Paris Part 1

So we decided to start on the long-awaited Paris post... but as soon as we did, we realized why we had procrastinated so long in the first place- this post is going to be HUGE! With one very full week to document, captured in over 300 pictures, weeding it down to tiny typed phrases and the cream of our photographic crop is going to be difficult. So, we're taking it in baby steps... Who knows how many posts it will turn out to be, but this one covers our arrival, Sunday February 10, through half of Wednesday, February 13.




On the plane from Rome to Paris! We used Graham's Thank-You points from his Citi Bank card for his ticket, so our flight was basically buy one, get one free!!

Our view of the French Alps as we flew over them... I like taking pictures out of plane windows :)

Paris from the sky!! Can you spot the Eiffel Tower?

Once we landed, we had to wait for the shuttle to take us into town. We were excited, so we took some silly pictures :)

Once we did make it onto the shuttle, it was a crazy ride... Our bus driver zoomed between lanes and around corners in a huge tour bus!! He even hit a car as he made a tight squeeze around a corner. YES, he HIT a car with the bus! So needless to say, we were stopped for some time while they hashed it all out. I remained optimistic and just laughed it off. You can guess Graham's reaction to the situation by the look on his face...

Once we made it to our hotel it was already the early evening and we were exhausted from traveling, so we took a quick nap and spent the evening exploring the area. We ate at my favorite restaurant in Paris (which is apparently a chain...), Chez Clement! It was literally a block from our hotel, so it was meant to be!


The next day, Monday Feb. 11th, was our half-iversary! Happy 6 months to us!!! We do realize how spoiled we are. Most couples have to wait 5, 10, 25 years before (and if) they are able to make it to Paris together. We did it in 6 months. What can I say? We're just amazing like that :) To celebrate we had a HUGE delicious lunch of steak and ravioli at a cozy little bistro. Graham tried the tartare, but wasn't able to make it through, not because of the raw meat, but because of the pickle taste :) Afterward we took a stroll through the Luxembourg gardens which were just a few blocks from our hotel!

Oooh scary lion!

I made Graham help me onto the wall, take the picture, and then help me down :)

Afterward we made our way to one of the most unusually beautiful places in Paris, the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery! It's this picturesque, absolutely-breathtaking, peaceful world all of its own. Yes, it's a cemetery, but the crypts and monuments are absolute works of art! Not to mention the numerous celebrities (ok, most of them old-world celebrities) that are buried there!

Graham at the grave of The Doors' Jim Morrison


Admiring the view near Chopin's grave (behind Graham, with all the flowers)


The cemetery is HUGE and divided into divisions which are marked like road signs and the little streets are named after each one's most prominent permanent resident.

The always puckered tomb of Oscar Wilde

A very elaborate, and ever so eerie tombstone

Pretty cobblestones


The trees played with the sun and cast such beautiful shadows, that we had to get in on that action.

After the cemetery we headed to...
Notre Dame!!!
It was so beautiful at night! It looked as if completely illuminated by candlelight, and the dim glow just made the statues of the religious figures staring down at us all that much more ominous.

The pinnacle of the Gothic movement in architecture, Notre Dame, unlike our Italian basilicas, places an emphasis on the vertical with spires and pointed arches. And don't forget the famous flying buttresses!

Afterwards we crossed the river and explored the world famous Shakespeare and Co. bookstore. We spent quite a good chunk of time browsing the shelves of used books and walked away with quite a few. I even found a "vintage" French cookbook in English!

As we exited the bookstore, a religious procession was passing in the street before us. We have no idea what it was for, but it was around the time of Ash Wednesday, so maybe that had something to do with it. Maybe if you speak French you could translate for us...
(Btw, enjoy our very 1st blog video! There will be plenty more to come, now that we have figured it out!)

That night we had a fabulous dinner overlooking the Seine and Notre Dame. I had French Onion soup and half a Croque Madame which I split with Graham. It's basically a French grilled cheese sandwich with ham inside and a fried egg on top. He had the French equivalent of macaroni and cheese. It was absolutely delicious!

