Off to See the Queen

To end our European vacation, we spent the last week in London.  We stayed at the lovely Rubens Hotel (beautiful welcome treat for the girls above) across from Buckingham Palace, and kept an eye out for the Queen.  While we never spotted her, we saw evidence of the recent Platinum Jubilee, celebrating her 70 years of rule, all across the city.  

It was a welcome relief to arrive in an English speaking country, and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring London.  We found the British to be friendly and chatty, and again, we were amazed at their long history relative to America.

Here the girls marvel at all the pomp and fancy of their London digs.

On Queen watch outside Buckingham palace.

Artists designed 19 colorful corgies, the Queen's breed of choice, that we found all over the city.

We rode the London Eye, a great way to get an overview of the city.

"Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament."

Afternoon tea with a science theme.  A rocket ship held treats, and dry ice provided the "ignition".  The girls enjoyed their own beakers and droppers, and added a bicarbonate powder to make their own fizzy lemonade.

Space bubble cocktail.

Tower of London, where the priceless crown jewels are located and old housing site of both royals and prisoners.  It seems odd that royalty, criminals (some of whom were also executed on site) and expensive jewelry would all be located within the same castle walls, but that's apparently how it was in those days.

Our tour of the British Museum included the most famous rock in the world (sorry, Dwayne Johnson), the Rosetta stone, which first allowed ancient, Egyptian hieroglyphics to be translated.

Our terrific British Museum tour guide, Dr. Lawrence Owens (lawrenceowens.org), is a PhD bioarchaeologist and physical anthropologist.  Although we can't explain what that means, we can tell you he was incredibly engaging and knowledgeable about all things history, politics, British culture and humor, etc.  He is seen here staging an important Assyrian art sculpture, which naturally involves Georgia mauling Sydney.  In place of a historically accurate weapon, Georgia is wielding a 60 million year old Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth.  Our tour was heavy on potty humor, like the fact that "Mad" King George III peed purple (believed to be due to porphyria, a genetic disease), and William the Conqueror's corpse exploded from post-mortem gas buildup due to a failed medical procedure that involved plugging up his butt with medicinal herbs. Needless to say, the girls loved the British Museum...

Interesting Trafalgar Square sculpture involving ice cream with a cherry on top, and a giant bug and drone.

Massive lion sculptures at Trafalgar Square.

London had some beautiful, spacious parks that provided quiet respite from busy, everyday life.

We toured the Harry Potter studio, where over 10 years, they filmed the movies.  Here we are on a set of Hagrid's cottage, where furniture and spacing illusions helped make Hagrid seem enormous.  Georgia is playing our Hagrid here.

Butterbeer, the famous drink from the series, seen here.

4 Privet Drive, home of Harry's awful Muggle family.  Aunt Marge seen floating away in the back.

Gringotts Bank was one of the most impressive sets.  It truly seemed like a beautiful, old bank.

Sydney strolls the famous Diagon Alley.

Our last museum was in the Bank of England, and featured a real gold bar.  This bar weighed 13kg, almost 30 lbs, and is worth about $900,000.  There was a hole in the box where you could lift the bar.  It was so heavy, I can't imagine trying to steal a stack of gold bars.

And of course, we finished our time in London with a visit to some British parks!  All in all, it's been a truly amazing summer.  The girls were mixed on returning to America: Georgia thinks she could live in France, with their long, drawn out meals where she could sit at a cafe for hours and read her book and fit right in.  Sydney wanted to keep traveling after London, ready to see the rest of the world. However, we all agreed that we were also very excited to get back to our home in Oakland!

With A Little Help From Our Friends

 

We wrapped up our time in France with a super fun visit from some Oakland friends!  June (in pink jacket) and Sydney have been fast friends since meeting in the 2nd grade, and Fern (green jacket) and Georgia have become friends as well, with a shared, younger sister mentality. 

We also closed out our time in France with a trip to Chartres, a smaller town an hour out of Paris famous for it's UNESCO Cathedral. The girls enjoyed the slower pace of the town and quaint, small streets. 

Sydney and Tiff made some quiet friends in Chartres.

I think Sydney and Georgia are somewhere in the "Chartres" sign? The ancient cathedral looms in the background.

We loved wandering the old, narrow streets.

A UNESCO World Heritage site, the cathedral was built around 1200, which was pretty much unfathomable to us, realizing that the US is only about 250 years old.

Lots of amazing stained glass.

We visited Musee d'Orsay, one of our favorite Paris museums, with lots of sculptures by Rodin. The museum gave the girls a lot to "think" about...

Musee d'Orsay also has one of the prettiest restaurants in Paris. It was a gorgeous room covered in paintings, chandeliers, and, as the girls pointed out, butts. A real eye for art, these two.

We had a thrilling visit to the Le Grand Rex Theater, where we were treated to a behind the scenes tour of France's most famous theater, with its main theater holding 2,700 people. During the tour, we were directed to act in front of a green screen (above) and later watched ourselves appear on screen in a Titanic/King Kong remake!

