Day 6: France to Belgium

Day 7 began with a bang - literally.  We woke up to have a breakfast of meat, cheese, dried fruits, yogurt, croissants that would make you cry, and sugar cereal!  While we were eating breakfast we heard a roar over head and walked outside to see what was going on.  We saw this:

These were followed by fly overs from what seemed like ALL the aircraft in France's military.  It beat the Centerville parade fly over (if we get them)!  When we returned to the hotel we asked the receptionist why there were flyovers and she told us it was National Day in France.  Oh! Since we've returned home and told a few people we were in France on National Day, they say, "oh, really, July 14th?" Ummm, yup. Obviously we are uneducated twits.  But we appreciated being educated in Paris and National Day! 

National Day also meant that banks were closed. Yay. Stephen was nice enough to be our money exchange extrodinaire.  We gave him dollars, he gave us Euros.  We also supplied security detail while he retrieved euors from an ATM.

They apparently turned from security detail to crooks in a heart beat. Might want to change you pin number Steve.

Bastille square which served as our Metro reference point and a parade route!

The boys wanted to proceed to the catacombs, but how could we miss a parade in Paris on National Day?

The parade handler.

The parade sleepers.

 When the parade finally began, we had to be careful not to blink.  We are used to parades that proceed at 5 mph.  Apparently when the military is in charge of the parade, there is a schedule to keep and there shall be no variances.  They proceeded at about 40 mph down the street in full uniform, a few waves and no candy.

Mark thought these fireman helmets were interesting - all silver and all encompassing.

National Day also meant that the catacombs were closed.  Rats (and skulls).  The boys were disappointed because they read about the catacombs in a mystery novel they had read.  So we got the best picture of zombies we could. 

We regrouped at a nearby park where we found this statue.  Mark discovered a couple that was taking advantage of the city of Love, and wasn't going to take a picture, but I made him because it just seemed so iconic. 

Referring to our GPS/Mark, there was a cemetery nearby and we thought that would be interesting to see.  We were not disappointed.  It was a very large area with many beautiful mausoleum monuments for families. I looked up information on the cemetery later and found the name of it to be Montparnasse Cemetery, the southern cemetery in Paris before cemeteries were disallowed with in the city limits.  One of the comments on the webpage I looked up said, "Lovely graveyard. Would recommend others to be buried there." Ha.

James and I tried to find the oldest grave marker while we were there and we found this one that we thought said 1819. 

Cool building with mosaics down the side.

On our way to The Cathedral of Notre Dame this picture may have been taken after a gaggle of 12 year old girls boarded and kept peeking at Spencer.  Too bad I don't know how to speak French for eavesdropping.

Aren't these three boys just the most amazing things you have ever seen? Oh, and what's that in the background? 

We were in awe of the Cathedral of Notre Dame! We were also in awe at how organized the tourists were in forming and maintaining their own line into the Cathedral.  A miracle is a miracle, big or small.

The detail of this building is just amazing.  What a contrast in the time and patience it took to form all of these shapes and states to the lack of patience we have when our internet doesn't perform as quickly as we'd like.

Many Saints were honored with statues outside the cathedral.

Incredible artwork and craftsmanship abound throughout the cathedral displaying scenes from Christ's life and others from The Bible, as well as honored saints and priests.

 Construction on the cathedral began in 1163 and was completed in 1345. Though through the years, damages and wear took their course and there have been updates, additions and repairs since.

I always love to see the organs.

Did you know you could open a stained glass window to allow a breeze in?

This is a statue (but blurry picture) of Joan of Arc who was "burned alive as a heretic and a witch. The decision to rehabilitate her reputation was made in this Cathedral," according to the accompanying plaque.

Though they are not moving, these are not statues. They are thankfully quiet boys, ready to move on.

As we exited the cathedral, this statue of St. Denis bid us farewell.  It is said that after the martyr St. Denis was beheaded, he picked up his head and walked six miles, preaching a sermon along the way.  His actual point of death is now marked by a basilica.

Creperies on all sides.