The next day we explored the Paris Opera House

It was stunningly beautiful! Unfortunately we can't share much of it with you, because the tricky lighting didn't lend itself to very good pictures, but we tried!

The closest thing to a ballroom in the Opera House, and it's equivalent to Versailles's Hall of Mirrors. It had an amazing calendar that rotated like a clock to tell you the date, day of the week, and month!

Taking a break in one of the hidden wings of the Opera and admiring the view out the window.


One of the few pictures that actually came out in the awkward lighting...

After the Opera House we explored the MEGAstores of Galleries Lafayette. It's basically a semi-mall that takes up multiple city blocks, only it's all one store. Something like a department store on steroids. Afterwards we enjoyed dessert and a beer from the top floor while admiring the view of the Eiffel Tower. Then we headed back to the hotel for a change of clothes (I was FREEZING!) and then headed out to find dinner. Not knowing exactly what we were craving, we settled on sushi ( I know it's not French, but we don't really have it here in Rome, so it was a treat for us!) I was so proud of Graham, he tried every kind of sashimi and sushi that they brought to us, and I'd like the think he genuinely enjoyed it too! Afterwards, I was craving something sweet. So, we headed to one of many local creperies and, to Graham's astonishment, I ordered a crepe AND a hot chocolate!

He had a cute little jug of wine...
I had DELICIOUS hot chocolate and a crepe filled with raspberry jam!

The next day, Wed. Feb. 13, was our museum day, so we headed out on a trek to oogle at the masterpieces of Paris. We had originally planned on the Louvre, but Graham wasn't feeling 100%, and since the Louvre truly requires all your energy to conquer, we decided to hit up some of the smaller and more manageable museums.

Along the way, we spied a pretty view of the Eiffel Tower behind Parisian rooftops, so we stopped for a photo-op...

Then we wandered our way to the Orsay!!
The museum itself was stunning, regardless of the treasures it housed inside :)
Some lucky children were in a sketching class inside the museum. I, like a true child stalker, snapped a photo of the unsuspecting young-ins

The beautiful view of Sacre Coeur and Montmarte from inside the the massive clock on the top floor of the museum

We took TONS of pictures of the beautiful art there, but in the interest of Blog space (and not wanting to bore you to death) we've just included our personal favorites:

Mine: Monet's Nympheas bleus (Blue Water Lilies)

Graham's: Vincent Van Gough's Bedroom in Arles


After gallery cruising for some time, we took a break on a bench, and you now what that means...
Silly pictures!!


On the way out I got caught in the middle of an argument between Virgil and Dante...


And Graham found something interesting about the Rhino outside...



Stay tuned for our upcoming posts of the rest of our Parisian adventures!!!

There's a first time for everything!

So this post is a little out of date... honestly I was just to lazy (and busy) to update the blog before we set out for Paris :) But in the days before we left, I managed to squeeze in quite a few firsts!

The first first :)
While it was completely unintentional, it seems that I have been quite secretive about my job here in Rome. So I took some pictures of my first outing with the children: a bike ride in Villa Borghese (Rome's equivalent of Central Park)! Basically my job consists of playing with beautiful children in a beautiful palace in the center of Rome while speaking to them in English. It's quite posh. I can't lie. Most of the time I can't believe I get paid for it. A typical day usually goes as follows:
-I arrive a few minutes early (sometimes a few minutes late) and wait for the children to get back from school. Sometimes the princess picks them up, sometimes their driver does.
-When they get home they wash their hands and put on their house slippers (no shoes on the Persian and other rugs). Then the cook (the driver's wife) makes them a snack of fresh squeezed orange juice and fresh fruit, after which at least the boys usually wants prosciutto, yogurt and cake.
-When finished they wash their hands and I begin to help either Livia or Enrico with their homework. I take one at a time to one of their plush bedrooms and help them with their English homework or we snuggle onto one of what I believe are the most beds in the world and read a book, sounding out each syllable at a time with Enrico, or tracing the words with my finger with Livia.
-After both have finished their homework, if there is still time left we draw pictures with amazing colored pencils, roar with laughter over a game of foosball, or the children take turns piling on top of me in a game they like to call "hamburger": I am the bottom bun, one is the meat, one is the salad (lettuce), and the third is the top bun. The child with the special honor of being the top bun usually takes his/her time, backs up that extra little bit and lauches forward with all his/her strength before catapulting onto the human pile on the bed. I never escape this game with a single hair in place or without begs and tugs and pulls to play one more time.
-When I finally manage to escape the apartment, I go downstairs to the Princess' office, discuss her children's progress and get paid. It's a pretty sweet deal. I can't lie.
-And the best part of it all is that when I leave I genuinely can't wait to return. My work is one big play day!

