(April 27, Geneva): The Last Supper

Friday morning we woke up bright and early to catch our cab to Gare de Lyon to get back to good ol' Geneva.  In yet another small world moment (or perhaps the 2nd time this trip the heavens tried  to tell us that Texas is taking over the planet), Ryan & I wound up sitting across from a couple visiting Paris from Dallas.  They very nearly ruined American Idol for us, but luckily they caught themselves and did not, thus they remained in our good graces.

The train ride back was fairly uneventful except for the last 15 minutes when poor Jake got very restless.  After all, the camel's back had already been broken the day before so homeboy was ready to be HOME already.  He was doing a little bit of fussing.  I should point out that Jake was a model traveller for the bulk of the 3 hour train ride, unlike a fellow train rider in our car who fussed for the most of the trip.  About 2 minutes into Jake's fussing a helpful lady stuck her head up over her seat, looked at Melanie and started speaking to her in French.  Jonathan asked if she spoke Inglesias and she said (and I quote), "have you tried PLAYING with the baby?"  I was so proud of Melanie & Jonathan for not hoping seats to deck her.  Melanie averted her eyes and Jonathan just said "okay."  Thank heavens for helpful people in the world who remind you to do things you've already tried.  Particularly with only 15 minutes left in a train ride.  That good deed surely lasted her a week rather than just for the day.  (Please note extreme sarcasm font for the last 7 sentences).

We spent the afternoon at Chateau McClain unpacking, reminscing and just generally relaxing.  Melanie arranged a sitter for the evening so that we could have our last supper while Jake enjoyed being back in the comfort of his own house - finally!  As soon as the sitter arrived we set out to grab a pre-dinner cocktail.  We stopped at a cool outdoor place where lost of people were grabbing post-work beverages. 

Our view walking to drinks.  Man I miss those mountains! 

Last McMartin toast.  Thankfully this time there were no pink beers.

Mama Mel.  *sigh* I miss her too!  (More than the mountains, for the record).

After a round of drinks it was time to head to din din.  Melanie made reservations at a Thai place Jonathan recommended called the Wooden Hut for the Last Supper.  Jonathan's co-worker, Jean-Marc, and his girlfriend, Meredith, joined us.  The food was delcious and it was really awesome to meet Jean-Marc & Meredith.  They were fabulous and it's nice to know that the dear McClains are in good friend-hands in Geneva. 

The best Inglesias-speakers I know.

Me & my more moutard-y half.

Once we finished dinner we decided to grab a few post-dinner drinks and continue the conversation.  Meredith mentioned castles and some research she had done on how expensive some of them were.  Who am I to turn down an opportunity to wax philosophic over fictional chateau investments?  The locals chose a place called Riverside Cafe.  I'm sure you are shocked to find out that it is right on a river. 

It wound up being the perfect place to end our trip.  Fabulous company, picturesque setting and lots of laughs and conversation.  It was most definitely a summation of our entire trip in an hour or so. 

The view.

Jean-Marc, Meredith, Mel, Ryan, Me & Jonathan. 

And THAT, my friends is a wrap for McMartin family vacation.  You never thought this day would come, did you?  As I'm sure the multitude of words and posts prior to this demonstrate, this was most assuredly one of the best vacations of my life.  I can not thank Melanie, Jonathan & Jake enough for sharing their home, lives and way too many travel adventures with us.  Thank you also to my parents for watching our whiskery child so that we could do this.   And thank YOU, readers, for all of your kind comments, texts and sweet sentiments.  It makes writing this all down worthwhile. 

You can look forward to tales of a birthday, a wedding and some house updates this side of the pond once my wrists stop cramping.

(April 26, Paris): Skip to the Louvre, my Darling

If any of us had put half as much effort into our SATs as we did into jam-packing day 2 of Paris-ism (Paris + tourism) as chock-full of sight-seeing as we could manage then perhaps we would have all gotten 1600s**.  We planned to start at Notre Dame, head to the Louvre, walk through the Louvre gardens, go check out the Arc de Triomphe, have with crepes on the Eiffel Tower lawn and wrap up the day with a trip up the Eiffel Tower.  If you're laughing at us undertaking this ambitious of a plan- you probably did get a 1600.  What is it they say about the best laid plans?  That you wind up getting lost and only doing half of those things instead?  I think it's something like that.

