St. Emilion

We took a regional train from Bordeaux to St. Emilion. St. Emilion is a medieval village about 40 km east of Bordeaux. The trip was a beautiful view of the countryside, passing out of the city and into the vineyards that surround Bordeaux. The train stops at a tiny station in the country, downhill from the town. The walk up to town passes between vineyards.

You can see the steeple of the monolithic eglise as you walk up the narrow streets into town. The church is amazing. We took a tour of the grotto where St. Emilion lived in or around the 8th century, then the subterranean church. The church is monolithic, excavated out of a single block of stone from the 12th to the 14th century. Between the grotto and the church was a chamber of the catacombs, with depressions for bodies of adults laid to rest in the floor, and for infants in the wall.

After the tour, we lunched.

The best part of the day by far was exploring the town. The boys loved finding little streets and passageways.

Getting settled

We celebrated New Year's eve with oysters and wine and a fire.

Last week we drove to Dune Pyla with friends. It was rainy and windy, but the hike up the dune gives a beautiful view of the forest behind. The trails to the dune is flat completely flat through the woods, then the hike up the dune is straight up. The winds kept us from going up to the top or staying long; it was hard even to stand upright. We plan to go back when we can spend more time up there. On the drive back, we stopped at some of the oyster shacks along the Arcachon Bay.

After a few weeks here, we're feeling a little more rooted. We have a park to play in (Park Bordelais) and we have library cards now. The library downtown is big, with a large children's section, CDs and movies, and a huge section of bandes dessinées (comic books and graphic novels). Several American comics are translated into French as well, including Calvin and Hobbes, Bone, and Peanuts. The library sends around a book mobile that visits Park Bordelais every Friday afternoon.

Flowers in the park really stand out right now: it's a rainy season, cool and cloudy much of the time, but the garden has beds that are filled with pansies and other bright annuals. There are running trails, places to rent pedal-cars, a zoo, and lots of space to run around. The park is close to our apartment, and we go regularly.

Bordeaux

We have enjoyed settling into our new place in Bordeaux, checking out the market and the schools (right across the street), the park and the town center. Today we took the bus, which picks up right by the boys' school, down to the Capucin Market. The market was bustling. Everyone has their hand carts or bags to fill, there are fresh produce and fish, baked bread, cheese, sweets, and places to sit and have oysters and wine, or hot wine and quiche. We ordered a plate of oysters with coffee, and we were brought a complementary glass of wine (which we probably should have ordered in the first place).

The boys' bedroom 

Our kitchen

The view from our balcony, showing the boys' schools 

Coffee at Capucin Market

Outside Capucin Market

Obelisk, Place de la Victoire

Visit to the Louvre

Excavated medieval ruins, in the lower level of the Louvre.

We got off the train for the Louvre and stood in line for tickets for about 30 minutes... kids were altogether free, no ticket required (the same was true of Centre George Pompidou). We hadn't expected there to be anything to look at in the Louvre train stop, but you actually come out into a relatively high-end mall that has in addition to the stores a beautiful, large scale model of the Louvre, and excavated walls from the moats that protected Paris centuries ago... at least we think that's what they were. Similar excavations inside the Louvre (see right) lead you through the original moat into the museum galleries.

The boys enjoyed the museum well enough right at the beginning, and enjoyed navigating us using the Nintendo electronic guides. The boys enjoyed the Sphinxes and the weaponry in the ancient Egyptian artifacts area. After lunch, they enjoyed the sculptures of the Greek and Roman gods, especially the ones that they recognized. We did make a point of seeing the Mona Lisa. The room was so crowded that a six-year-old could only see it if he were lifted up above the crowd.

Boys getting their Nintendo 3DS guides ready.

La Vierge et l'Enfant au chardonneret, Master of the Castello Nativity

Visit to Centre Georges Pompidou

After lunch today, we took the train to Centre Georges Pompidou. The view of the city was a hit; the surrealism exhibit got mixed reviews. There was a great exhibit in the children's area, Frida et moi, on the life and work of Frida Kahlo.

Christmas morning

Our first two days in Paris: Eiffel Tower and the Natural History Museum

View out the window of our apartment.

For all our worry about the 7-hour plane ride, the boys did great. Louis enjoyed his headset, listening to music, and David was happy to just read... also to stay awake the whole time. Louis's claim was that he slept the least of anyone on the plane, though in fact he logged at least 4 hours of sound sleeping, beating all his family by a long shot. We took the cab to our apartment in the 15th arrondisement. The apartment turned out to be on the 7th floor, not the 5th as we had thought. That's a lot of spiral steps.

Louis and David, just east of the Eiffel Tower

We rested up for a few hours then headed out to see the Eiffel Tower. The boys started catching glimpses of the top of the tower as we rode in on the train, just the very top of it between apartment buildings. When we got off the train, we walked right to the base of it, and the boys were thrilled.

The weather was warm but windy. We walked around the tower, took pictures, then walked along the Seine where the Christmas markets were up. It was a lovely first afternoon in the city with the great tables of nougat being chopped up, the cream-filled chocolates, the purple and yellow and green macaroons, the watches with Eiffel Towers on their faces, the trays filled with illuminated Eiffel-tower bric-a-brac. We walked back to the Metro, got little quiches and grapes and carrots and bread for supper, then tucked in early.

Christmas eve day, our second day in Paris
The boys woke up after 10 a.m., still tired from yesterday. We had bread and cheese and fruit for breakfast, then started the day with a train ride to Jardin des Plantes. We took the boys to the Hall of Evolution at the Natural History Museum. It is a great place to take kids. The exhibit is 5 stories high, an open hall with the exhibits around the edges.

We started in the basement with ocean life, giant swordfishes and a squid, schools of smaller ocean fish, flounders, a narwhal, little crabs, sea turtles, and penguins. We had been here before and loved it, but we hadn't been to the children's area, which turns out to be great. The children's focuses strongly on where animals live in the city. There are cut-aways showing insects in homes, pigeons roosting on buildings. There are taxidermic animals close enough that kids can almost touch them, and a small cave just the right size for a 1st grader, with a video of a mouse about kid-size nibbling away in the cave. One of the more unique exhibits was a panel discussion area where kids sit around a table, hear arguments regarding organic farming and other sustainable living issues, then vote on them. Kids each chose to be a character on the village board:

At the end of the discussion, the kids voted on whether they were convinced by the argument or not, and then they found out how the previous days' votes had gone.

We spent several hours at the museum, then headed out in the rain toward Shakespeare and Company. The boys were fading, and we weren't sure how things would go, but at the Cluny-Sorbonne stop we stumbled right into a comic book store that Rachel had found online, the Album, and the boys were delighted. We spent nearly an hour there, then walked up toward Notre Dame. It was Christmas eve, and in front of Notre Dame the police were managing crowds, letting in groups of 100 or so at a time. There was a huge screen outside broadcasting the priest conducting mass, and speakers broadcasting the choir. We went in to light candles and watch mass. Then we headed home for the night.

the airport o'hare part 1

When we got to the airport I was really nervous. But I had fun. There was a huge screen which had a game, so I played it, but it was really boring :(. After that I got McDonalds. @ McDonalds I ordered two plain cheese burgers, a McFlurry and a drink. Soon we boarded the plane. We looked in the catalog and saw that the movie "The wolverine" was going to play.

First day of our trip

It's 11 a.m., and we're just 2 hours from departing. Our friend Marcial is picking us up. There's snow on the roads and more on the way, but everyone is excited for the trip. Louis has been studying hard...

... and we're ready to go!