AltoREReous Castellanus

Hi!

Wednesday we went to the Versailles palace (in Versailles) Louis XIV, Louis XVI, Louis XVII, and Marie-Antoinette were among the kings and queens who lived there. It was HUGE. Like, HUGE HUGE. Also grand. Look:

Tiny Golden Fat Babies

The Gardens

The Royal Hall of Mirrors

See? HUGE HUGE GRAND. Don't even ask about the «bébés minuscules en gras d'or.» The Hall of Mirrors glass is French glass. Not Czech. It's so pretty. Near the Grand and Petit Trianons, look:

At the Grand Trianon

Guarding the Grand Trianon

In the Roots

"In the Roots" is, literally, in the roots of a felled tree. You should see me "sleeping".

On the ride home, we took a RER-C, like we did to get there. Going to Brussels, we'll take a high-speed double-decker TGV. It should be fun. I hope my mom will make a more detailed follow-up. Note my quote format. Bye!

From Ally: just a quick note to say that I was able to finish up in the archives and meet them at Versailles in time to hear Seb make this alarming declaration: "Now I am getting a lot of ideas for how to decorate my room!"

Mimblewimbles on Thimbles

Mimblewimble.

If you enjoyed the photo album, yippee. This is Eli again and for some reason the "The Adventures of Sea Beast and Eli" is on blogger.fr but what I wrote this in is on blogger.com. Huh? Is "Mimblewimble" in red to you?

Today we went to the Cité des Sciences et de L'industrie. That's the Paris science museum. It was fun. I have plenty of stories about it today, including the long march back. We had crêpes and a RER-C metro trip on a double-decker!

First story: At the Cité des Sciences et de L'industrie, there's a motion-sensor airplane simulator that grades you like so:

Advanced Pilot: Successful landing
Basic Pilot: Bad landing
Reckless Pilot: Crash-landing or crash;

So, these three teenagers (always teenagers) were playing on the MSAS (as I will call it). They kept on getting "Basic" and "Reckless". I was next in line, and casually achieved an "Advanced". Two of the three teens had run off, so the remaining one went and told them. They came back and watched Sebbie flap his arms crazily and landed on the grass to get an "Advanced". The three teens decided the machine was broken and no-English-ignored me. Hey!

Then, the rocket thing where you choose the amount of water fuel-to-air ratio in a rocket and launch it. We thought at first 75%, then 25%, and, all percents, 30, 20, 18, 24, 70, 80, 90, and 75 were our guesses. It was fun; we won.

The march back was my dad taking us to a game store and walking us to a faraway crêpe shop. We got Limonades, crêpes, and pitchers (which Sebbie tried to drink from). We found a Metro 7, rode it to a 10, which we rode to that double-decker RER-C. Yay!

Jet Lag and Technical Difficulties

For those of you who followed this blog the first time, we were traveling to France so that I could do some archival research.  And we were going for six weeks.  This time, I hope to still do a little archival work, but the main reason I had to be here was to lead a study tour in Brussels next week.  So, this first week is the boys and me in Paris, en route to Brussels.

And, we made it.

The flight was smooth.  The only real headache came when we realized we had the very last row in the airplane.  So much for the adults getting any sleep.  But, luckily, the boys slept fine.  Almost six hours in total. Not bad.

We got to Charles de Gaulle Airport, made our way through customs with two very inquisitive boys who thought they were in the longest line ever (it is going to be a long week if lines elicit that much exaggerated frustration), got our luggage, and then boldly proceeded to the RER train despite the forewarnings of a massive strike. Past experience has suggested that the warnings, while valid, merely serve to scare away tourists who naively shell out a hefty sum to the taxi drivers (and others) who manage to peel them away from the RER by pointing to the signs that say to favor other transit options.  And it worked out for us.  We made it into town just fine, found our apartment, and were happy to see that the pictures on the website did not deceive.  It is beautiful, spacious, and right on the Seine just a block away from the library I will visit on Monday.  Some exploration that same afternoon proved there are also a couple of Seb and Eli approved playgrounds within a stone's throw.  And we can also get a lot of mileage out of walking around the ever-fascinating Bercy Park and Village across the river.  So, we'll count that as a win.

We managed to keep ourselves going right up until we all were ready to sleep around 8 or 9 p.m.  Then we mostly got a full night sleep.  So, another win.

But we lost most of our photos from the day due to a technical glitch with the new loaner phone I got from Pitt.  Ugh.  But here are some photos of the apartment that I took the next day, so you can see what we found waiting for us when we arrived.

Today, we did a bike tour and went to the top of the Eiffel Tower... but that will have to wait until I have caught up on some more sleep.  Bonne nuit!

Up to Date and Sad to be Late Photo Album

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Entrance Guards of the Museum, 129 Rue de Grenelle, 75007 Paris, Musée de L'armée

Add Whee for Explosive Results

Armour Up!

Neapolitan's Tomb

"Scale" Model of a Cannon

Swinging in the Sun on Ropes, 15 rue Thomas Mann 75013 PARIS

Standing on Ropes in the "Sun", 15 rue Thomas Mann 75013 PARIS

The Eli-ffel Tower

Oh, this is Eli posting. I have been literate for seven years, thank you. Now it's my turn! 

The Eiffel Tower

Spiral- or not

The Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel) is very fun! Note that I saw it yesterday.

In the picture to the left, you can see, in the center, a small blue thing. That's a Euro 2016 TV and gathering area, complete with European "foot-ball" fans, cheering and yelling atrociously. Each level is different. Level one is basically a restaurant and an enclosure of glass. Level two is two observation decks, both outdoors, each with a view of all of Paris. Level two also includes eight elevators, four going to L1 next and four to L3.

Now, ecnetnes yreve fo srettel tsrif eht ot noitnetta yap, if you can read sdrawkcab. Level three is two observation decks, one indoors and one out, with the indoors and bottom one full of trivia. On the other hand, the top has a champagne restaurant. Some of you might think I sound like a commercial, but I'm not trying to. Either way, I'll show you this. Remember to look upwards. Spiral- or not says, "Regardez-moi!"

Now, the San Jose Sharks are _ _ _ _ _ _. The Penguins won the Cup.

Any way, we also went on a bike tour! Yay? Here, look:

Fat Tire Bike Tours Details

It was fun. The tour guide forgot Charles X and Louis XVIII. We learned about the "Church with the dome" and went to a restaurant in the rain. We learned not to learn from tour guides from my dad, and we... ate crêpes? Yum! Oh, and THERE ARE NO SWINGS AT OUR PLAYGROUND!!!!!!

Here we go again

8 years and one brother later, we are taking the boys to France again. So why not blog it again? Eli and Seb Go To France. We are waiting at the gate in PIT ready to board a direct nonstop to CDG. Grabbing some last minute tablet time before we board the night plane. Here's hoping we all get a bit of sleep tonight.