Meet the children!


Meet Eduardo: He's 4 years old, and even though he hasn't had a single day of formal English teaching, he understands me just fine, and manages to respond with enough English to get by. When we get one-on-one time, he likes to draw pictures or put puzzles together. Whenever he fits a piece into another I say "Perfect" or "good job!" to which he smiles and repeats the English exclamation. When not around his brother or sister, he's an angel... but he and his brother together can be quite a handful, put all three of them together and I won't get a single English word from him.

Meet Enrico: He is 7 years old and is just beginning to read in English. He's all boy and usually initiates any rough play that the trio engages in. It's often difficult to get him to start working, but once it's just the two of us, and his confidence with the English language increases, he gets excited and wants to continue reading, even after we've finished one of his little books. He's a sweet heart on his own, but I think he feels as if he needs to show off in front of the others.

Meet Livia: She's 8, loves horses, and gets very excited every time I bring my special sketching pencils for her to use. Her English is amazing, and she understands just about everything I say to her and can respond quite eloquently. When she doesn't understand, or doesn't know a word, she blushes slightly, gives a little giggle and then asks me what it means. I absolutely love my time with her. She's so dainty and feminine and reminds me physically of my niece with the demeanor of my nephew. It's comforting playing with her and her brothers because I miss my niece and nephew so much that the little reminders they give me help take the edge of until I am home again. When it comes to her homework, she is quite capable, but it is often difficult to get her to read more than a few pages without asking when we can stop.

Livia at Villa Borghese in her rollerblades.

Enrico (could he look more Italian?!), Eduardo, Raul (the driver), and his daughter (as well as the children's constant companion) Jennifer

Livia and Jennifer in the beautiful Villa Borghese

The second first:
Graham surprised me, and planned a trip to Castel St. Angelo, where he had spied a fun outing that I have always wanted to try, but never had....

Ice Skating!


I was super-scared. Graham tried to reassure me that it was just l9ike roller-blading, but since I haven't done that since I was about 7, it was of little help. Once I slid onto the ice and began to make my way around in slow ovals, I was ok. Graham, however, was an ice-skating machine!


I was ok at first, because when we arrived, the ice was empty. But soon a whole party of children arrived to out-skate and terrify me. Notice my rigid and cautious stance :) But all-in-all it was an amazing first ice-skating experience. The scenery was beautiful, my company couldn't have been better and I didn't fall a single time!



My third first:

I cut my hair!!
Basically, my hair has been long my entire life. The shortest cut I've ever had has been to my shoulders. But being here, in this dream life, with an amazing man who supports my crazy decisions, I felt like I needed a change. My old life was done, my old haircut needed to be done too. I was a bit hesitant because I'm paranoid about my hair and usually only let my amazing hairstylist cousin touch it, but since she is currently on the other side of the world... I had to place my fate, and my hair, in the hands of another.The before shot... long as always :)
Shorter, but not short enough!
My pile of hair that used to be attached to my head :)


The final cut! Short, layered, unable to be put into a ponytail :) Unfortunately that night didn't lend itself to many successful pictures of the new cut, but check back for the Paris post with TONS of pictures of it (and Graham too)!

It took a while to get my hair cut, so after we finished Graham had a craving for a little snack...