Scott and Tiffany in Oregon

Settling In

On Saturday morning we woke up to find that Brooke was sick. We still didn't have our luggage, so we just rested and tried to get over our jet lag. By mid-day Brooke was feeling better.

Scott went to the grocery store and bought a lot of essentials so that we could have food for the weekend. We were happy to get a phone call from the airline stating that our luggage had arrived and would be delivered between 7 pm and 11 pm. Here Tyler is waiting in our courtyard for our luggage to show up. If you look closely you can see Tiffany, Caleb and Brooke looking out from our apartment window.

Waiting for our luggage

Scott eventually went to bed at about 1 am, with no luggage. We were pretty bummed. We were wearing the clothes we wore when we left Oregon Thursday morning and we were very jet lagged. Tiffany had packed extra clothes for the kids in our carry-on so at least we had back-ups for them.

With Brooke recovering from being sick and still no luggage, we decided it would be best not to go to church. We slept all morning and were very happy when our luggage finally arrived about 1 pm. The airline's explanation was that the delivery service had arrived late to pick up the bags from the airport and so decided not to make any deliveries Saturday night!

Once we showered and changed into some fresh clothes we went for a walk along the Seine. The whole area was packed with tourists and vendors. The boardwalks were especially crowded due to the "Beaches of the Seine" event that lasts all summer, where sand is placed on the boardwalks and there are lots of activities as if you are at the beach. We found a quiet park on the Île de la Cité and ate cookies.

Walk along the Seine

Monday was a big settling in day. We bought metro passes and went shopping. We went to a big grocery store on the outskirts of Paris called Géant and stocked up on our favorite French foods. We were very surprised to find that the store is in the middle of an Asian section of town. The local McDonald's was even shaped like a pagoda. We bought Brooke a Dora the Explorer book in French for Scott to read to her and Scott bought a Tintin comic book.

Here is Caleb, looking pretty big for 5 weeks old, and very cute in his giraffe outfit from South Africa.

Scott and Caleb

On Tuesday, we let the kids sleep in and we started laundry. Our apartment has a combination washer/dryer. When it is finished washing the clothes it switches over to the dryer setting and dries the clothes in the same drum. This means each load takes 3-4 hours.

We started out our sightseeing by visiting Les Invalides. It is a hospital for those injured in war, but also contains an army museum and Napoleon's tomb. The kids probably loved the scale model part of the museum the best. The models are of strategic French towns. They were a huge benefit during the 1800s in planning how to defend the towns in warfare.

Les Invalides

We took a break and had a snack in the gardens of Les Invalides. Brooke looks especially cute next to the beautiful flowers.

Pretty as a flower

The kids love seeing the Eiffel tower. It is their favorite thing so far.

Eiffel tower in the distance

After our snack, we went back to the army museum and visited the World War II section. It was very interesting and had everything from clothes people wore during WWII to a V2 rocket. We then went to the older sections of the museum.

Tyler's favorite part of the army museum contained the suits of armor. He was very impressed with this suit of armor designed for a royal 6 year old.

Just my size

The last part of the museum was the church that contains Napoleon's tomb. The dome over the tomb is gold on the outside and beautifully painted on the inside.

Dome over Napoleon's Tomb

For dinner we had Greek gyros which is a food we love and is very similar to doner kebabs or shawarmas.

The breakfast cereal and granola bars we bought at the grocery store came with temporary tattoos, so we broke down and let the kids have them. They were pretty excited to have Shrek and Dora the Explorer tattoos.

Tattoos

We had a good first sightseeing day. We knew we would have to slow down to the kids' pace and think of ways to make museums and sights interesting to them.

Tyler-isms:

"This is my ticket to ride!" - Tyler is collecting all of his metro passes. This is a reference to one of our favorite board games, Ticket to Ride.

Posted by sjbowden at July 24, 2007 10:47 PM