Paris? Pourqoi Pas?

We're going to Paris next week! Wahoo! 

I'm pretty much stoked out of my mind.

Paris, 2011… Unfortunately, the girls have no memory of this

 I kind of have a love/hate relationship with Paris. I've been before, three times in fact.  The first time was as a missionary when my parents came to pick me up…went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, loved it, had a great time.  The second was in 2011 when we lived in Poland.  Em and C were three and one (oh man, those were tough ages), and the last time was in 2013 when my friend Monica came to visit. 

My visit in 2011 kind of soured me on Paris.  Granted we were only there for one night, and beside booking our hotel room I had done no additional planning.  The hotel was ridiculously expensive for what we got (they were doing construction and we got to wake up to the sound of a drill boring through the wall), parking was 30 euro for the night (might as well just pay for a parking ticket, right?)  and we visited on the 4th of July… it was sooo hot and crowded and dirty.  But what really did me in (warning, this is really gross) was when we first arrived and got in the elevator to take the metro, we were assaulted by an overwhelming odor... someone had defecated in the elevator.  Swear on my life. That did it for me.  All the notions of romance and culture and culinary delights vanished right then and there.  Paris was forever sullied in my mind. After that trip I vowed I would never return.  

Well, then we got this assignment in Stuttgart.  And Paris happens to be one of the easiest destinations to visit from here.  It's just under a four hour high-speed train ride, or an easy five hour drive across flat uneventful terrain…. kind of like driving through Kansas, only prettier (no offense Pat and Nancy).  And then Monica came to visit, she was touring Europe, and I mentioned we might as well take the train to Paris… so close and easy.  Well, we ended up having a great time!  It was December, crowds were smaller, the weather was crisp and cool, and everything was so much cleaner… no nasty stenches.  We sipped chocolat chaud at the neighborhood café, perused charming boutiques on the ile de la cité, and sauntered through the gardens of Versailles.

But what really convinced me I needed to bring my family back was this gem I found at one of the bookstands along the Seine… 

This vintage book (1984), is wonderfully illustrated and tells about this sweet little girl and her group of animal friends and all their misadventures visiting Paris.  This girl not only shares the same name as my four year old, but is a spitting image!  So of course I had to buy it for her. (Can I just tell you how fun it is to read it to her?  Even though my accent is horrid and she can't understand a word I'm saying, it's still fun!)  

A sampling:

Then, to give even further credence that it was meant to be, while I was in Paris Caroline told me on the phone that the night before she DREAMT she went to the Eiffel Tower.  Ok, it was fate.  So I started planning our family trip to Paris.  And this time I'm much better prepared.  

Along with Caroline Visite Paris, I've purchased a couple other children's books to get the girls in the right frame of mind.

And some books to help me plan:

And with a little research it turns out that there's a lot more to Paris than the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and Notre Dame.  This time we're going to museums, parks, monuments, churches, etc. that I never even knew about.  And we're spoiling the girls and taking them to Disneyland Paris.  I'm justifying it because it's their birthdays. 

So now I have this grand idealistic vision of how it's going to be, and then there will be the cold hard reality.  I hope they're not too far apart!   Wish me "bon chance!"  A bientôt!