Today was another huge walking day. We went to Versailles!
We took the train from the famous St. Lazare train station. Monet painted it!
After a gorgeous train ride, we walked the rest of the way to Versailles.
When we arrived at Versailles, we were blown away by the opulence. It started out as a relatively normal Chateaux created by Louie XIII, but then Louie XIV went bananas and did much of the work to make it what it is today. Louie XV and Louie XVI also made enhancements, but Louie the XIV really did most of it.
The hall of mirrors was spectacular
There was also a hallway of huge paintings and also sculpture busts to commemorate famous battles in French history.
Then we toured the gardens. It was very hot, but the gardens were spectacular and I loved all the sunshine.
Clarissa had a hard time walking and I spent a lot of time carrying her (especially when she fell asleep). My back is still recovering (a week later) from all the carrying her in Versailles and on previous days, but I do love feeling so close to my little (and increasingly not so little) girl.
I neglected to take pictures of some of the pretty more narrow walkways, but the garden was a never ending array of pathways flanked by shrubs, bushes and/or trees. It was magical. We even got lost for a little bit on the way to the grand Trianon later in the day!
This is the Petite Trianon. The Trianons were meant to be places of retreat for when the pressures of Versailles felt overwhelming. The wife or mistress of various Kings usually occupied the Trianons.
My back is killing me……lol
A beautiful Grotto.
Marie Antoinette famously built an English cottage on Versailles because she loved the look of English cottages. So not authentic, but wow, they really did a great job recreating an English cottage. It was so charming!
Lily Commented a lot about how controlled nature was and how that was symbolic of how the government was controlling.
By this point, Lily’s feet were absolutely killing her. But being the adventurer that she is, she still really wanted to see the Grand Trianon.
We grabbed some orange juice before the walk to the restaurant.
We then took the walk to exit Versailles through the front gate where we entered.
Goodbye Versailles! We were dazzled by you, even though your history is very complicated. Wow that is a lot of money to through into a display of grandeur!
I was ASTOUNDED, that everyone slept normally through the night. I think Lily is right when she suggested that staying the night in New York one night may have helped with jet lag. I grabbed everyone a quick breakfast before we all headed out for the day. The bakery was right next to us, and I took this video of their nifty orange-juice-making-maching. The juice was delicious, as were all the pastries (the raisin one was sooo good).
We then walked to the Louvre and saw some amazing things.
Ammon and Clarissa really perked up when we got to the fancy possessions of royalty.
My favorite part was Napoleon III’s apartment. He wasn’t exactly shy about creating nice surroundings for himself…..
After the museum we crossed the Seine river on our way to Notre Dame and San Chapel. Lily is reading a book about the Seine and she has told us all sorts of interesting things about it on this trip.
We then stopped for some macaroons. Each kids got to choose 4 flavors.
We were walking down a cute walking street with lots of shops and we were (to use Lily’s words) accosted by a restaurant owner who convinced us that we really wanted to eat at his Moroccan restaurant. We were all hungry and next thing we knew, we were in his restaurant. Lily was a bit bothered that he was pushy, and I felt admiration for his tenacity as a sales person trying to get his business to succeed, lol. I can definitely see both sides of the coin though. Fortunately the food was amazing. I loved the giant cooked vegetables and Lily said the lamb was maybe the best she’d had in her life. So I guess, thank you pushy shop owner, lol 🙂 You can see him in the window below.
Of course we had to take a picture of Mary next to this pig.
Next we went to San Chapel. Forgive me for the over-abundance of photos, but San Chapel is very special for me. I think it was originally recommended to me by my humanities teacher (and major inspiration to me in so many ways), Dan Campbell, and I saw it when I traveled with my brother and AXB friends almost 20 years ago. I was amazed by it then, and I continue to uphold it as the most magnificent stained glass I have ever seen.
Then we went to the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
While walking around, Clarissa walked over a vent that was blowing her hair all around. I thought it was hilarious:
Also, Lydia’s sandals were getting uncomfortable with all the walking, and we felt blessed to find some shoes that fit her perfectly.
I have been carrying Clarissa a lot so far on this vacation. She does her share of walking, but she poops out fairly quickly, and when I carry her she often falls asleep. This time when she fell asleep, we all stopped at a park while she finished her nap. Sweet thing. There was a small playground in eyeshot for the other kids to play at and Lydia had a quick face-time with Emerson. The weather was definitely warm, but it was gorgeous in the shade.
When Clarissa woke up, we went to the old French military hospital which has since been converted into the French army museum.
Within the complex there was a church and through the glass behind the altar you can see the tomb of Napoleon Boneparte. Certainly a noteworthy figure in French history, but also highly controversial.
We then walked to the Eiffel Tower and sat in the park near it, just taking it all in.