Check out those flying buttresses!

After more walking to find a more vacant sidewalk cafe than the ones close to the cathedral. We opted to fill the boys with caffeine to help them through the rest of the day. They did not refuse and tried to put the bottles to musical use until we put the kibosh on that (what boring parents).  A few police cars and iconic sirens passed by and we noted how that just added to the feel in Paris.

Stephen and I order the same salad, with melty goat cheese deliciousness. It was so good that when I took a bite into it, I knew I needed to get a picture to remember it (as if my taste buds wouldn't). Stephen acquiesced to his crazy sister-in-laws request to borrow his untouched piece of toast so I could make a food memory. Yup, I'm crazy.

On our way to the Hotel de Ville, I took a sip from a woman's hands. Or, as some have pointed out, I spit into her hands. It's like a glass half empty/full situation.

The Hotel de Ville is political office buildings with statues of important political people all around.

Before we left Paris, we decided to walk into another cathedral, St. Paul, just because we could.

Our train ride to the Thalys station was uneventful until we exited the subway, when a man right next to us accused another man of taking his wallet.  I had made eye contact with the accused on the train and didn't think anything of him (boy was I a prime target for pick-pockets). The accused said he didn't do it, but the accuser persisted.  The accused started to walk away and as the accuser followed, the accused bolted up the stairs followed by the accuser yelling for the police.  That rattled us a bit and Spencer told me he felt very vulnerable.

On the way home, DJ offered to rub my feet if I would rub his. YES!  That lasted for a good 15 minutes before we could verify the feeling returning to our lower extremities.  We were successful in finding our car again and returning to the apartment in Oostende, Belgium. What a great, adventurous, fun side trip! My only regret was not having just one more Nutella crepe! 

Day 5: Belgium to France

Day 5 began with a drive into Brussels to find church services for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Twenty minutes into our drive, Mark announced that he thought he forgot his wallet which happened to have the only cash we had because we'd used the cash I had.  Thankfully I had my credit card (though still without a chip) so hopefully we would be ok at least on Monday when banks opened again.

Mark located the church building and an older missionary couple greeted us while we were parking and showed us where to go and what to do.  In that congregation there were eight languages spoken, so we were give headphones for translation.  As it happened, the speakers for the day spoke English!

After sacrament services we asked one of the missionary couples what we can do to get cash with an unchipped card and no pin number. He told us not much, and gave us 10 euors to help get us from point a to point b. We went out to the car to change our clothes (next to the man that was peeing in the bushes), and Spencer and D.J. discovered that they did not bring their regular shoes because, "Mom, you never told us to bring them!"  I sigh and think about people who are very smart but have little common sense and vow to figure out how to help them have common sense. However, experience can be the best teacher so I'm sure the experience of wearing their church shoes and socks all over Paris will help them never forget to make the same mistake twice.

When we drove by the train station it took us a few trips back and forth in front of the station and me making one trip inside for a map to help us figure out where to park, but we did it and got to our train in time!  Stephen decided to come along with us and met us at the train station from his connecting train from Oostende. We were so excited to have Stephen come along with us!

When we walked out of the doors of the above train station, we saw this something like this:

Stephen and I just looked at each other and exclaimed: "We are in Paris!"

Fortunately for Spencer and D.J., one block away from the train station we spotted a store that said "SHOES," and we promptly made our way to the store to buy shoes that wouldn't give them blisters with all the walking we were going to do.  Converse was the choice. Our hotel was two miles away, and we opted to experience the Paris streets and take in the sights and memories while walking instead of taking a taxi.  We dropped off our things, used the bathroom in our tiny, tiny toilet areas and we were off to the Metro station to get to the Eiffel Tower.

On our way to the station, we heard an orchestra playing inside of a city square.  They were so good! There was music everywhere we went in Paris, by professionals and street performers alike.  Spencer got sick of me saying, "let's just follow the sound of music," as he knows that's one of my favorite movies and it just rubbed him to know there is truth in it. Haha!

In the same square, we posed for a picture near Victor Hugo's home.

