London 1

We left Paris on the slow train and spent the night in Amien, a small city with a Notre Dame cathedral of its own. We had a quiet day checking out the city and then went out and the kids and I had frog legs, which taste like chicken but without so much meat on them.

The next day we took the train to Calais and the ferry to Dover (see picture of white cliffs below).

Our first goal in London was to see the British Museum (and finally see some of the things which were missing from the many sites we visited: The Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, the colossal statues from the Mausoleum of Halicarnasus, many mosaics from Ephesus, etc..). The second goal of course was to see Wicked, a play based on the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz.

Also while in London we couldn't resist taking in some Harry Potter attractions like Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross station (see photo of the kids breaking through the barrier), and we just had to apparate at Totenham Court Road.

The Louvre

Of course, you have to go to the Louvre. It's the most visited museum in the world. It has collections spanning the entire history of art (up to the impressionist and modern era which are in the Musee d'Orsay and Pompidou). There are extensive Egyptian, Greek, Roman, as well as a huge selection of Babylonian art. But we had to skip all that.
We went most specifically to see the Italian painters; Raphael, Caravagio, Titian, and of course Leonardo Da Vinci, who spent the last years of his life in the court of King Francis I. This explains why there are more paintings by Da Vinci here than anywhere. It is incredible to look at each one and see the thread of genius that runs through his work. The whole Italian collection is fantastic, but what do you expect, it is the Louvre.
The Louvre is so big that you'd probably need a month to see everything. Rory and Jasper reached their limit after the Italian paintings, so we went to one of the several cafes inside the museum and took a break. We then went to the German and Dutch sections which, to me, were not as impressive.
Rory and Jasper each had the camera for some time, and when I went to look at the photos they took, I had a bunch of pictures of ladies in finery and a bunch of pictures of cats, dogs, horses etc...

Chenonceau

The Chateau de Chenonceau is a beautiful castle partially built on a bridge spanning the Cher river. There are many Chateau in this region, basically the trophy homes of France's royal past. We took the TGV, a train which travels up to 180 mph, so we got there in a little over an hour.
Chenonceau has an infamous history; it was built in the middle ages, burned and rebuilt, then lost to the crown due to debt. Henry II gave it to his mistress Diane de Poitiers who 'reigned' there until Henry's death when his wife, Catherine de Medici had her expelled. Over the years several other royals and their mistresses lived here until it was eventually bought by a country squire named Dupin. His wife, Madame Louise Dupin, revitalized the chateau by holding 'salons' here with the leaders of the enlightenment: Voltaire, Montesque, Rousseau.

During WWI it was used as a hospital ward and during WWII it was used as means of passing from occupied France across the river to 'free France' on the opposite side of the River Cher.

The chateau itself is quite beatiful and the decorations inside are lovely, much less gaudy than Versailles. I especially liked the many tapestries depicting life at the chateau. The grounds are also impressive and the kids really enjoyed the maze pictured here.

After getting back to Paris, Jasper and I went to the Pompidou Center, which is a monstrous huge modern art museum. I could have spent several days in there but we had agreed to meet Theresa and Rory for dinner at a vegetarian cafe. The food was great, especially the creme de chocolate, which Rory is seen enjoying here.

Versailles and The Eiffel Tower

I'm blogging on a different computer now (we left Paris and are in the small city of Amien until taking the ferry to jolly old England tomorrow) but the keyboard is the same frustrating format. Apparently French has so many different accents and such that everything has to be rearranged to fit.

Anyway, these pictures are from the day we went to Versailles, Louis the XIVs pleasure palace and main crib, if you will. The vast estate has an enormous palace choc-full of art and finery, and immense gardens with many fountains and even a canal where Louis would hold boating parties. Tres jolie! The complex also contains two smaller palaces and a faux Austrian hamlet built for Marie Antoinette, to escape the 'rigors of court life.'

We walked several miles seeing it all and then went home exhausted. As luck would have it, we were there on November 10th, the day before Armistice day commemorating the signing of the treaty of Versailles in 1918. The next day we saw in the paper that Angela Merkel, the prime minister of Germany had been in Paris with the French President to observe the holiday.

The next morning we went to Sacre Coeur, a church built to spiritually stave off the seige of Paris which ocurred in the Franco-Prussian war in the 1890s. It's a beautiful church and it's spire is the second highest point in Paris; the first being the Eiffel tower.

Later that night we went up to the Tower but got there too late to view the sunset. The view of Paris at night is unbeatable but impossible to photograph (at least with my camera and photographic skills).