I should mention that Lydia and Mary have been nothing short of heroic. Clarissa is 4, which is very young to be doing all the things we are doing. Lily and I are getting our share of grey hairs, but we have been spared a lot of grief and tantrums because of all of the attention, guiding and entertaining that Lydia and Mary have done for Clarissa. Ammon also has been an incredible hero. He walked the entire day himself and overall had an incredible attitude. We was incredible.
We then went to the Arc de Triomphe. The arc was amazing to look at, but I was actually more memorized by how the traffic works around it. Take a look.
As we started making our way towards home, we found a replica of the torch of the statue of liberty that France gifted to the United States. It also (tragically), happened to be the place where Princess Diana died (she was hit in the tunnel right under the torch). Many people have showed their love for princess Dianna by putting locks on the chords around the torch. Locks are a sign of eternal love, and often lovers will show their love for each other by putting locks on chords on bridges, but they need to be removed because they weigh the bridges down. In this case people have used locks to show how much they love Princess Diana.
Before turning in for the night, we all got some ice cream at one of the thousands of out-door cafes around Paris (I love them so much).
we ate right across from the train station which we would use the next day for Versailles.
And yes, here is the proof that we walked almost 12 miles. Great job family!! I also have to give a major shout out to Lily who has build the most amazing itinerary and has planned and coordinated everything. This has been the most spectacular trip, and I have loved bonding with the family so much!!
We landed in Paris at almost noon Paris time. We immediately hit the ground running. We dropped off our bag at our place that Lily booked for us and then went to see the Paris Opera house.
The audio-tours helped occupy the little ones.
Charles Garnier was the architect and planner of the Opera house. It was built from 1861-1875 at the behest of Napoleon III who we learned a lot about on this trip. Like Napoleon Boneparte he’s a mixed bag. He did a lot of good and a lot of bad. I’m especially allergic to how he turned France from a democracy back to a monarchy by declaring himself emperor after he was democratically elected so he could stay in power for a very long time.
We learned from the audio-tour that the balconies in this opera house were likely built for people-watching. People would stand in these balconies and watch notable people ascending and descending the grand staircase in their fancy clothes and chatter about them.
According to the original book about the phantom of the opera, he resided in booth 5. Here is his booth!
They now have his name on it!
For some reason, the below video would not embed, but it is a video of the actual theater hall where the performances happen.
I later saw the hall of mirrors at Versailles and I’m perhaps even more amazed by this room at the Opera house! I have multiple emotions. So incredible and magnificent, yet so pompous and over the top, when so many people were poor at that time. It’s a bit nutty.
Despite all the gold (which color Clarissa loves as she has recently declared it her favorite color), Clarissa really struggled in the opera house. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so instead of describing her behavior more, I think this picture basically sums it up.
She did like the dresses though!
After the opera house, which the grown-ups and older kids loved, we did something more on Ammon and Clarissa’s level and went to a Carousel. It was honestly a really cheap, lower quality carousel in my opinion, but that didn’t seem to dampen the experience at all from Ammon and Clarissa. I’m pretty sure it was their favorite thing of the day (maybe even of all the days in Paris). Kids really do have a gift of deeply appreciating even the simplest of pleasures.
One of my favorite memories from my last trip to Europe was the view from the Eiffel Tower. I knew we weren’t doing the Eiffel Tower view this trip, so when we got to this church and I learned that you could climb a whole lot of steps to get an amazing view of Paris, I was really excited.
The views were incredible! Paris is beautiful from all angles. We’ve really fallen in love with all the Baron Haussmann architecture (he was commissioned by Napoleon III to completely remake the architecture in Paris) and it was also fun to see it from a bird’s eye view.
Later we went to dinner. Paris so alive with its cafes everywhere. It seems that everywhere you look, there are people outside eating and socializing and enjoying life. Paris has an incredible vibe.
When we got out at Penn Station, I realized we were close to the SAP Hudson yard office where I just worked two weeks ago when I was in New York. I emailed the receptionist to see if I could take my family to the 52nd floor observation deck, and she immediately arranged it. I was so grateful. It was an incredible view and also free!
We then walked to our boat tour of New York. I helped Clarissa who still has a hard time walking long distances, well actually short distances sometimes too. Someday she might be too big for me to be carrying her……well, ok, maybe that day has already happened….but I’m still doing it……
The boat tour was amazing. I think we were most amazed by how beautiful the statue of liberty is. It’s so big, and the green is just stunning. We also loved the French connection since we were to leave to France the next day and the French gave the statue to the United States as a gift.
I also loved getting a great view of the One World Trace Center building. The tallest building in the Western Hemisphere (though I feel like it’s cheating a bit with that massive spire). It’s so neat that it’s height is 1,776 feet.
After the boat tour we ate pizza and rainbow cake at Carlo’s bakery. Then Lily got us tickets to the Rise exhibit and ride all about New York. we learned so much and the ride was soooo fun. The kids reported that the Rise ride was their favorite thing for the whole New York day.