As we neared the Metro station, about 12 blue vans drove toward us and as they passed by we discovered they were police vans.  Hmmmm.  Then as we kept walking, we realized that there were police in full riot gear walking toward us in a wide line. Hmmmm. Move to the side to let them through.  Then as we kept walking, we heard shouting and chanting as we realized we were going to be in the middle of a demonstration. . hey there's the Metro station, get down there quick!  We raced down the steps in time to hear the noisy crowd walk over us for about 15 mintues (as we figured out yet again that we can't get a measly thing without a chipped card).  It was so loud and worrisome, that D.J. said to me, "I feel like I need to go hide in a bathroom stall!"  Stephen was curious enough to go up a few stairs and see what was going on and I followed.

I discovered by the man in the green t-shirt which says "Free Palestine" that it was a Pro-Palestinian protest.  I looked the demonstration up on the news and it ended at a synagogue where the participants forced about 130 people to stay inside. Three or four people were hurt because there were too few police at the synagogue and the police ended up using tear gas.  We were grateful for the underground Metro station!

Following the sound of this Russian sounding music in the Metro.

We were Metro frequent flyers for 24 hours thanks to the navigation skills of Stephen and Mark.  They were brilliant enough to take pictures of maps to help us get where we were going:

When our hearts slowed down a beat from the excitement of the protest, we exited the Metro and took a left turn towards the Eiffel Tower. But we did not arrive at the Eiffel Tower. Instead we came upon this amazing building called L 'Hotel des Invalides which contains war memorials, monuments, grave sites (including Napoleon's), hospital and museums relating to France's military history.

We walked around it for a bit until James saw the tippy top of the Eiffel Tower in the distance and we headed the other way - the 'right' we should've taken, until we finally laid eyes on the whole tower.

As we approached the tower we heard. . . the sound of music! This time is was what sounded like professional Opera singers!

The sun broke through the clouds at one point to shine on these far away buildings, which I discovered is the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica that stands at the highest point of Paris.

We couldn't decide whether to climb the stairs or take the elevator to the top. So we decided we couldn't make a decision because we were hungry and needed a bathroom (all bathrooms at the tower seemed to be under construction or locked).  We crossed over the Seine River then crossed again, pausing for a picture that Mark has deemed the picture of James the Benevolent.  

We finally found a sidewalk cafe near the tower (surprisingly there are not many near the tower, only sidewalk vendors), and just in time as the sprinkling rain turned into a downpour.

 And thankfully they had hamburgers for the boys, while Mark and I had pasta and Stephen had an omelet.

By the time we made it back to the Eiffel Tower, if was sunny again.  We decided to ride the elevator since we had walked quite a bit already and we knew we had to walk back to the hotel. Good decision.  After heeding the many reminders to mind the pick pockets, we went up the first elevator to the second floor, then the next elevator to the top, which we reached right at sunset.  It was crowded, but still a thrill to be there. I was interested to find out that Mr. Eiffel built an apartment for himself and his daughter close to the top.

Spencer tried to get a closer look.

James wasn't too excited about the height and stayed close to me most of the time. It was amazing to see Paris from the Eiffel Tower! We had fun pointing out sites and finding things in the view finder.  

We were glad we stayed late when the lights on the tower came on.  As we crossed the river yet again to get to the Metro, we came across a man who had fallen on the sidewalk.  His family couldn't wake him and it seemed he'd had a stroke or something, I asked if they had called the police and they said yes, it just seemed like a really long time until they arrived.  But they did, whew!

Stephen bought and shared banana/nutella crepes with us while we waited for Mark to get some final pictures and then we boarded the subway.

While on the subway, all three adults in our party became suspect of a man near us who was eyeing Mark's back pack and looking our way a little too often.  Upon exiting the subway, the man stuck by us and we made sure each boy had an adult by them and to stay close.  As we emerged from the stairway, we were relieved to see the police there (we think leftover from the demonstration) and went the opposite direction of the man.  We fell in bed at about midnight, full of amazement for all we saw during the day!