Our blogs are very out of date. Mark has been suitably admonished.
Sally has been very helpful by making amendments to this blog. This has nothing to do with the 'different' layouts for this blog nor several of the upcoming ones........
We went back to the same hotel we had stayed at before and again the receptionist, Derya, gave us great ideas about where to go and what to see.
We started out Aisha's birthday by catching the end of the 14th of July military parade and fly pasts.
Unlike our last time in Paris, we did go and see some museums on this trip. Aisha was really VERY pleased to be visiting the Louvre for her birthday. As with almost every museum we go to in Europe we saw so many world famous and fantastic art that it was just silly.
There were some fantastic works including these two sculptures. The marble lace collar on the early 17th century bust by Finelli was astoundingly fine. At first glance the veiled face by Corradini seemed to be an optical illusion.
.
The code of Hamurabi dates from about 1772 BC and is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. The Babylonian king, Hammurabi, drew up the code, which consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments, adjusting "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" depending on social status. Mark saw a copy of this when he visited the ruins of Babylon in Iraq back in 1990.
The statue of 'Ebih He' was found in Syria in the 1930s and dates from around 2500-2334 BC. Mark remembers seeing pictures of it in an encyclopaedia when he was about William's age. To see it for real was amazing. He does not approve of the cheeky rabbit ears picture!
Of course we joined everyone else to line up to see the Mona Lisa.
All the fuss over Da Vinci's little painting means the Louvre's biggest single work, The wedding feast at Cana by Veronese, at the back of the room is almost forgotten.
Fortunately Aisha's birthday picked up when we finally got to the fun fair at Tuileries gardens. Mark seemed to enjoy it too.
Of course we went out for dinner for Aisha's birthday! Again we relied on Derya's recommendations. She suggested a Turkish restaurant in the north of Paris that reminded her of restaurants in her native Turkey.
Deyra had warned us the restaurant did not look so good from the outside and that the general area "had many immigrants" so we should be careful. Of course the food was excellent and the area interesting and we had no problems at all.
The next day we went back to the Sacre Coer where we had lit candles for Sally's recovery months before. This time we not only lit them in thanks but also for a friend of Mark's who had died just the day before we got to Paris after a long battle with cancer. We also lit them for another friend living in our street fighting cancer too.
Derya had very kindly organised tickets for a boat ride on the River Seine.
More relaxation followed with a visit to the Orangerie, a purpose built building at the end of the Tuilleries Garden, where Monet's full wall size water lillies are displayed - breathtakingly beautiful.
We went to Saint Chapel which was built in 1239 by Louis IX to house his collection of Passion Relics, including the Crown of Thorns. The crown is now in the Notre Dame. Saint Chapel also has one of the most extensive collections of 13th century stained glass anywhere in the world.
While the the painted ceiling of the lower chapel was stunning, it was the upper one that really took our breath away. The photos do not do justice to the impact of walking up the stairs into a room that has all four walls completely filled with intricate stained glass. It was almost unbelievable.
The next day we headed down to the islands, where, somewhat amazingly Sally bumped into a former work colleague from Australia in a shop! We crossed several bridges over the Seine which were adorned with 'padlocks of love'. These on the Pont Saint Michel behind the Notre Dame were particularly impressive.
Bad Marky !
Sally has been very helpful by making amendments to this blog. This has nothing to do with the 'different' layouts for this blog nor several of the upcoming ones........
Long before Sally had her cancer diagnosis in April we had booked a trip back to Paris principally because Aisha was turning 13 on 14th July - Bastille Day.
We went by Eurostar from London St Pancras, one of the main entry points from Europe for the Olympics. The weather was threatening but gave us some great views once we emerged on the French side of the tunnel, just a few hours after the British school year finished on July 13th.
We were happy to be back in Paris and to have Sally in good health.
We went by Eurostar from London St Pancras, one of the main entry points from Europe for the Olympics. The weather was threatening but gave us some great views once we emerged on the French side of the tunnel, just a few hours after the British school year finished on July 13th.
We were happy to be back in Paris and to have Sally in good health.
We went back to the same hotel we had stayed at before and again the receptionist, Derya, gave us great ideas about where to go and what to see.
We started out Aisha's birthday by catching the end of the 14th of July military parade and fly pasts.
