by the time I got the camera out!  This was the living room with a huge sofa and a murphy bed.

Dining area...we actually ate here each evening except one!

Full kitchen.  This saved us tons of money by allowing us to prepare dinner here in the evenings.

The bedroom

The loveseat was little R's bed during our stay...worked perfectly!

The bathroom was actually quite large!

Big enough for 2 of us to get ready at the same time.

Our building...our apartment was at the very top...with 3 small balconies...it was a beautiful old building!

The dark brown doors on the left are the entry to our apartment.  After walking around Paris all day, we were always so thrilled to see these doors!!

After unloading our bags, we decided to walk down to the supermarket and buy some groceries.  R had gotten directions for 2 supermarkets that were just a couple of minutes away.  We headed out and walked, and walked, and walked...but no supermarket!!  We finally found one, and headed in.  It was the tiniest market on the face of the earth...and crowded!  It was quite the experience!  We bought our groceries and headed back to the apartment...in a downpour!  Little R was thoroughly distraught because he was wet, R was thoroughly agitated because of the close quarters in the market, and we were all hungry!  We were thrilled to see the doors to the apartment!  We went in, had dinner, and spent the rest of the evening planning our next day! 

This is a bakery we walked by on the way to the supermarket.  Their desserts looked almost too pretty to eat!!

Happy Easter from The Willis Family!!

Wishing everyone a very Happy Easter!! Easter was definitely different for us this year. The weather was COLD!! The kids had Easter goodies when they woke up this morning (after a late night arrival home from our Austria trip last night)! Then we went to church, and spent the rest of the day at home relaxing. We didn't color eggs or have any type of Easter egg hunt this year...so that seemed a little odd, but none of the kids even mentioned it. R and little R had a sweet conversation this morning about what Easter really means...but in the end I think little R was convinced that Jesus brought the Easter baskets...so not sure he really grasps the true concept of Easter yet. But looking forward to the day that he does!!

Salzburg, Austria

This weekend's trip was the Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg, Austria!  We watched the movie last week to refresh our memory (A had never seen it!), and I now remember just how much we LOVE this movie!!  This was one of T's favorites for several years...I wish I had counted how many times she watched it from the age of 3 to about 6!!

Salzburg was good, but we may have to try the trip again to give it a fair chance.  The weather was rainy and VERY cold...which made our day almost miserable!!!  We also weren't aware that our Sound of Music Tour was a bus tour.  After a 5-hour bus ride, the kids were not thrilled to get back on a bus for a 4 hour tour!!  The tour took us to several of the movie locations, and we could get off the bus for about 5 minutes and take pictures, then back on the bus to a new location.

When the bus tour was over, at 1:30, we started walking around to find a place to feed our starving kids.  Most places here open for lunch from around 11:00-2:00, then re-open again for dinner at 4:00.  By the time we found restaurants, they were already closed for lunch!!!  We walked, and walked, and walked.  We were hoping for some authentic Austrian food, but all we found was a noodle place! : )  It was a neat little restaurant, and everything was organic and healthy, so it was a neat experience.  Just not quite what we were expecting!

We were hoping to go up and visit the fortress just outside of town, but by the time we ate there wasn't enough time to tour the castle and make it back in time to meet our bus home.  So we found a neat little ice cream shop instead!

Then we went back to the meeting place for the bus...and waited...and waited...and waited...in the cold and the rain!  There was a mixup about pickup locations, and our bus driver was waiting for us at a different location.  So after about 45 minutes of waiting, we had to walk a few blocks to where our bus was waiting to pick us up.  Needless to say, we were tired and a wee bit grumpy!  At one point little R (who had been a real trooper the entire day) said "Daddy, I just can't take it anymore!"  And we felt exactly the same way!!

We were actually thrilled to get on the bus, get our wet shoes off, and head home!! Little R had his sandwich and chocolate milk on the bus, played games on the Ipod for a while, and at about 7:45, he said, "I'm ready to go to sleep now." And sleep he did! The entire way home!! : )

Our drop-off point in Salzburg, Austria

Salzburg, Austria

This was the building used as the outside of the residence in the movie.  The terrace where they had pink lemonade; the lake where the kids were in the boat.

The gazebo!  "I am 16, going on 17"!!

I just thought this beautiful!  This is the entrance to where the gazebo is.

The tree lined road where Maria first comes up the house; and where the kids are climbing in the trees in their "curtain" clothes!

The weather kept us from seeing the meadow of the opening shots of the movie, but this town was beautiful! 

The church where the wedding was filmed.

Inside the church...beautiful!

The ice cream shop!!  DE-LISH-US!!!

Mozart's residence.  Somehow one of the few pictures of R we got on this trip!

Just a neat alley way we took to get to the shopping area.

R's playtime

Little R has been at home with me all week.  He finished up at his old kindergarten last week, and he doesn't start at the new one until April 17th, so he has had lots of playtime at home!

He plays alone very well, as long as he can hear me in the room with him, or at least very nearby.  He sets up these elaborate battle scenes.  There is always a bad guy, and lots of good guys set up to defeat him!  It's actually quite cute to listen to the dialogue that goes along with these "epic battles".

Here Buzz Lightyear is leading the charge!!

He was explaining to me exactly what was going...it was very detailed! : )

This scene was set up during "rest time".  This was the first time I had seen Monster Trucks get involved!  He became very upset later that night when A did her chore of picking up his room and moved the soldiers!!

Our room

I haven't posted any pics of the house lately, because I haven't gotten much done lately! : )

Our room is pretty much done.  I wouldn't mind having a few more decorative touches....but our money is going to travel right now!!

Our room here is much smaller than at our other house, but it is big enough...and we really don't spend much time in there anyway.  It is in the same hallway as little R's room, separated by a bathroom, so that works perfectly for us!

Our bed takes up almost the whole room!

And the closet takes up the rest!

The landlord put new carpet in our bedroom and little R's bedroom before we moved in.  I wouldn't have chosen the blue/gray color myself, but at least it is new and clean!!

Girl Time!

We have lots of family time around our house.  And little R and I have lots of Mommy/Son time.  But very rarely do the girls and I get any special time alone together.  So we decided to put an end to that yesterday, and left R & little R here at home while we went to a "girls only" afternoon at the movies.  The girls have been dying to see The Hunger Games, and we were so excited to see that it was coming to the post theater (only a week late)!!  The girls have both read all 3 books...I have not.  But the movie was really good, and now I think I need to read the books, too! : )

It was great to get away for the afternoon!!

A final note:  One of the things I love about going to a movie at the post theater...they play the National Anthem before the movie starts.  It is amazing to see a packed theater full of kids and teenagers become totally silent, and stand with their hands over their hearts during the entire song!  Makes me proud...and a little teary!