After Rise, we went to Central Park and rented bicycles. We biked all around Central Park as a family. That was my favorite part of the whole day. At first, Clarissa was really scared and uncomfortable on the bike and refused to pedal (she just clutched the handle-bars tightly and said she was scared). But you will see in the videos below that she soon warmed up to the whole idea.
We got sweaty, thirsty and hungry from our ride so we had dinner at Pret-a-manger and then got ice cream from a street vendor.
We then made it to the airport to catch our red eye flight. It boarded later than expected and we spent a long time waiting in line. The kids dropped like flies.
But we eventually made it on and slept (some more deeply than others) our way to Paris.
Today we arrived to the airport on time to catch our plane to New York. Dad and Suzanne agreed to pick up our car from short-term parking to take it to their house for free parking (thank you!!).
We were in Newark by around 5:30, and to our hotel by 6:30. I swam with Ammon, Clarissa and Lydia until almost 8 while Lily and Mary had a dinner date together, and then I ate food Lily ordered in the hotel with the kid who swam. I ate sooooo much pizza and a delirious salad.
Lily is one of the most knowledgeable people I know, and it is because she is always pouring education into her mind. For the past several day (including today) she has been listening to Sam Harris podcasts on two-speed. She’s been sharing some with me to, and I also quite love him. We got our Covid tests today (preparatory to the trip) and listened to Sam Harris in the car to and from the tests. I focused on getting my work wrapped up by 6ish (which I did), and then Lily and I packed until late to get everything ready to go. Lily did the lion share of EVERYTHING. I mostly packed myself, cleared the car our, loaded luggage, and handled the electronics. Lily did literally everything else, and packed everyone’s clothes, got all our tickets and itinerary details together and not to mention she planned the whole trip and made all the reservations (which is a ton of work). I’m soooo grateful for all Lily has done to make this trip a reality. Thank you Lily!
Today Amy and her kids came over for a play-date and dinner. I worked until late at night, but came up for an hour and a half to eat with people, chat and help clean a little. It was such a welcome break! Lily made the most incredible veggie lasagna. I also had so much fun talking with Lily and and Amy. I felt thoroughly refreshed as I went back to the basement to continue getting my work in a good spot to leave for Europe.
Also, we had watermelon with our dinner and Ammon and Mary took great care to make sure it got home safe (see below):
Today I worked until 12:30 PM and then I joined Lily in the efforts to prepare for home-church in the afternoon. Lily invited a lot of friends to attend and offered to have anyone over for dinner afterwards. Attendance was amazing (probably around 12 adults and about the same amount of kids). The lesson was on the Trinity and it evolved into a discussion about how different people understand God. It was a beautiful and enriching discussion. For dinner, Lily made the most wonderful lasagna.
After church, people stayed, ate and chatted until almost 8. We had such a good time. I feel so happy when I’m around our beloved friends, and I’ve also noticed Lily being extra happy lately with all the hosting.
The kids have seemed very happy too (see Mary’s video below). It has just been a really happy summer.
I was so tired after hosting that I lay passed out on the couch while Lily was productive and cleaned and facilitated the kid watching fireworks. I eventually roused myself to help her. What a great day. It completely took me away from the stresses of work, and I felt kinship with other people who understand God as a mystery, but have deep desires include God in their lives.
Today I woke up and got a little work done in the morning and then I took the kids to the Darais pool party. I LOVE the Darais pool party at my cousin Christina’s house. They have a great pool and I get to catch up with so many lovely family members that I haven’t seen in a little while. The kids had a blast seeing family and doing dives off the diving boards (except Clarissa who was too scared).
We spent 5 hours and 45 minutes at the party. We had a lot of fun, ate great food and had a lot of sun. Everyone except Mary slept on the ride home.
At home, I set up our basement oven so that Lily could cook the lasagnas for the dinner we are hosting tomorrow. While I was at the pool party with the kids, Lily was home cooking like crazy to get prepared.
Then I took Mary to a work activity at the Qualtrics suite at the Real Salt Lake game.
It was so fun to spend the evening with Mary. There was great conversation with my work colleagues, a fun soccer game to watch, fun food for Mary to eat (I already was full), and an awesome fire-work show at the end. Here are the fireworks we saw:
At home, Lily had a wonderful time sitting on our front steps and watching fireworks with the other kids. Happy early 24th of July!!
Today all the kids had swim lessons. Except Clarissa did not want to get in the water because it would mean that she needed to take off her new wings from Claire’s lol. Lily obliged. I love this picture so much LOL.
I was able to pull away from work at 4:15 and bike South Fork canyon with my good friend Daniel Olsen. I needed the ride so much and loved every second of it. I also almost ran into a wild turkey that struggled to get out of my way in time (thank goodness for brakes!).
In the evening Lydia babysat (thank you so much Lydia!!) and Lily and I went to Block restaurant with Daniel and Amanda. We love hanging out with them so much and after dinner we went to their house for brownies that Daniel made.
When we came home, we saw that Lydia had cleaned the kitchen. She did it while listening to How to Train Your Dragon. She is such a gem!
