Terrific Things are meant to be shared

Monday morning my sister Emily and her husband Skyler flew in from New Mexico. In spite of the jet lag, they were rearing to go. So, we quickly headed out to the vast antique markets of Saint Ouen. We wandered around (miraculously keeping my boys from breaking anything) and got to see everything from African masks to Dior dresses. After wandering around for a long while we realized we had left my tour guide book somewhere in the labyrinth. I thought there was no way we would get it back, but thanks to the combined smarts of Gideon and Skyler, we were able to find it, woohoo!! From there we went to the Chateau Vincennes and walked them through the bois back to our house. I just love living in a place where our neighborhood is just as cool as anything else downtown. 

Having said that, there are clearly a lot of super spectacular things in downtown Paris. So, Tuesday we headed down to the Ile de la cite to see Notre Dame, la Consiergerie and St. Chappelle. I have a special place in my heart for the Consiergerie (which I feel like most people don't know about/talk about). So, that one was especially fun for me to share. In it you get to learn about medival France as well as the revolution and trial/beheading of Marie Antoinette (who was imprisoned there). After all our fun tourist adventures (as well as a picnic lunch in the mall at Les Halles, because it was cold and wet), we split up. I headed home to make dinner and Emily and Skyler made their way to Jardin des Plants by way of a lovely walk along the Siene. For dinner we had some old family friends, the Wildens (who were miraculously also in Paris) come over. We gorged ourselves on Ratatouille (thank you Remi), french bread, cheese, Perrier/Cyro and some incredible patisseries. It was so much fun to hang out with old friends and share our love of France, french food and each other in our little Paris apartment. 

Wednesday we gave Emily and Skyler a taste of real life in Paris by taking them to the Nation market and making them buy a few things from vendors. They got to experience the french tradition of really tasting and comparing the produce in search of the best "fraises" (strawberries). They got to experience feeling dumb when there is some confusion about how much of something you want, but you don't have the language required to fix it. They got to experience seeing all the pigs ears and smelling all the cheese. The Nation Market is seriously one of my happy places and it was so fun to have the chance to share it! After that we met up with Benjin at our favorite restaurant (Les Voisins) to enjoy a classic classy cafe lunch. Finally we finished off the day with a walk down the Champs elysee (including popping into a fancy french perfume store) and summetting the arc de triomphe. In spite of the rain and the soggy socks, it was a great day. 

Thursday we had been planning to rent a car for a day trip to Rouen, but when the car fell through last minute we ended up spending the day wandering the Marais instead. We walked from the Bastille to Place des Voges (one of my favorite spots as a study abroad student). Emily and Skyler toured Victor Hugo's house while I watched the boys playing on the playground. It was so fun to have it pouring outside, but to be kept remarkably safe by the large canopy of highly manicured leaves over our heads. We showed them our favorite little "secret garden" (Hotel de Sully) and then went over to the Musee Carnavalet (Paris History Museum). All went well until we accidentally left our stroller in one of the hallways and got a royal french scolding. I have been yelled at by a lot of French people and especially a lot of museum people, but this one was particularly bad with her yelling at me as she dragged me through the museum to find our stroller that had at that point been moved. After that I needed some time to just have a good cry and try and let it go. Sometimes France is awesome and sometimes France is tough. 

Friday, Benjin and I got up early (ie. 4:30 am) to run to the Eiffel tower from our house. It was incredibly fun to run past all the classic spots that we have grown to love too much and what made it even better was to have the chance to do it together. We finished at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and because of the early hour nobody was there!! It was pretty spectacular. We headed home for a yummy egg and fresh croissant breakfast before Benjin left for his last official day of work in France!!!

After our epic run, the boys and I took Emily (unfortunately Skyler was sick and had to stay home) to one of my many favorite chateaux, Sceaux. We wandered through the gardens and let the boys run through the grass and play with the little pebbles. We had a picnic lunch and then played at a nearby playground where the highlight was playing with cars on the wooden car track as well as watching mommy ride CRAZY on the beaver(?) spring rider. We made our way home via the lovely little town of Sceaux and then met up with Benjin and Skyler for an epic bike ride downtown. Our now classic bike ride down to the Eiffel tower just never gets old!! After parking our bikes and enjoying the splendor of the tower, we made our way to a gallette place for a ton of incredible crepes and gallettes. We sat at a little table on the side walk under an awning while the rain poured around us and ate ourselves silly! It was the perfect way to end the day. 

Early Saturday morning Emily and Skyler left to fly to Portugal to visit Emily's mission. We then spent the morning cleaning up before heading off to the Hotel de la Marine (which Gideon and Pierce and I had been to, but was new for Benjin.) It was fun to once again walk through the beautiful rooms and Gideon once again loved wearing the big headphones, but the best part is going out to the portico where you can look out on Place de la Concorde. This time it was covered with bleachers in preparation for the olympics! 

Sunday we made our way to Torcy via the RER for stake conference which was held in a movie theatre. The seats were comfy, but we were wishing we had popcorn! After the meeting we rushed over to the stake center where Benjin got to help ordain one of our students from the priesthood prep class, with the Melchizedek priesthood. It was so cool to see him, so nervous yet so excited for this big step in his life and the life of his family. After that we headed over to a kids playground for the boys to let their wiggles out and then wandered over to an old historic chocolate factory. It was exactly how I picture Willy Wonka's factory when it is all locked up. Through the gates we could see magical buildings and incredible bridges over the roaring Marne river. Benjin and I were pretty convinced that if we strained our eyes hard enough we would see an oompa loompa! From there we wondered through some gorgeous woods to a lovely local chateau where some friends from our ward picked us up and took us to their house for dinner. We had some incredible tartiflet (cheesy potatoes) and deliciously crunchy gaufres (waffles). It was just delightful to chat with our friends and be inspired as well as entertained by their incredible lives!

All in all, my take away from this week is that it is fun to share things that you love and we have grown to love so much about Paris. Despite struggles with language, differences in culture/ancestry and the fact that we have not even been here a whole year, we have started to feel some ownership of this city. Paris has come to feel like our city, our place to explore, our home! And it is just too fun to get to share this place we love with people we love even more!! 

Bisous 

La Famille Facer