Unbelievable.

That's the only word I can think of to describe what has been going on!

In no particular order:
1) Is the world ending? What on earth did I do to have my first white Christmas ever WHEN I'M NOT AT HOME???? Last I heard from friends about an hour ago, there were 8 inches on the ground back home, and steady snow still falling. Seriously? Unbelievable.

2) Guess where I've been? The reason this blog hasn't been updated in awhile? I was in Paris. :-) As you know from my last update, my mom arrived safely last week and we'd been seeing the sights in London. Well, my dad and sister arrived last Thursday, and we went straight to Paris.

In the 34 hours that we were in Paris, we saw so much! We took the Eurostar, which takes just over two hours headed through the Chunnel and French countryside. After we checked into our hotel, we headed for the Eiffel Tower. The view from the top was amazing. Little chilly, though. :-)

After the Eiffel Tower, we took the Metro (subway) to see Notre Dame. I hate to say it, but as amazing as that cathedral is, it was so commercialized that I really didn't appreciate it. There were machines throughout the church with lights advertising the commemorative coins you can buy. There were boxes strewn about in one part that looked like they used to contain items the gift shop was selling. Seriously, folks, can't you dispose of those properly rather than just throw them on the ground? It didn't feel like anyone actually treated the church with any respect. Sad.

After Notre Dame we walked to the Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportationate which remembers the 200,000 people deported from France to concentration camps during the second world war. It's right on the River Seine, and was very poignant. We then ate an early dinner at a cafe in the Ile Saint Louis neighborhood, and headed back to Notre Dame. There we caught a cab, and headed to our evening bus/river cruise tour. We got to see all the famous Parisian sights lit up in the really beautiful, crisp evening. The Eiffel Tower, for a few minutes on the hour, lights up with white twinkle lights. It's amazing. The river cruise was great, although it did make me feel quite stupid. One of the tour guides kept saying things in five different languages, and, while I'm certainly no expert, her pronunciation sounded perfect. I can barely manage English sometimes. :-) The perfect end to this crazy day was a crepe with nutella. Mmm. :-)

That was all on Friday... Saturday was even crazier. We started with breakfast, as any sane person should... and I must say, a croissant with nutella is heavenly. :-) Then the mad rush through the museums began. We started at Musee de Orsay, where I found many Monet paintings, which was really exciting (including this one, on the right, of the Japanese bridge at his gardens in Giverny). For those who don't know, I'm seriously addicted to Monet (by the way, I was just chatting with my godmother, we're staying with them near London now, and she's just given me an awesome early Christmas present- glasses cleaning cloths in a Monet pattern. She knows me too well. hehe). Once we finished at Orsay, we headed to the Louvre. It was too big for my taste. So many awesome things, but I was so overwhelmed. And, to make matters totally worse, none of us grabbed a map before we headed inside. We just followed the signs to the Mona Lisa, then, when we realized none of us knew how to find the Venus de Milo statue, we realized that we had no idea where we were. In my very broken, tourist-guide French, I was asking museum employees "ou est Venus de Milo s'il vous plait?" To which we got terrible directions. About 45 minutes of wandering aimlessly later... we found our way out. Without having seen Venus. :-) Oh well. I was happy to head to our next stop: Musee de Orangerie. This is where you can find Monet's water lilies!!! Only something I've dreamed of seeing ever since I saw my first Monet painting years and years ago. They were breathtaking. Absolutely amazing. One of the panels of water lilies is below. There were two huge rooms with four panels each, specially designed for these panels. I didn't want to leave.

After Orangerie, we ate lunch at a cafe near the Louvre, and I headed out on my own afterwards for my FOURTH museum of the day- the Musee de Marmottan, which has the largest collection of Monet's work of any museum in the world. Yes, I was in heaven. Water lilies, Giverny, the Houses of Parliament in London... the list goes on, and on, and on. Every one of them was more spectacular than the previous. I couldn't take photos here, but you can trust me. Amazing.

I met back up with the family later that afternoon, grabbed one last nutella crepe, and we headed to the train station for our trip home. A great start to the family vacation.

We pick up our rental car today... wish me luck remembering to stay on the left side of the road. :-) London on Monday, then Stratford/Coventry/Oxford on Tues/Wed. More later.