Grandma and Callie having fun before we left for the day
But we opted to try to make it out to Versailles anyway. There had been some transit delays earlier in the morning so we had to come up with some backup ways to get there. We got our tickets and Bill was in absolute heaven navigating this train and that metro to get us there.
Callie gets to experience the train for the first time!
We got to Versailles and it was packed! Number one it was saturday, but there also seemed to be some sort of festival going on. We were definitely glad to have the Bob Stroller on those extra large cobblestones. We made our way up the street to the chateau. The sight of the place is always so shocking.
So much gold!
Bill and Mom got in line to get our tickets, so Callie and I hung out outside the gates and did some people watching. They came back after a while and we found out we couldn't take the stroller inside because there are stairs, so we checked the Bob and went inside. It was so gorgeous inside. The last time Bill and I were here the chateau was closed because they were fixing up the Hall of Mirrors so this was new for all of us. The only downside was some of the rooms were very narrow (not the Hall of Mirrors!) so it was pretty packed at certain points, especially trying to get around the tour groups. And we had an altercation in one of the rooms with a possibly rude, maybe just oblivious Frenchman.
Callie had passed out hard in the begining of the tour so Bill had her on his shoulder. This guy comes barreling past me knocking into me and nearly knocks me over. I try my best to keep him from knocking into Callie and Bill but he does anyway. I had given a loud "Geez!" so Bill knew he was coming. He runs into Callie and Bill. Since I was behind them, from my perspective Bill just somewhat roughly poked the guy in the back. The guy turns around quickly and sees a sleeping baby on Bill and barely musters a meek "Pardon." I was so mad! I found out later in talking to Bill about it that Bill had chosen a specific place to poke the guy, as in using a pressure point to inflict just enough pain to make him notice. That made me feel better:) We finally made it into the Hall of Mirrors and it was stunning!
We finished our tour and headed outside to get a picture in front of the gate which was tougher than we thought it would be!
We were competing with this young mom who was practically doing a photo shoot with her camera in front of the gates. Just when we thought "Ok! Lets go, it is clear!" A big tour group who's members were totally oblivious to everyone else walked in front of us.
Some artsy shots by Bill of the chateau
Return of the sock monkey!
After we were done we walked around Verailles with Callie before heading back to Paris.
We stopped at a little cafe before heading back to the train.
Grandma Tere and Callie enjoy watching the scooters go by while comparing and contrasting Paris with Italy.
"What's that daddy? I want it!!"
Sorry Kiddo.
Okay Mom, how about you hand over your smoothie?
After we enjoyed our drinks or just kept Callie away from them long enough to slurp them down, we headed back to Paris for our last meal in Paris. We had played around with the idea of eating in Versailles, but we opted to return to the restaurant we went for our first dinner in Paris. So with Triadou Haussman, it began and ended. It was at Triadou that I first tried onion soup and thought "Hey this stuff is actually really tasty!" not knowing that it was just Triadou's soup that was so good, not necessarily onion soup itself! We dropped off the stroller and walked down to the restaurant.
Although along the way, sock monkey made a new friend:
This rooster is perched outside a bottom floor window across from the train station.
Anyhoo, we had an amazing meal! Their meat was absolutely incredible and we enjoyed a really nice bottle of wine.
Callie started fussing pretty loudly, so mom took her for a walk so I could eat my meal and oh my lordy it was amazing!
Then we ordered dessert: creme brulee, chocolate crepes and profiteroles. So delicious, I can't quite describe it!
Did you know Creme Brulee is translated as "Burned Cream" ? Yumm....
Bill ordered some Grand Marnier after dinner and got a *very* healthy pour!
Callie was sufficiently tired so we walked back to the apartment. By this time, Mom and I realized just how much of a healthy pour that drink was, when Bill exclaimed, "Take a picture!" All I could mutter was "Bill, no." But there was no stopping him now!
We laughed about it all the way back to apartment.
We spent the remainder of the night packing up for our return home. Thank god my mom was there to hold/entertain Callie while we got everything packed up. I stayed up almost all night trying to get at least 2 ounces of milk pumped for the flight, in case Callie's ears had trouble on our descent. Ends up I should have just stayed up all night, not going to bed at 4am like I did. Because Bill and I slept through our alarm. Of course Callie chose that as her first night to sleep more than 2 hours at a time! Mom knocked on our door but no one woke up, not even Callie! So she started doing dishes loudly. Thank god she did, otherwise, who knows when we would've woken up. Our taxi was scheduled to pick us up at 6am and it was 6:15. Ugh. Bill got dressed in a hurry to see if there was any chance they had waiter. Nope. He came back up and in the remaining 10 minutes that he was gone we were ready. No shower, but we opted for the hippy shower instead. Little water, little deoderant and out the door. Luckily, our apartment was across the street from a hotel and the concierge was nice enough to call 2 taxis for us. We still managed to get to the airport with plenty of time to eat and do some last minute shopping. I have always loved the book The Little Prince and this store had a ton of stuff! So I picked up a couple of things for Callie when she is older: a music box and a set of dominoes. I also stumbled across a Paris sippy cup. I couldn't help myself. We had talked several times over the course of the week how much Callie is going to love eating and using a sippy cup and had joked that if we found a Paris sippy cup we would have to buy it. So there you have it...We boarded our plane after I bought a couple of extra diapers. None of our seats were together on the plane so we had to do some shuffling around and asking people if they wouldn't mind trading seats to where at least Bill and I were sitting together. Callie was fantastic on the plane! Apparently she saved up all of her sleep for the plane. She completely slept through the hour delay on the plane, and the takeoff itself as well as another 4 hours of so! She was a bit fussy in the middle of the flight, so we just walked her around the plane and I think we met every grandma on the plane! They all fell instantly in love with her. They all told us how good she was being and how beautiful she was. We knew which ones were French. For some reason, we noticed this week, that they all make the same sounds to babies. First they click their tongue at her and then say "Cuckoo Cuckoo." We also met some Italian grandmothers as well. As we got closer and closer to our descent, we started to prepare for the coming onslaught. We had been asking the flight attendants all day for ice and adding it to our ziplock bag that held those precious 2.5 ounces of milk to help her ears even out. So Bill got the bottle ready while I held/bounced Callie. There was a girl next to us from Spain that started playing peek a boo with Callie and she was hooked! So Callie laughed and giggled the whole way down to SFO! No milk needed! It was hysterical! Once we landed we waited for everyone else to get off the plane so we could get all of our stuff together again without getting in anyone's way. While Bill got all of our bags together, I stood up with Callie so she could see all the people leaving. She was in heaven and we got to see all the grandmas again. Soon we were out of the plane and going through customs. Bill was a bit more specific on the customs form than I am sure they are used to. How often do you think they see "Sippy Cup" written on a declarations form? Not often I'd wager! So there it is, the end of our trip. I am going to try to do a reflections kind of blog in the next few days, so stay tuned.
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