Paris

Deciding it would be shameful to be so close to Paris and only visit Disneyland, David took Micaela and James on the 45-minute train ride to the heart of the City of Light. They were the ultimate tourists, choosing to visit Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower.

Construction began on Notre Dame de Paris in 1163. There is a stone reference marking point here in the square in front of the cathedral called Point zéro. When road signs say "Paris - 30 kilometres," the distance is the measurement to this exact spot.

Home of poor Quasimodo. Victor Hugo wrote The Hunchback of Notre-Dame to support preserving the cathedral instead of "modernizing" it (i.e. tearing it down) after it suffered severe desecration during the French Revolution.

The Louvre has been around, in one form or another, for the past 800 years. The Louvre Pyramid, the main entrance of the museum, was designed by I.M. Pei, a Chinese-American architect.

When David, in all seriousness, asked James if he had ever seen a real live mummy, James answered, "Dad, there's no such thing as a real live mummy."

At the outbreak of war in September 1939, most pieces of the Louvre's collections were evacuated. The works were hidden in numerous sites, mostly châteaus in the French countryside.

Napoleon had this painting by Leonardo da Vinci moved from the Louvre to his bedroom in the Tuileries Palace; later it was returned to the Louvre.

Inaugurated in 1889, La Tour Eiffel was supposed to be torn down after 20 years. It was allowed to remain standing when it proved to be valuable for communication purposes.

The tower met with much criticism from the public when it was built and was considered by many to be an eyesore. When novelist Guy de Maupassant — who claimed to hate the tower — was asked why he ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant so often, he answered, "Because it is the one place in Paris where you can't see it."

View from the half-way up the Eiffel Tower; La Basilisque de Sacré-Coeur, Montmartre in the distance. When the line for the elevator stalled, the Nylunds took the stairs.

Looking across the Seine to La Conciergerie, the former royal palace and prison. Dating from the early 14th century, nearly 3,000 prisoners of the French Revolution (including Marie-Antoinette) spent their last days here before meeting the guillotine.

Disneyland Park - Take 2

Rebecca and I felt better today and the weather looked promising. We started the day with a character breakfast at Café Mickey in Disney Village (although we still picked up our yummy breakfast at the stand in our loop to have for dinner). The cappuccino and eggs and bacon hit the spot.

Geppetto from Pinnochio

Friar Tuck from Robin Hood

No explanation needed for this guy

On to Disneyland Park where David sped off the with big kids to Tomorrowland and the little ones and I headed straight to Fantasyland.

Disneyland Paris is in it second year of celebrating its 15th anniversary.

Believe it or not, Rebecca was actually very excited to ride Le Carrousel de Lancelot and at one point even cracked a smile.

It's a Small World was one of Rebecca's favorites.

Dumbo is probably one of the most basic rides, but always has one of the longest lines. Seeing all the kids' faces break out into expressions of pure joy when they first fly up on Dumbo's back is priceless.

Sleeping Beauty's castle in the distance

Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty mistaking Rebecca for the baby Aurora

Waffle lunch

Space Mountain Mission 2 is a much smoother ride than its predecessor in Florida and its loop-dee-loop in the dark did not lose its charm -- even after the 5th ride.

Big Thunder Mountain

The Pirates of the Caribbean

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril. James somehow shrank overnight as he was even further away today from reaching the minimum height requirement than he was yesterday, even with rolled up socks in the heel of his shoes. He was so disappointed to miss this ride, but Micaela and David both swore Peril did not even come close to Space Mountain, Rock-n-Roller Coaster or Crush's Coaster.

Once Upon a Dream Parade

This Tigger can really bounce!

The Toy Story movies were a bit hit in France

King Louie from The Jungle Book grooming Emilie

Ariel and Prince Eric

Disneyland Park

One nice thing about staying at Davy Crockett's Ranch was the breakfast. Every morning, you go to a little shed in your loop and pick up your breakfast: instant coffee, milk for hot chocolate, orange juice, croissants, rolls, jelly, Nutella, butter and the most delicious baguettes David and I have ever had.

