Paris!

We got back from my sister-in-law's wedding in Paris last Friday night, extraordinarily jet-lagged and of course far behind in all holiday preparations. To the left is a picture of the beautiful now-newlyweds, at the dress shop before the civil ceremony. (It was fun to visit the shop where she bought her dress and watch the ladies fuss over her as she got ready for the day.) Not as many of our pictures turned out fabulously as I might have wished but I'll still try to hit the high points.

We spent almost a week in Paris before the wedding, so it's hard to know where to begin in blogging about the trip. One piece of advice: if you can avoid transatlantic travel with a two-year-old, do so. For the sake of your fellow passengers, for the sake of your child, and for your own sweet sanity. The bug howled for almost 2.5 hours of the 6.5 hour flight on the way over. No influx of cartoons, no snacks of any variety, no toys or games that we brought could assuage her deep, intense hatred of the seat belt. Our fellow passengers LOVED us, but they loved us even more when she finally wore out and they got relative peace for the last two hours of the flight. "As cranky as a two-year-old with jet lag" is definitely entering my vocabulary after that experience.

We stayed on a houseboat on the Seine with my in-laws, John and Pen. It was fantastic, if very quirky, and featured three bedrooms, an extensive contemporary art collection, an oversized chess set that fascinated the bug, and a toilet that "burped" every time a barge passed by. And they were frequent. Bathroom usage thus had to be very carefully timed to avoid damp consequences. Here's a picture of the barge.

We were just east of the islands at the heart of the city, which meant that we were very close to Notre Dame. The next picture was the view under the nearest bridge to the west, not too shabby:

Our neighborhood for the week, the fifth arrondissement, was a fabulous place to walk, shop, browse, and stop at any of the endless patisseries, boulangeries, fromageries, and other -ies with amazing foodstuffs. I am now addicted to pistachio macaroons and am busy searching for an appropriate recipe so that I can make them over the holidays. I do not think I have ever eaten so much fabulous bread of various kinds, and I definitely approve of the French skills with pastries and crepes. Matt and I even got out one night without the bug, thanks to volunteered grandparental supervision, and went to Les Bouquinistes, a classy French joint, to experience French cuisine. It was truly unforgettable.

I spoke a sort of Frenglish most of the trip, which is to say I speak just enough French to be polite and for people to notice I have an American accent and switch to English. I was a bit concerned before the trip given my ignorance of the language but everyone was warm and friendly and we really had very few communication issues. We spent most of the time in family-activities--dinner at Elizabeth and Omri's apartment with immediate family one night, a wine-and-cheese reception there on another night, and of course the wedding and reception the night before our return.

I did get out for a bit of shopping on Monday, and on Wednesday we took the bug to the Centre Pompidou (the modern art museum). We saw exhibits of Robert Rauschenberg and Yves Klein, and she really grooved on the museum's film exhibits. Her favorite was a large pink room installation with strobe lights across the floor, a huge high-heeled shoe, and silk sheets blowing in front of fans so they billowed along the walls. She thought that room was the coolest thing EVER and was having so much fun that other tourists were taking pictures of her. Here are the three of us in front of the Pompidou, courtesy of some teenage girls:

I could go on for quite awhile about the wedding, meeting Omri's family, and so on, but that will wait for a future post so that I can at least get a few pictures online for people who are looking forward to a little news. I've missed the blog and hearing from all of you over the past week even though we had a wonderful trip. It's good to be back in Colorado and in touch with everyone, preparing for Christmas and New Year's and so on. It feels like we were gone much longer than a week.