European Road Trip--Luxembourg & Paris

Luxembourg

The drive from Hammelburg, Germany to Paris is a long one, but we couldn’t resist a little extra time in the car to take a detour into Luxembourg.


It's a beautiful city! We only had time to walk around for a few minutes to take pictures, but I would love to go back sometime. The stately, grand buildings are unique from any I’d seen before. Once a great fortress, Luxembourg is full of history. (The following are more pictures of Luxembourg, but I took them from the car as we drove through...sorry!)

Once we crossed from Luxembourg into France, we noticed differences right away from the drive through Germany. There were no more villages and windmills scattered throughout the countryside, but wide open space between large cities. The driving is significantly slower. Our usual 140 kph now kept us in the fast lane. Also, the motorways became rather expensive toll roads. 

Anything crunchy
to stay awake!

"Just wake us up when we get there."

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                We stayed three nights in Paris. We rented an apartment we found through ‘airbnb’ and loved it! The apartment felt like a real Parisian flat and was just a seven minute walk to a metro stop, market, and bakery. Perfect!

We only had two days in Paris, so we had to pack it in. We went first to the Eiffel Tower. When we came up from the metro we were still a distance away from the tower, so the kids were only moderately impressed. When we finally arrived beneath the Eiffel Tower, they were quite amazed by its size. It was a fairly clear day, so we took the stairs—all 700 of them—up to the first and second levels to see the view. It was fantastic!  

Just to give perspective on its size.

From the second level.

Instead of a selfie, this is a footie:
looking through the glass floor at the ant-size
people below.

View of Paris from the Eiffel Tower:

"This is getting heavy!"

The Sacre Coeur was our next stop. This basilica-style Roman Catholic church is quite impressive for its size and murals inside. It also had a nice nativity scene displayed and nuns were singing hymns. We found it a little odd, though, that there was a souvenir shop inside the church. 

Oh goodie! More stairs!

Inside the basilica--just before I got in trouble for
taking pictures, which is why this is the only one.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                In the neighborhood behind the Sacre Coeur is a walking street that leads to an open market where street artists gather to paint and sell their artwork. We saw some beautiful artwork! In fact, after going through the Louvre the next day Maurie and I agreed that our favorite art was actually in the square behind the Sacre Coeur. (I was tempted to take some close-up pictures but figured I'd get in trouble again.) 

Time-out for a pasta lunch.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Of course, as we walked from the metro to various sites, we wandered through many charming streets of Paris. There are little shops and street vendors everywhere! It was fun to help the kids find specific souvenirs they were searching for. Some were looking for postcards, some for soccer jerseys, some for country stickers for their luggage, and some wanted to buy spiced nuts, crepes, baguettes, and any other unique food they could find. The one thing all of us were always on the look out for was crepes. Fresh, warm, and smothered with Nutella and bananas…yummmm! Of course, we sampled other toppings, but Nutella and banana was our favorite. 

more crepes

spiced nuts

gourmet cupcake

Two classy guys on the steps to the Musee d'Orsay.

At the end of the day, we went to the Musee d'Orsay. It houses mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915. It has the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in the world. Its works include paintings and sculptures by artists like Monet, Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh, and others. I'm not a real connoisseur, but this era of art is my favorite. We were rushed to get through the museum before it closed, but we had time to see plenty of beautiful art. I really enjoyed it.  

Grateful for a place to sit on the double-decker metro train.

By the time we rode the metro “home”—a very relative term nowadays—we were ready to get off our feet for the night. We quickly stopped by the market and boulangerie (bakery) on our walk home. After living in Denmark for several months and shopping in Germany, we’re getting pretty good at feeding the family from grocery stores where we can’t actually read the words. Having Travis speak French made shopping a breeze! We made ham and potatoes for dinner that night and enjoyed relaxing in the apartment for the evening. It rained through the night, which was perfect timing at the end of our day of walking and climbing stairs. 

the Paris metro

A rare chance to look out the front window 
of the underground metro.

Chef Travis working his magic in our apartment kitchen.

