Europe trip: Paris (day 11)

One of the things we wanted to do in Paris is a little shopping. We'd given Matt "shoes in Paris" for his birthday earlier in the year, but prices of clothing new in Paris are pretty prohibitive, so we were looking at consignment stores and thrift stores. We learned that it's hard to find such things in the right price range in Paris - they were either very high end, where we barely dared touch the clothes to look at them, or way too low-end. Anyway, today we did a bunch of laundry, and Matt and the kids found a thrift store that I think ended up being the best one we found in Paris. They all got a couple of things. Then we went off in search of other stores that I'd researched online, with zero success and a lot of metro-riding and walking. But it was still interesting and we enjoyed some of the window displays:


So strange.


We dropped Matt off at the modern art museum and the kids and I went off to explore the Marais neighborhood. I don't know if we did it right or not because we weren't really entranced, but we were also hungry and got a great lunch at the Brooklyn Pizzeria. It was this lovely little cafe, with beautiful plants and sort of Italian food, but they really wanted to have a grungy edge (so strange). The bathroom was decorated with rebellious slogans in English talking about how "bad" we are. I guess that's just how Brooklyn is (ha).


Pierce and I had some delicious calzones (I think) and the girls had delicious pasta.


One very tricky thing about eating in France is that they evidently don't drink much water there with meals. If you ask for water at a restaurant, you end up paying 3 or 4 Euro for a small bottle of water, sometimes sparkling (yuck). We learned after the first (expensive) night to ask for "une carafe d'eau" which is tap water, but even then sometimes the carafe was very small. And they don't like ice. You might get an ice cube or two, but not always. I would bring our own water bottle and just fill it up in whatever sink I could find, then refill the small carafe.

Then we went to a gorgeous boulangerie and got some amazing pastries - we each chose a treat, and took them to a nearby park. We sat in the grass - I think Mattie has a picture of this and I should get it from her because it was quite lovely. There were people all over the place and this super darling little baby toddled over. She smiled at us so happily! She just kept getting happier and happier as she came closer and closer, and then she did a big dive and about got Pierce's treat! Not as happy when her mom whisked her away. We loved it and we loved the pastries, mmmmmmm.

One of the things I was most looking forward to was this evening: a concert at the Sainte-Chappelle church. Here are gargoyles looking down at you as you go in. The church itself is a part of a much larger government building, so it's not much to look at from the outside.


But when you go inside, it's amazing! It's all stained glass, all of which are telling different Bible stories.


This was the day when I forgot the concert tickets back at the hotel and had to take a quick metro trip out and back, but luckily I'd remembered with enough time and it all worked out. Matt and the kids shopped around and relaxed by the Seine, a lovely way to spend a little time. The metro was so easy and went everywhere, both in London and in Paris - what a treat to be able to get anywhere we wanted! We also liked the buses in Paris but we took a lot more metros than buses. Although the tunnels were much nicer in London and most of the Paris stations had stairs instead of escalators, it was the perfect way to get around.

Anyway we had tickets to see a four string quartet perform one piece by Vivaldi, and then most of Mozart's Requiem, which is one of my favorites.


We had some time at the beginning to look around and take a million pictures.








It's a small chapel but is one of my favorite places we went.












I think the panels went along in Biblical order, so if you could get close enough you could tell which story was which. Each one different. I can't imagine how long that must have taken to make.












We stopped taking pictures when the quartet came in (it got dark anyway) and got to sit down and enjoy the music in the most amazing setting I can imagine. What a treat! (I don't think Pierce liked it very much, but he went through a couple of grouchy times and I think this was one of them. He mostly held out amazingly well, considering how many old churches and museums we saw, neither of which are his favorite.) And then we rode the bus back to the hotel to collapse in exhaustion once again. Mattie's fitbit says 23,448 steps.