Unlike our last time in Paris, we did go and see some museums on this trip. Aisha was really VERY pleased to be visiting the Louvre for her birthday. As with almost every museum we go to in Europe we saw so many world famous and fantastic art that it was just silly.
There were some fantastic works including these two sculptures. The marble lace collar on the early 17th century bust by Finelli was astoundingly fine. At first glance the veiled face by Corradini seemed to be an optical illusion.
.
The code of Hamurabi dates from about 1772 BC and is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. The Babylonian king, Hammurabi, drew up the code, which consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments, adjusting "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" depending on social status. Mark saw a copy of this when he visited the ruins of Babylon in Iraq back in 1990.
The statue of 'Ebih He' was found in Syria in the 1930s and dates from around 2500-2334 BC. Mark remembers seeing pictures of it in an encyclopaedia when he was about William's age. To see it for real was amazing. He does not approve of the cheeky rabbit ears picture!
Of course we joined everyone else to line up to see the Mona Lisa.
All the fuss over Da Vinci's little painting means the Louvre's biggest single work, The wedding feast at Cana by Veronese, at the back of the room is almost forgotten.
Fortunately Aisha's birthday picked up when we finally got to the fun fair at Tuileries gardens. Mark seemed to enjoy it too.
 |
| Got you ! |
Of course we went out for dinner for Aisha's birthday! Again we relied on Derya's recommendations. She suggested a Turkish restaurant in the north of Paris that reminded her of restaurants in her native Turkey.
Deyra had warned us the restaurant did not look so good from the outside and that the general area "had many immigrants" so we should be careful. Of course the food was excellent and the area interesting and we had no problems at all.
 |
| Nothing's to good for our girl ! |
After dinner we headed down to Place de Concorde to watch the national day fireworks by the Eiffel Tower, though we assured Aisha they were being put on just for her - all of the beautiful 30 minute display!
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| They're up there somewhere. |
At the end of the fireworks we headed to the Metro, walking back through the fun fair at Tuileries Park. The kids thought it was a good idea to have a go on some more rides and also to have a celebratory fairy floss. Needless to say we had no idea how big the 'grande barbe a papa' (father's beard or fairy floss in Australian) would be.
The next day we went back to the Sacre Coer where we had lit candles for Sally's recovery months before. This time we not only lit them in thanks but also for a friend of Mark's who had died just the day before we got to Paris after a long battle with cancer. We also lit them for another friend living in our street fighting cancer too.
Derya had very kindly organised tickets for a boat ride on the River Seine.
More relaxation followed with a visit to the Orangerie, a purpose built building at the end of the Tuilleries Garden, where Monet's full wall size water lillies are displayed - breathtakingly beautiful.
We went to Saint Chapel which was built in 1239 by Louis IX to house his collection of Passion Relics, including the Crown of Thorns. The crown is now in the Notre Dame. Saint Chapel also has one of the most extensive collections of 13th century stained glass anywhere in the world.
While the the painted ceiling of the lower chapel was stunning, it was the upper one that really took our breath away. The photos do not do justice to the impact of walking up the stairs into a room that has all four walls completely filled with intricate stained glass. It was almost unbelievable.
 |
| It really is this colourful. |
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| The floor of the chapel. |
The next day we headed down to the islands, where, somewhat amazingly Sally bumped into a former work colleague from Australia in a shop! We crossed several bridges over the Seine which were adorned with 'padlocks of love'. These on the Pont Saint Michel behind the Notre Dame were particularly impressive.
As we did on our first trip, we went to Rue Mouftard and enjoyed the atmosphere and some of the food on offer.
Unlike London, in cities like Paris, Florence and Rome it is hard to find some grass to sit on. The parks have beautiful lawns but anyone who dares to sit on it will face the shrill & potentially deadly whistle of the stern park attendant.
Amazingly we found that there was some lawn to sit on at the Jardine gardens. So we did, along with many others.
Sally was always booked to return earlier to get back to work, though in fact she was now not starting back until the following week. Nonetheless, with tickets hard to change, she left us at the Jardine gardens on a beautiful sunny Parisian day to return to the grey rain of London and some quiet time before starting work.
With two days on their own Mark & the kids were able to do a few extra things. They went back to the Tuileries fair for some more dodgem cars, to the Eiffel tower for an up close view as well as to the Muse de Orsay to see just a few more paintings. It goes without saying that there were some amazing works there. William particularly liked the Van Gough works, especially the ones that featured in Doctor Who.
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