Today, however, it was my turn to be sick. Rebecca and I stayed home in our cozy cabin watching Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zach and Cody (in English!) while everyone else went to Disneyland Park. Once again, most of the attractions were the same as in the Magic Kingdom, but there were many new ones. Everyone loved Big Thunder Mountain (Emilie's first big roller coaster ride) and thought that The Pirates of the Caribbean was better than Orlando's. The one ride James was too short for was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril roller coaster. The measuring stick brushed his hair, but did not rest on his head. David and James are going to fashion some kind of lift for James to put in his shoes and he'll try again tomorrow. The kids also raved about the hotdogs they had for lunch which were reminiscent of American hotdogs (not like the "crunchy-skinned" German ones).

David opted to go camera-less to fully enjoy the day, but did get a few pictures with his cellphone camera.

Emilie and silly Stitch. That's Space Mountain Mission 2 behind them, which does a loop-dee-loop and was declared the best ride of all.

Waiting for the parade with Sleeping Beauty's castle in the background

Walt Disney Studios Park

Our Disney trip got off to a shaky start when David was sick most of the night. By morning, he felt OK and thought we should continue with our plans. We checked out of our hotel and just a few minutes later were at the reception desk for Disney's Davy Crockett Ranch, where mountain music played and Pioneer America was the decor. At this wooded area, you can rent a rustic cabin or a tee pee (no kidding). We received our park passes and were able to check into our 2-bedroom cabin early. A quick bite to eat, everyone bundled in warm clothes, and we were on our way to the Disney Studios Park.

At the gate to our first taste of America in a long time. One big surprise was seeing the camouflage-clad policemen (or soldiers) patrolling the entrance area, carrying the biggest guns I have ever seen in person.

The Studios Park has many of the same attractions as the one in Orlando, but there were new ones as well. Crush's Coaster, an indoor roller coaster where you ride in a turtle shell, was the ride to do at the Studios and had a long line. David pronounced it pretty gnarly and thought it may have been too much for little Emilie, though she wouldn't admit it.

While the others waited for the Crush ride, Rebecca got her picture with Mickey. It was very cold and Rebecca seemed quietly miserable all day. She may have had a touch of whatever David had.

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror just opened recently. Emilie met the height requirement, but the spooky atmosphere got to her and she dropped out of the line half way through.

Mid-morning, it turned from a cold morning, to a rainy morning, to a snowy morning, then back to a rainy day. Here at the Moteurs.....Action Stunt Show Spectacular, you can see the snow (click on the photo for a closer view). Having that image in your mind of a Disney Park being in a warm climate made seeing the snow almost incomprehensible.

Micaela trying out the White Witch's throne from The Chronicles of Narnia

Emilie below Peter Pan and Wendy

Rebecca and I waited quite a while to see Sulley from Monsters, Inc. (her current favorite movie), but when it was her turn, Rebecca wanted no part of that big blue furry monster.

With the afternoon weather being horrid (James and I would later agree that it is one thing to be cold and one thing to be wet, but it's another thing entirely to be cold and wet), Emilie, Rebecca and I hit several of the indoor shows. I was curious to see how the whole language issue would be handled. It turned out that many attractions had English and French show times and then other ones had just mixed language shows. That way, most people can follow the story. One show, Cinémagique, had Martin Short, who spoke English, being pulled into different classic movies along with a French actress, who spoke only French. At another live show, Animagique, Mickey spoke French and Donald spoke English.

Rock'n'Roller Coaster was also a big hit

Dinner at Planet Hollywood in Disney Village, an area of shops, restaurants and a movie theater, completed our day.

Easter Sunday

We woke up to a snowy Easter morning, too cold for the Easter Bunny to have hidden any goodies outside. The kids hunted for treats inside and found chocolate eggs, chocolate Euros and gummi bears.

Then it was time to pack for our big Spring Break trip. The kids have off two weeks and when we read that all kids under 7 are free at Disneyland Paris until April, we figured this was the right time to go. It should be a 5-hour drive and we plan on staying four days.

