Nutella Crepes

There is a really good crepes stand on Rue Cler, which is just around the corner from our apartment.  Malcolm's favorite kind of crepes is banana Nutella and Dinon's is Nutella.  They cost around $5.oo each.  It is our favorite snack in our neighborhood!  The man who makes them is very nice and knows us now.  We have gone there four times already!  Yum!

--by Malcolm and Dinon

Musée de l'Orangerie

The highlight of our "field trip" today was a visit to l'Orangerie, a small museum at the corner of the Tuileries dedicated to Claude Monet's "Water lily" series. It has two large oval rooms, each containing four enormous paintings of Monet's garden at Giverny. Each painting depicts a distinct time of year or time of day at the garden/ pond. The glass ceiling provides glowing natural light that makes you feel like you are at the gardens. The boys brought their sketch books and colored pencils and did their own rendition of one of the paintings!

-Gabi

The Ferris Wheel

This morning after a yummy breakfast of croissant and hot chocolate we decided to take a "field trip" for our school day. One of the places we went was a GIANT ferris wheel at Place de la Concorde next to the Obelisk. It had little sealed pods that could fit four people. It was maybe 200 ft. tall! Dinon and I took a lot of pictures while we rode it with Mom. It was a very clear day so we could see far. We saw the Eiffel Tower, the Obelisk, Montmarte, the Louvre, L'Orangerie, and the Arch de Triumph was straight down the Champs Elysées. We got to go around the ferris wheel four times!

-Malcolm

The Obelisk

Today we went to the Obelisk at Place de la Concorde. The Obelisk was a present from the Egyptians to the French. It was made 3,200 years ago!! It looks like a big pillar with a triangle of gold on top. It has Egyptian writing and pictures on each side. It was very, very tall!

-Dinon

Cooking Kings' Cakes

Yesterday was our first cooking class in Paris. It was very cool! We took the Metro for the first time to get there. There were 7 other kids in the class besides Dinon and me. We made Kings' Cake because it was the day after Epiphany, when French people eat Kings' Cake (Gallette des Rois). Kings' Cake is a round pastry with puff pastry outside and almond custard or chocolate inside. Each Kings' Cake has one small porcelain toy baked inside it and whoever gets the toy in their piece of cake is the "King" or "Queen" for the day. It was very difficult for Dinon and me because we don't speak French but the Chef gave the class in French. I am looking forward to going back for more cooking classes later this month!

by Malcolm

The Mile Run in Paris

On Monday, Mom, Malcolm and I ran our first mile around the Eiffel Tower and its park.  It was really fun and here is a picture of it.  It rarely snows in Paris but it snowed on Monday, January 5th, 2009!  The Eiffel Tower looked really cool in the snowstorm.  Then we walked home to our apartment and bought lunch on the way home.

-Dinon

Le Musee D'Orsay

Today is the first Sunday of the month... and that means that the museums are FREE today!!  We spent the afternoon wandering the Musee D'Orsay and enjoying the Impressionists.  The "cafe behind the clock" was a perfect venue for a Parisian lunch ...it felt a bit like Hugo Cabret.  The boys remembered the Impressionists from their art at school and enjoyed the exhibits.  The building itself is just as impressive as the art!  

Our neigborhood

Yesterday we wandered our neighborhood markets and cafes and walked under the Eiffel Tower.  Just around the corner from our apartment is Rue Cler, an amazing food market street.  So much fresh cheese, meats, chocolates, bread, wine and pastries and so little time!  The boys should be able to go buy things on their own soon. One of these days we'll go up the Eiffel Tower but the lines were too long yesterday.  

-Gabi

 

Dinon's Best Lines (So Far)

On the fresh chevre we had for lunch:

"Tastes like it just came out of the goat!"

Learning to say "thank you" in French:

"Si vous poulet." ("If you chicken", instead of "si vous plait").

We have arrived!

After a bit of craziness at the airport in Boston, we have arrived!

Our direct flight to Paris was delayed (from 5:30 pm to 2 am) when we arrived at the airport on Thursday. So we immediately jumped in line to see if we could rebook onto another flight. Fortunately, we got tickets on Aer Lingus to get to Paris via Shannon and Dublin. It was a bit of a roundabout route, but a good choice in the end. We found out today that our original flight was cancelled. We would have been really miserable had we sat at the airport until 2 am!

Amazingly, all of our luggage arrived with us at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. We had a car service arranged, which promptly took us to our new apartment. Here's the address:

The Hughes Family

190 Rue de Grenelle

Paris, 75007

France

PHONE: 011 33 9 50 95 33 02 (we think)

We are in the 7th Arrondisement, right next to a great market street (Rue Cler). Our first trip out of the building inevitably resulted in Nutella crepes for the boys on Rue Cler! We are mere steps away from bakeries, cheese shops, wine shops, grocers, and cafes. Que formidable!

The apartment is fine. It is not a hotel, nor very luxurious. But it is fully functional and is in a wonderful building. We have already started to make it our own by moving some of the furniture around.

This morning, Malcolm and I went out to get croissants, pain au chocolat, and baguette while Gabi and Dinon made coffee and hot chocolate. It all felt very "French"!

We will head out soon to do some shopping to stock the apartment. Tomorrow, we will probably visit the Louvre, as museums are free on the first Sunday of each month. On Monday, I start work and the boys start classes (with Gabi AND their new French/art teacher).

The adventure has begun!