So, we started the day off enjoying Ryan's "comped" breakfast.  I'm pretty sure watching Ryan & Jonathan tear through their croissants and fried eggs made the hotel staff consider increasing the price of said breakfast so as not to end up in the red, but that is neither here nor there.  After acquiring sufficient nutella fuel, we hit the streets en route to Notre Dame.  Although the weather forecast promised us a prettier day than Wednesday, they really didn't go above and beyond.  It was slightly less windy and still pretty cloudy.  Luckily since we stayed a few blocks from the Louvre, the walk to Notre Dame wasn't too bad.  Particularly for the half of the sight seeing tour that discussed the intricacies of their Apple stock the entire way.

A shot of the edge of the Louvre on our walk to Notre Dame.  When your options are joining in on stock talk or taking random photos- I believe the choice is obvious.

 

We couldn't figure out what this building was- even with the assistance of a map.  That won't stop me from posting a picture of it though.  Don't you worry!

Once we arrived at Notre Dame, Jake celebrated by dropping his binky on the ground.  Looking back upon this moment, I believe this is what my highschool English teacher was trying to teach me to call "foreshadowing."  Binky is to 17 month old as "other other shoe" is to the adult world.  Up to this moment (excluding a portion of our time in Musee D'Orsay), Jake had been the picture of a perfect little traveller.  All other travelling mothers probably would have looked at their own 17 month olds and said "why can't you be more like Jake?"   Day 4 of getting toted around in foreign lands was where he drew the line.  Who could blame him?  We were definitely pushing the envelope.  

Notre Dame is such an overwhelmingly impressive cathedral.  The ceilings, architecture, stained glass and history are second to none, in my opinion.  You should certainly swing by if given the opportunity.   My favorite part, of course, we was the stained glass.  I think Jake's was exiting the building.

 

Ryan, sa dame (his lady) & Notre Dame (our lady).

I can only imagine how long it took to carve even 1 of those 28 statues in the gallery of kings.  Longer than an episode of House Hunters which is about the extent of my attention span.

Oh, did you think we'd make it through a cathedral without a shot of the ceiling arches?  Wrong again, my friends- wrong a-gain.

 

Love.

 

Love even more.

After we stepped back into the sunlight Jake-y started to feel a little bit better.  Maybe he just doesn't like French Gothic architecture?  Everyone is entitled to their opinion, after all.  Since he seemed to be in better spirits, and since none of my travel compadres had been there before, we decided to continue on to the Louvre in keeping with our plan.  We stopped by a couple of pet stores on the way that were not included in the plan.  Who doesn't like to look at animals though?!  Thankfully transporting a dog back to the US sounds hard or Ryan & I might have come home with a French Bulldog as a souvenir rather than just wine.

 

Ryan & I looking in-Seine-ly touristy.  (Ohhh I went there).

 

Louvre courtyard.  Did you know the Louvre used to be a palace?  Thats why it's so ginormous.

 

Sadly the pyramid always makes me think of the Da Vinci code.  What?  Pop culture saturates my life?  Nooooooo.

Once we made it inside, we made a beeline for the wing with the Venus de Milo & the Mona Lisa.  If you aren't a super duper art fanatic (ahem, me), just the size of the Louvre is incredibly intimidating.  Making it through 1 of the 4 wings sounds like a serious accomplishment.  So we decided since Venus & Mona were in the same wing that would be the best bang for our buck.

I think Jake found the plethora of naked, marble folk a little offensive.  He started informing us as such through throwing a code red fit.  After seeing the Venus de Milo Melanie decided that she should take Jake back to the hotel to try to calm him down. 

 

Venus striking a pose.  Nevermind Twiggy, I think this was the original supermodel.

 

 Ryan & I insisted that Melanie come check out the Mona Lisa since she was so close that you could almost taste it. So we tried to run (pretty literally) over to the Mona Lisa while Jonathan sat with Jake on a bench.   Melanie turned around before we made it to the Mona Lisa and promised to send Jonathan to Ryan & I after she retrieved Jake from him. So the plan was for Ryan & I to hang out and chat with Mona while waiting for Jonathan to meet us.  Sounds easy  enough, right?  Well, all of us failed to take into account the Jonathan's "feel" factor.  Ryan & I wandered around the room that the Mona Lisa was in for about 35 minutes and never found Jonathan.  

At this point I was feeling a little panicked since we didn't have a phone and thus no way to get a hold of anyone.  (How did people do it before cell phones?!)  So Ryan back tracked to where we left him while I held guard from a bench just outide the room.  Both of us came up empty handed.  We decided that since Ryan had never been to the Louvre and it was the thing he was most excited about that we should go ahead and check it out.  We crossed our fingers that Jonathan's feel would lead him back to the hotel and continued playing art historians.

 

Mona.  I find it so comical that she's in a room surrounded by HUGE paintings that dwarf her, yet she's the biggest star.  Good things come in small packages, I suppose.