I had done some research on Disneyland Paris and felt I had to lower our expectations a bit. It is much smaller than Walt Disney World, with only two parks. Some people have complained that it was rundown, the cast members could be rude and cutting in line was rampant. And alas, we would miss the new smoking ban by one week. We were hoping for the best.

When we left Liederbach, it was cold and the ground was covered in snow. We drove through beautiful mountainous areas that looked like a Christmas card and then blinked, the snow was gone and we entered France. You cross the border and all signs are in French. No transition period in either Germany or France where the signs are in both languages.

Suddenly, the responsibility of dealing with people and reading signs was with me. This whole time we have counted on David to do the translating, but now it would be my turn. The pressure was on and I found that my brain had to work to separate German from French when I was searching for words and phrases.

We drove through beautiful countryside and made it to the outskirts of Paris where we spent the night in a hotel and planned to get up first thing in the morning to hit one of the Disney parks.

Animals

Living outside the city of Frankfurt, we see many farm animals. There are chickens just up the path from our backyard and every morning and evening, two ponies get walked up the street in front of our house to go from their barn to a little pasture. There are larger pastures across the stream from our house where we see several horses. We also have mice, moles and shrews digging holes in our backyard. And you see dogs everywhere, of course.

This week, though a few funny things happened. Driving home from school on Thursday, we turned onto Haingraben and then had to wait for a duck that had wondered into the middle of the street. He waddled around for a bit, then stopped to take a drink out of a puddle, oblivious to our simultaneous impatience and amusement. He finally made his way to the other side of the street and we were able to s-l-o-w-l-y pass by him.

Yesterday, Micaela and I were walking home from the bakery when something caught my eye. On a side street, a woman was gazing into a shop window, as was the large horse at her side. They checked out something on display and then proceeded to walk down the sidewalk, both the lady and her horse, as if he were a dog. No one else around seemed to find this noteworthy. I thought it pretty humorous.

Guinness had his first vet appointment on Friday. Dogs and cats, and probably many other types of animals, need to have a "passport" in Germany, a booklet that lists all information pertaining to vaccines, microchips, addresses, etc. Guinness needs the passport before he can be boarded at a kennel. Looking through all of Guinness' paperwork frustrated the vet and she shook her head, saying, "Why don't they just do passports in America? It is so much easier than trying to figure out all these papers! The passport he will get today will be recognized all through Europe."

Also, his microchip did not scan properly, so he needed a new one. Microchips for pets are mandatory, unless they have a readable tattoo in their ear. But even the tattoo will not be enough in a few years and all pets will need microchips.

Fußballspiel

If you had told me 6 months ago that James would participate in a soccer game for ISF where his teammates would be excited for him to play in his first game and they and the coach would congratulate him at the end for a match well played, I would have told you you were crazy.

You may recall from blog entries from last fall, that James' first few months playing soccer at ISF was one of our toughest trials. An American kid who hasn't played organized soccer in a few years joining a team of European and Asian kids who have been playing avidly their entire lives, it was a recipe for disaster. And a disaster it almost was. The other boys were very hard on James and several times after a particularly difficult practice with his teammates, James questioned whether or not he should quit the team. It was one of the few situations in Germany that made me shed tears and had me asking if moving to Germany was the right decision for our family. We normally would have lectured James on his committment to the team, that winners never quit, etc. In this case, after a few months of such treatment, we felt that if James wanted to quit, it was entirely justified. But he persevered and took it week by week.

At the first game he was selected to play in, the coach realized that the school put James on the wrong team. He needed to be moved up to the next level. "Great," David and I thought. "It's only going to get worse."

It was with great trepidation that James went to his first practice with the new team. What a great surprise to hear how welcoming, supportive and forgiving his new teammates turned out to be. After a few months of practicing with his new team, James' name was put on the roster for today's match with the notation "For good achievement in practice!!!"

Coach giving James a pep talk before the match

Put me in, Coach! I'm ready to play (clap, clap clap) today!



Reflecting during half-time on the 3-0 score


When the whistle blew, ISF had lost by a score of 4-0, but we considered this day a great victory for James.