Paris

Paris wins.   Sorry London.  You are fabulous and I can understand you better, but Paris wins.  I mean, it's Paris.  Paris! We are staying in St. Germain des Pres and this morning there was a organic street market right outside our door.  I bought the most expensive melon in the world but it was fabulous and worth every euro. We had a perfect Parisian Sunday today. Run in Luxenbourg Gardens.  Buy 2 baguettes s.v.p. Lunch with an old friend of Blake's from his AFS days.  Lovely Noelle and her mother Edith.  Had the perfect melon. Noelle said, "Are melons in season?" "Non!"  I cried!  "But look at the color!"  They ate.  They appreciated.  Fantastic.  Then to the Luxenbourg again for the park.  They boys climbed around.  Cal rode the carousel and got 3 rings off the side, lancing them using a stick.  He was so pleased with himself it was if you had given him a $100.  Then fresh crepes filled to the brim with Nutella.  Then a short metro ride to the Eiffel Tower.  Then a long wait in line for the ONLY bathroom within walking distance of the tower.  With 9 million visitors a year you'd think they'd put in more. Up to the second floor.  Nice view with the sun setting behind us.  Then home with a very opinionated Algerian taxi driver.  He no likey our current policy in Libya.

This is after a Bateaux Mouches ride along the Seine last night with a funny tour guide.  Paris wins.

BUT... we did have a wonderful time in Chartres.  We had a wonderful fully French meal in a small restaurant called La Tripot.  The food was unbelievable.  I had dorade, fish w/ clam sauce.  Declan had monkfish in a lobster sauce, Blake had steak, Cal tried beef cheeks.  It was so good and there was so much food but the best thing about it was that it was so French.  Small place, huge menu, loooooong meal. So typical.  I don't know how he fed us so much food on what we paid but it was fantastic.  Oh the Cathedral was nice too.

- Connan

Its been 26 years since I lived here as an AFS student, and I've returned from time to time - but never in as comfortable a dwelling. We're in a lovely apartment in the 6th arrondissment that we rented form Donna Evers, a  real estate friend in Bethesda.  After several nights of, shall we say, family sleeping in Bayeux and Chartres, it's nice to have a full apartment where everyone can spread out.  We had lunch in a cafe, did some basic grocery shopping, and then we took Declan and Callum for a ride down the Seine on the famous Bateaux Mouches.  They were thrilled to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up.  Now, we sit and drink Bordeaux and plan the rest of the week.  Other than the normal kid-friendly monuments, our agenda includes the Catacombs, Versailles, Oysters and Sancerre at a cafe, Les Puces (flea markets), the new Pina Bausch movie by Wim Wenders, Lee Bruer's controversial STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE at the Comedie Francaise, and plenty of gourmet chocolate ( Declan in particular, plans to use his 40 euros of spending money to buy a big chocolate fish that we saw in a high end boutique off of Rue de Rennes).

-Blake