Oui Oui Paris

Over the summer we began talking about the best time to go to Paris to introduce the yet-to-be-born cousins that we would be having around the same time as Andra and Jean-Marc.  Adam and I had exactly enough frequent flyer miles to get us and Jackson seats, with Vivian on our laps.  After some discussion, we landed on the week leading up to Thanksgiving.

And so we set off on a red eye direct flight on Nov 21 out of Dulles.  All in all, we survived the flight fine and only had a few minutes of chaos when Jackson pooped in his pull-up (Boy scout motto of "be prepared" was in full effect) and almost sent 3 rows of noses under their shirts while the seat-belt sign was on.

Early on Friday morning, we rolled into Paris a little bleary-eyed but happy to be on this adventure.  We spent most of the day gushing over babies, exchanging presents, sleeping and catching up.  Andra anointed Vivian "Aunt Flo" due to the mop of hair on her head.

On Saturday, our big trip of the day was to the Eiffel Tower.  We had a great time roaming around, taking pictures, playing at the playground at the foot of the tower and even found a little area where Jackson could race cars with other children.

Sunday was circus day.  We all headed down to the Pinder circus but only the boys and Anna went for various reasons.  Andra and I hung out in a park for a bit and then roamed down one of the busy shopping streets.

On Monday, Adam and I took advantage of Adam's belated 40th birthday gift - a couples Thai massage that was in close proximity to some Paris landmarks.  We hit up Notre Dame and also went to the top of the Pompidou to take in the skyline.  In between, we hit up some shops for some Christmas presents.  Andra and JM hung with the kiddos and got this great clip.




On Tuesday, Jean-Marc and Adam participated in the second part of Adam's birthday present - a sword fighting class.  It was a three hour class that had the boys dripping in sweat.  Adam also had some nice welts to show from his jousts.

Wednesday was spent preparing for Thanksgiving and involved a big shopping trip to the grocery store. Adam, Jackson, Vivian and I also hopped on a bus and went down to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery where Jim Morrison is buried.  It was the nicest day we had on our trip, so spent a lot of time just walking through the beautiful cemetery.  It was a bit of an adventure to find Morrison's grave, but we eventually did and snapped some photos.

Thanksgiving Day arrived!  Most of the day was spent prepping for the evening festivities.  There was a lot of food and lots of Frenchies.  Was such a wonderful day.

Friday morning was the only morning we didn't laze around as we had to be in a cab at 8:30 am and off to the airport.

As always, all pics can be found here.