We visited Paris' Chinatown for some dim sum and Georgia attempted her best happy Buddha pose.

We found a Polish church in Paris as well!

With our good friends, the Spicers, we braved the underground Paris Catacombes, which hold the remains of more than six million people! There were many whispers from the adults of "I see dead people," that went completely unappreciated by the kids.

You can only stack so many skulls and femurs without making some artistic attempt.

Following a theme of dead people, we then visited the Parthenon, which is the final resting place of some of France's heroes. Victor Hugo, Voltaire, Rousseau are a few of the famous Frenchmen you can find here.

Tiffany and Georgia pay their respects to Marie Curie, the first woman honored with a place in the Pantheon on the basis of her brilliant life's work. She remains the only woman to have won the Nobel Prize twice. 

Now that we had science on our minds, we ventured to the children's science museum. The kids ran around the various exhibits focused on everything from movie making to how our bodies work to water science, seen above with Sydney and Fern.

One of the absolute highlights was finding this park in Paris, which apparently was primarily for dog owners.  We spent two hours watching the girls run around and play with all the dogs and had to drag them out of there.

On our last night in Paris we had dinner with Georgia's good friend, Ina, and her family. Along with a fun evening catching up, we managed to squeeze in one last flower-shaped gelato. From here, we're just a Chunnel-ride away from London. Au revoir Paris!

Disney and Paris amusement parks, oui? Wheeee!!

Le Magic Kingdom!  We took the girls to Disneyland Paris and had a great time comparing similarities and differences between US and French versions.  The overall summary was Paris is smaller and easier to navigate, but not as many rides.  Some of the rides are also very different.  Space Mountain in Paris is HyperSpace Mountain and a Star Wars themed ride with three upside down loops, unlike the California version which is generic space theme with zero upside downs.  We all agreed that the Paris version was better!  All in all it was a very long day - we were walking home from the metro at 11pm, but did get to finally see the Eiffel Tower and Louvre lit up at night!  The sun doesn't set here until 10pm so we haven't seen any city lights til now.

Autotopia - same fun ride, same bad drivers.

Aladdin themed area and crepe and espresso afternoon snack.

"Barbe a papa" ie. Papa's beard, which is French for cotton candy.

From the Finding Nemo movie, the terrifyingly terrific Crush's Coaster, complete with Sydney Harbor signage!

The kids' classic favorite, the spinning tea cups.  Note:  you will not find a parent willing to ride this with them anymore!  High risk of losing one's recently eaten crepe and espresso all over tea cup.

Girls only felt slightly guilty eating their Baby Yoda ice creams.

Two excited girls getting ready for Star Tours, also the same as California version. 

Tired but happy crossing the Seine with Paris lit up behind them.

Can you tell it's waaaayyyy past someone's bedtime??

The rest of the week was fairly mellow, we visited the Musee de l'Orangerie and enjoyed Monet's series of water lilly paintings.  We strolled food streets in different neighborhoods and looked at some modern art at Centre Pompidou.  The week finished with "Georgia Day" where Georgia got to pick the day's activities.  We (naturally) ended up at a local amusement park, Jardin d'Acclimatation which had smaller rides than Disney but no lines, so the girls got to ride, run out the exit back to the entrance and ride again, ad infinitum.  We managed to ride with the girls for a while, then respectfully exited to a nearby bench to sit and relax while listening to the non-stop screeching-with-joy of our children.  It's hard to believe, but we only have one week left in Paris!

The fruit in Paris has been phenomenal, strawberries here were particularly delicious, and nectarines and peaches have also been big winners.

Inside the modern art museum, Centre Pompidou.

The girls' favorite part of the modern art?  Riding the six floors of escalators, of course!

Afternoon stop to try a pastis (Tiffany did not like!) and the bartender mixed up a drink just for the girls.  I think it was non-alcoholic but it's hard to tell with them anyway.

Delicious, branded nectarines.

The ultimate French dessert, gelato shaped into a flower, with a macaron on top.

At the local amusement park, Jardin d'Acclimatation, on a very charming, 96-year old boat ride.  The park was inaugurated in 1860 and originally intended to introduce and "acclimatize" various animals for agricultural, leisure and commercial purposes.

The park still features many animals, including these goats on a trampoline.  They refused to jump for us, some sort of French union restriction.

A museum and cultural event center sponsored by the Louis Vuitton Foundation is also in the park.

Roller coasters with no lines?  yes please!

Flying through the air, Georgia always trying to put her hands up.

The hazards of putting your hands up on a ride without secure seatbelts is demonstrated here by Georgia almost falling out of her seat.

Not that it stopped her or Sydney.

Motorcycle ride with poor Sydney stuck in the sidecar.

A great day at Jardin d'Acclimatation!

And we celebrated Father's Day with a food tour of the Marais district of Paris and this very mixed emotions card...