 

After we scoured the wing with the Greek statues and Italian paintings, we decided to check out the wing with the Egyptian artifacts.  As you may recall if you read Boarman family Euro-trip 2010, I fell in love with Egypt when we went to Cairo.  I was bummed Ryan wasn't there to share in it at the time, so it was cool to get to see some pieces of Egypt here with him.  Here's a Sphinx (sphink-us to you, Mom & Julie) reproduction.

 

Sarcophogus.  They had a TON of these.

Post Egyptian artifact-ing, Ryan & I decided we should probably head back to the hotel to check on the other half of our travelling circus.  By this time it was around 3 and we were starved, so we committed the cardinal tourist sin for the 2nd time on this vacation and swung by McDonald's.  DOH.  Although, to our credit Ryan really embraced the local culture by ordering something called (I swear I didn't make this up) the McBaguette.

When we made it back to the hotel we found the McClains safe, sound and happy as clams.  We all jointly made the executive decision that a little nap might be in everyone's best interest.  They had arranged a sitter for Jake for the evening.  So we decided free time was in order until 6 of so when the sitter arrived.  Ryan & I napped, iPaded and enjoyed some more BBC.  At 6 we met down in the hotel lobby for a drink and then set out for the Eiffel Tower.

So maybe we didn't get an up close and personal view of the Arc de Triomphe, we did see it on our walk.  Does this count as sticking to the plan?

 

The beginning of my photographic love affair with the Eiffel Tower.  We'll call this Eiffel Tower + Seine.

 

This one = Eiffel Tower + Foliage.

 

Oh look!  I took a little break for a moment in our walk of taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower.  Isn't this wall awesome?  Those are all real plants.  (I touched them to make sure- duh.)

 

Melanie and I obviously belong in a musical.

 

Eiffel Tower + Husband channeling a Chorus Line?

 

Eiffel Tower does Britney.

 

We walked up to the Eiffel Tower to see how long the lines were and determine if we wanted to try to go up to the top.  After taking one look at how long the line was, and how many tour groups from Junior Highs it included, we decided that a cocktail sounded much more appealing.  (Ryan & I have both been to the top before - so this was not as much of a tourism fail as I'm sure you're imagining).

A block or so from the tower, we found a street with a bunch of sidewalk cafes.  We selected 1 with an excellent looking menu and a really nice hostess.  The weather was so nice that it would have been criminal not to eat outside.  Dinner and drinks with a side of Euro people-watching?  Yes, please.

 

Melanie was adventurous and ordered escargot.  She & I both sampled it and decided it was not something we would order again, BUT kudos to her for making us try something new.  The boys were pansies and wouldn't give it a shot.

 

Ryan ordered Croque Madame.  Again.  The boys shoveled moutard into their mouths.  Again.

The better half of the McMartins.

C'est bon.

Once we got our fill of delicious food and euro-mullet, we decided to call it a day and go back to the hotel to relieve the sitter.  Well, Melanie and I did.  The boys went out for a night cap and accidentally wound up at an Ivy League happy hour at an Irish Bar.  A&M is the Yale of the College Station area, right? 

Last one, I promise.

While the day didn't go EXACTLY according to our over-achieving plan, I would still classify it as pretty darn perfect.  Much love to my fellow travellers for making it that way.

NEXT UP:  Our LAST day and thus my LAST post about this trip.  Crazaaaaay!

** for the youth of America who now take SATs with like 50,000 as a possible score - 1600 used to be a perfect score in my day.  That is today's history lesson.

(April 25, Paris): Musee Who Say?

Wednesday morning we woke up and headed to the station to catch our train to Paris.  The trip to the city of light was about 3 hours.  It started off a little rocky due to the explosive combination of some starting McMartins and a lack of suitable food options.  We were within moments of starting an arm wrestling tournament over a muffin.  Luckily we all caught some Z's and woke up on the right side of our seats as we were pulling into Gare de Lyon.

As we stepped off the train, we immediately recognized that the weather in Paris was as cranky about our American feet setting foot on French soil as the majority of it's citizens were.  It was cold, windy and overcast.  Fortunately we were too excited to be there to really notice much.  We headed staight to our hotel to drop our stuff off.  After doing so, we resorted to our American prioritization scheme and headed out in search of food.  The measly train muffin and Apollo sandwich weren't really cutting it.

It felt like we walked a marathon before we found a  place with wallet-friendly prices and English-friendly personnel.  Eventually we settled an adorable place I really wish I could remember the name of because it was delicious!  Definitely a top 5 meal of the entire trip and probably the best meal we ate in France (including Annecy and Chamonix).