The Louvre

The next day was equally full. We started early and went first to the Louvre. Travis had found directions, like something of a scavenger hunt, for exploring the massive museum. We chose to search out the “masterpieces.” This route took us to see pieces like the Mona Lisa, The Wedding Feast at Cana, The Coronation of Emperor Napoleon I, the sculpture of Aphrodite, and many others. Seeing the Louvre this way was perfect for us. The Louvre can be quite overwhelming because of its immense size, so this scavenger hunt was a great way to see a some meaningful pieces, and have some background information to better understand what we were looking at. Making our visit a hunt helped bring the museum to life for the younger kids, too. 

The Wedding Feast at Cana

Funny side note: Ben wasn’t really sure what to do about all the paintings and sculptures of naked people in the museum. At one point we found ourselves walking through a corridor of naked statues. I found him looking up at the ceiling while he walked and asked him what he was doing. He explained that he could only look at the floor or the ceiling with “all this nakedness everywhere.” Later, we walked into a room where the ceiling was completely covered with a mural and, of course, many of the people in the painting were not clothed. I heard Ben say, “I guess now I can just look at the floor.” Poor kid probably wondered where we had taken him! 

Even The Louvre itself is a work of art. It is stunning!

The Louvre consists of countless rooms and corridors all with this kind of ornate detail.

Aphrodite

Are we having fun yet?

The Mona Lisa.
You wouldn't believe the crowd I had to plunge into to get this close for the picture!

Following our fearless leader through The Louvre.

Winged Victory of Samothrace

The first known 3-dimensional representation of a human.
Dating from circa 7000 B.C.

The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian law code of ancient Mesopotamia, dating back to about 1754 BC. It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. (Wikipedia)

Hammurabi's Code

The ancient Egypt corridor.

In areas around certain masterpieces, the crowd is crazy!

Little man wearing down.

Everybody wearing down.

On our way out.

From inside the pyramid.

"No more pictures, Mom!"

"Can somebody please help me get this out of my head?"

Having survived several hours in The Louvre, we were ready for lunch. We grabbed baguette sandwiches and crème puffs from a boulangerie and ate while we walked to the Notre Dame. We admired the huge, old church from the outside, but the excessively long line deterred us from going in. We actually ended up “accidentally” seeing the Notre Dame four more times before we left Paris the next day. It became something of a joke.  

Cool little vendor venue along the river. The Notre Dame is in the background.

Not far from the Notre Dame, we discovered one of the city's "Lock" bridges. Couples hang a lock on the bridge and then throw the key into the river so their love will last forever. Over the course of our few days in Paris, we actually saw several bridges covered in locks. It’s kindof a cute tradition for the city of love. 

Maurie on the lock bridge. The Notre Dame is behind.

Grossing-out the kids 

whenever we can!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

We spent a little time that afternoon walking along the Champs-Elysees, which is a famous street of designer shops.

We also stopped to admire the Arc de Triomphe.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        We went into the Latin Quarter for dinner. We found a great little restaurant to try some real French cuisine (more than just the crepes and other street food we’d been living on). As we were seated at the table Ben announced aloud, “I just hope they have pizza here.” But even without pizza we had a great dinner. :) Trav used his fancy French to order cheese raclette and fondue for us. When the waiter left, Ben said, “It’s really nice to have you around, Dad.” After living for five months in a country where we don’t speak the language, we all appreciated that during our time in France we had someone with us who could speak French. The meal was delicious! They brought meats, breads, and vegetables to eat with the cheese raclette. And we cooked our meat in the hot oil in the fondue pot. Both the food and the experience were fun!  

dessert!

Sunday morning we checked out of our apartment early and went to church with a ward in downtown Paris. In fact, the church building was just blocks away from the Notre Dame so we joked about seeing it for the fifth time. Church was a fun experience! Travis enjoyed listening to the meeting without wearing a headset for translation, and afterward we all enjoyed talking with people from various parts of Europe. It’s quite an international ward.  

LDS church building in Paris.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        After church, we drove to Versailles to see the building site of the new Paris Temple. It was neat to see another European Temple under construction but particularly meaningful for Travis, as he served his mission in France and Switzerland as a young man. Exciting times! 

The Temple site was our last stop in France. Then it was time to hit the road again. This time we turned north toward Belgium!

This picture is just to document that Maurie took a turn in the no-leg-room backseat. Unfortunately, she stirred up a rebellion.
She and Ben unionized and both sat in the middle seat on the next leg of the trip.