Markets and Churches and Boats - Oh My!

For our second day in Paris, we were even more ambitious! We started out looking for our neighborhood marche, or market. We were in desperate need of some food supplies... plus the marche is super fun for its collection of odds and ends as well as farm fresh fruit, vegetables, meats, and cheeses. Our AirBnB host had left us a wonderful list of places to eat as well as the local marche schedule, so we walked over to the plaza. We saw nothing. I was disappointed, but Jay was not deterred. We finally saw a few stalls at one end of the plaza, and once we got there, we saw about 100 more stalls with everything we could ask for.

Jay took the kids to the playground in the center of the marche, while I stocked up on eggs, apples, bananas, carrots, artichokes, and fresh lambchops - I filled all the bags we brought with us to capacity. I also found a guy selling cheap stretchy kids gloves and invested in 3 pairs for the kids. These will come in handy later, I thought.

Sammy does love a good playground! See if you can find Joey in the picture!

We brought our loot back to the apartment and headed out again with the goal of visiting Ile de la Cite and its two splendid cathedrals - Sainte Chapelle and Notre Dame. After an easy ride and a quick walk across the Seine river, we arrived at the Palais de Justice which holds Sainte Chapelle. Argh, we thought! Another long line! The church was due to close at 1:00 for the lunch break, and it was already 11:30. So I wandered up with Lanna and Sammy to ask the guard (in my awesome French) if we were going to make it to the front of the line before the 1:00 closure. By some miracle, which I will never understand but will always be grateful for, he told me we could go right to the front of the line. I ran back to get Jay and Joey, and he still let us go right in! Our own little Paris miracle! Our only loss was a cheese knife, since we weren't allowed to bring sharps into the Palais. A small price to pay for avoiding one of Paris' many lines.

I have been to Sainte Chapelle before, I'm pretty sure when I visited Paris with my sisters back in (!) 1991. I remembered the airy feel of a room filled with stained glass. So when we first walked in, I was confused. Of course, it turned out that we were in the sub chapel. This was an interesting space, and we were roped into buying some knights, horses, and a dragon for the kids. Apparently God does not appreciate selfies.

Then we ascended a narrow, winding staircase and came out into the upper chapel, which in fact is an amazing stained glass masterpiece. The space feels like it reaches up to heaven, taking you along with it. The light streamed through one set of stained glass windows, which depict biblical history from Genesis to the coming of Christ. One drawback of traveling with three small children is that you don't have time to read all the brochures and literature on a particular historical site. However, this can also be an advantage as you can (briefly) enjoy the splendor of the space. Lanna was asleep in Sainte Chapelle, but Sammy quickly tired of the stained glass. So he and I went back down to the lower chapel where he found some small rocks to occupy his attention until Jay and Joey emerged.

No photo can ever capture the splendor of this space, but here is Jay's best effort.

After seeing Sainte Chapelle in record time, we headed off to the big one - Notre Dame. I also remembered from previous trips to Paris that there is a large square in front of Notre Dame that is perfect for a French picnic of baguette, cheese, and apples. We dined al fresco, with this amazing view, and the boys had a great time chasing the bazillion pigeons in the square.

 We then tried to take a selfie in front of Notre Dame. Sometimes I think we are too hard on poor Sammy, who is being dragged all over Europe at the tender age of 3. He is a boy of extremes. When he is happy, his smile can light up any room. When he is unhappy, his tantrums can drive you crazy. One thing he is relatively consistent about is ruining whatever picture he is in. Here is a classic set of pictures illustrating the Sammy photo bomb.

Sammy: "I don't want to take a picture"

Sammy: "This picture taking is way too long"

Sammy: "Fine, you can take my picture but I will do turtle face"

 Sammy: "Wait, what's that on my shoe?"

Sammy: "Cheese"

Well, we'll have lots of ammunition for the photo montage at his wedding.

We finished our lunch, and the bells tolled for 1:00. Joey was very excited about this and is actually pretending to be a bell here (even if he looks like a blind piano player).

As soon as the bells finished, a huge line appeared in the square. Luckily the line moved quickly and we were into Notre Dame in just a few minutes. Sammy and Lanna were not at all interested in the cathedral. Since I had been there before, I hung out with the two of them as they climbed all over the chairs and Lanna explored the acoustics. Jay and Joey walked around, taking pictures. Here are some of their highlights (these are mostly Jay's pictures, since Joey's hands were not quite steady enough in the dark).

Joan of Arc:

Rosette window

Candles

Upon exiting, we decided to walk around the back of the cathedral. We first purchased a ridiculously expensive light up Eiffel Tower (Joey had been extremely disappointed not to get this the previous day). And then we discovered some bathrooms (phew) and a small playground (hurray). Unfortunately this playground was occupied by a jerky kid who pretty much shoved Joey off a swing. I set him straight, but here he is to the left of the spinning plate in case you ever run into him.

We then got super ambitious and decided to close out the day with a boat ride on the Seine. These are notoriously romantic (if done at night, as I did with my sisters) but we thought the kids would enjoy being on a double decker boat rather than the usual double decker bus.

Boy were we wrong. We plied them with a popsicle each before getting on the boat. Then we broke out the cookies on the boat. But we just didn't have enough food to keep them happy. Lanna was exhausted and screamed for a while until I Bjorned her inwards and she finally fell asleep. Which Clyne is more miserable here? Thank you Joey for this memorable shot!

Joey was engaged in an epic staredown with this evil girl in front of us. She kept turning around and glaring at us, for reasons unknown (beyond the obvious screaming children).

And Sammy was being Sammy... not documented here, since I have already picked on him enough.

Joey did enjoy taking pictures, as did Jay. Here are some of the images from the Seine.

Joey taking a picture of another passing boat

Palais de Justice. Marie Antoinette was held in the round towers.

Notre Dame

Ile Ste Louis (the most expensive part of Paris) with Notre Dame in the background

Pont Alexandre III (named after the Tsar, connects Champs Elysees with the Eiffel Tower)

Pont Neuf (the new bridge, which is actually the oldest bridge in Paris). The faces are rumored to be men who doubted that the Henry IV's bridge would stand.

And of course, our good friend, the Eiffel Tower.

After leaving the boat, we walked back across a bridge covered with the love locks that are so trendy in Paris now. We took the metro back to our apartment and enjoyed a succulent meal of our marche finds. A wonderful Paris day, from start to finish!