When you're wandering in desperate search of food, it's always a good idea to take breaks to photograph things you don't know the names of.

I was obviously really excited to see some French architecture.  I don't remember what building this is.  Anyone who has been to Paris may know what it is though.  It's near the square with all the expensive jewelry stores.

We downed our food at the first place way too fast for me to bother with pictures.  I did think to take a picture of our little dessert trip though because it was too fabulous not to document.  This is creme brule, cheesecake, raspberry awesomeness and an espresso.  MMMMM.

Jake was a big fan of the raspberry dessert.  Particularly sticking his nose into it.

With warm, fully bellies we set out to get our culture on.  We decided our first stop in Paris should be Musee D'Orsay.  I've been to Paris before but not to Musee D'Orsay.  It's an art museum in an old converted train station that houses some more modern (late 1800s to early 1900s) pieces.  I was really excited about it because I'd heard wonderful things.  This museum has a lot of Renoir, Monet and (my favorite) DaVinci.  I'm a bigger fan of this era of painting than some of the earlier ones at the Louvre.  Monet, Renoir and DaVinci all used such bright, vibrant colors and as is evidenced by my decision to reupholster our chairs in yellow - David Bromstad and I have the same philosophy on color. 

Despite a backpack debacle, some members of our party being barred from the restroom and losing eachother as the museum shut down which left Melanie by herself to navigate Jake and a stroller down an elevator alone - I would say it was a great time and I'm glad we went.  If you're not a huge art afficianado and don't have hours to persue the Louvre - I say hit up Musee D'Orsay for sure.

We walked through the gardens by the Louvre (Jardin de Tuileries) to get over to Musee D'Orsay.

Jake helping Ryan push mon feces stroller.  It appears the urge to tell others how to drive starts at birth in men.

View of Musee D'Orsay across the Seine.

Ryan in the center of Musee D'Orsay.  I loved the ceiling.

So, I didn't realize you could actually take pictures in here until AFTER we'd been through the DaVinci exhibit (the one I was most looking forward to).  I don't know who this guy is by, but for some reason I really liked him.  All he's missing is a coke.

I liked lots of Monets, but I think this one was my favorite.

One of the 2 clocks on the side of the building you can see from across the Seine.  This is the one by the book store.

After shutting the place down, we decided to head back to the hotel to rest our weary feet for a bit before dinner.  A few minutes of shut eye, a shower and a couple of bad BBC shows later- we met downstairs in the lobby to find ourselves meal #2 of the day.

 

Cute hotel room.  Each of the rooms was slightly different.  No LaQuinta southwestern bed spreads and cherry (plum?) pictures in this joint.

 

Pretty in love with that sink.

Ryan posing in the "bar" which also happens to be where his breakfast was "comped" each day.

The yucky weather of the day gave way to a beautiful sunset which made for an awesome walk to dinner.  Following many stops and reviews of menus, we finally settled on a sidewalk cafe where the name had something to do with a triangle?  Once again, I can't remember what it was called.  I probably should have written more stuff down, huh?  Again - it would be helpful to be drinking while reading this blog.  :c)

How many needle like structures can I capture in one photo?

Eiffel Tower > Unicorn horn.

I obviously couldn't get enough of this sunset.

 

This dinner wound up being one for the record books for multiple reasons.  First of all, Melanie and I became painfully aware of the need for our husbands to be put into rehab for... wait for it... moutard (mustard).  In France there were little jars of it on the table at all the restaurants.  I would venture to guess that the average table uses maybe 4 spoonfuls per sitting.  Thus, Ryan & Jonathan blowing through half the jar was a bit excessive.  Also, Ryan & Jonathan ordered the "big beer."  They brushed off the waiter's apprehensiveness about their order as clearly he didn't know just how manly these patrons were.  When our waiter delivered the beers pictured below it became evident that he knew what he was talking about.  Third, Ryan fell in love with a new food item - the Croque Madame.  Lastly, it was (remarkably) the first time that we had crepes on this trip... depsite the fact Ryan claimed his motto for our Eurotrip was going to be "I don't give a crepe."  In summation, it was yet another memorable, laugh-filled feast.

A pitcher a piece?  Sure, why not.

 

Cheeseburgers in Paris-dise.

 

Ryan and his Croque Madames.

 

Post-dinner we took a leisurely stroll back to the hotel admiring all of the fun window displays we passed along the way.  Once we got back to the hotel we decided to call it a night to rest up for Thursday because we had an action-packed day planned for ourselves.   Big beers and culture all in one day?  Noooot too bad if I say so myself.

 

The first items on Ryan & Jonathan's 2012 Christmas Lists.

 

This one is for you Mamacita and Jules!