Christmas in Paris 2011

Well, I'm back in Paris!  And this time, I'm staying for two weeks, not one! I get to come here for Christmas because Papa is working. (Hi, Mrs. Micek! Hi, Third Graders!)


The trip started yesterday, and we're still awake. And here are some pictures we took while we were in the 8 and a half hour plane trip.  And let me tell you one thing: we were being silly.

Right now, I’m in a little house called an appartement (uh-part-uh-mont). We have a little back yard garden called a terrace (tare-ross), which is rare for homes in a big city like Paris.

Here is a picture of me in our appartement:

I have two bits of bad news:

1.  I forgot my favorite stuffed animal, who I love to take on my trips. I left him in a carry-on bag on the sofa at home. It made me feel horrible because I got Violet (my purple bear) when I was four years old, and I've slept with him every single night, even on trips. I practically had a heart-attack. 

2. My mom (not me!) forgot the cord that allows you to take pictures and send them from the camera to the computer for this blog. Unfortunately, it will be harder to download the pictures we take in France. We'll think of something . These pictures were taken from my mom's laptop. It's not like she can carry her laptop every single place we want to go and videotape me!  So maybe we'll just take pictures inside the appartement.

Here's the good news!

1. On the night before our trip, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring...wait, that isn't right! On the night before our trip, I opened up most of my Christmas presents because most of the presents were too humungous to fit in the luggage. My favorite was the Lego Star Wars Millenium Falcon.

2.  In one hour we're going to get a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree (a VERY teeny tiny tree).

3. We are in Paris!

Here is the French phrase of the day:

Je m'appelle _______.

(zhu ma pell...______)

This means, "My name is..."  Je m'appelle Julien!

If you'd all be kind enough to visit my blog tomorrow, I'll write another post about a really cool park nearby.

Fun Fact of the day:

When you're riding on the Metro (subway), sometimes all over trucks, buildings and walls, people spray paint pictures and words.  Mom says it's called graffiti. Some of it's not pretty, but sometimes they can be very pretty. 

Please leave a comment if you like my blog, and come back every day.  I'll write about what I see and what I learn every day.

Last post about my trip to France

I'm back in Texas now. I gave Mrs. Villalpando, my teacher, a souvenir.  It had pink sparkly hearts on it, and the color of the key chain itself was silver.
My favorite thing about my trip to France was visiting monuments and seeing my uncles again.

Thank you for reading this. It took me a long, long time to finish my blog.  I really liked my very first blog.

Love,
Julien Remy

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday, I spent with my French family.  Sunday, I flew back to Texas. I'm too tired to write more about my trip tonight.  We were in the plane for a long time.  I'll write my last blog tomorrow.  Here are some pictures.
Saturday at the science museum:

Saturday night at with my two French uncles and my French cousins:

ton ton Alain and me

Papa and me

ton ton Serge and me

Papa, Serge, and Alain (they're brothers)

Saying au revoir to my ton ton Alain and cousine Anne Sophie

My last morning in Paris.

Friday

Today, we are a little late because we were all a little tired after our visit with ton ton Alain (Uncle Alain).

The Moulin Rouge is a red windmill and it lights up at night.  This is near our apartment.

We went to the Bateaux Mouches today.  These are boats, and they sail the Seine river under bridges near landmarks and monuments in Paris.  A monument is where someone or something is being celebrated with a building or statue.  A great example of a monument is the Eiffel Tower, La Tour Eiffel.

Guess what?  Four times, tourists from China and Japan asked if they could take pictures of me with them on the boat.  It's funny because I'm really a stranger to them, but they wanted to take pictures of me with them like I'm part of their family. (Papa says it's because I'm so beautiful. I think Papa's trying to brag about his son.)

I filmed the water in the river.

I have not seen Uncle Alain for just about three years, and today I saw him! I was so excited I forgot to take a picture of him.
 Here are some more pictures of our night.  We were at ta ta Francoise's house again.

This is tête de veau (veal head) and andouillettes (pork sausages)

This is a piece of beauty AND a water pitcher

Mmm mm.  Would you look at those cherries.

I'm out on Francoise's patio. Can you spot the Eiffel Tower?

Julie and Julien

I'm with Biscotte, la chatte (the lady cat)

Julien and ta ta Francoise

Bonjour la chatte

French Word of the Day:

Le chat (luh shah) is a boy cat. La chatte (lah shot) is a girl cat.

French fact of the day:
In the metro (subway), there's a little clock timer that says 4 min, 3 min, 2 min, or 1 min. When it reaches 0, you can see the metro train coming to you!

Thank you, merci!  See you soon!

Thursday

Hi, friends, teachers, and adults!  Bonjour mes amis!  This morning was extraordinary!

Today, we went to the world's only elevated promenade, which means it's the only walkway garden that is upstairs, above the ground. It's 4.7 kilometers long (about 3 miles), and I walked the whole way.

Whew!  All the miles I walked today were over 6 miles. (I walked over 3 miles every day in France.  That means I've walked over 18 miles already.)

Here are some pictures of La Promenade plantée :

Oooh, Ahhh.  This smells good.  There are thousands of roses along this pathway.

 

A bridge on the Promenade...

 

After a few kilometers in the walkway, Mama took a break, but I still exercised at this park. This French slide is a little complicated, because there's a little wiggly platform you have to survive, and there's no bottom to sit on in the slide.  So apparently, what you have to do is swing your legs around the poles, hang on, and slide down.  At first, I was too scared, so I went back down the ladder.  But I kept on trying and trying until I actually got it.  It was pretty fast going down, I can tell you that!
 

This is the Tuilleries fountain.  Two toy sailboats were floating in the water.

That's the Obelisque behind me.

 Next, we went to Monet's art museum.  It's really called the Musée de l'Orangerie, because they used to keep the orange trees in the building in the winter so they wouldn't freeze.

Here are some paintings of Monet's.

 These are paintings of other famous artists.

 Renoir:

 Soutine is Papa's favorite artist:

 Another Soutine:

 Finally, our dinner tonight.  It's very French food. Mmm mmm.  A baguette, saucisson (meat), brie cheese, Champagne for Maman, wonderful apricot juice for me, Greek yogurt, and a boule Chocolatee (chocolate ball).  Bon appétit to everyone!

French Word of the Day:
Bon appétit! is something you say at every dinner in France.  It means "Have a good meal!"

Fun Fact of the Day:
Monet's famous painting of the bridge is at the Musée d'Orsay, across the street from the Musée de l'Orangerie.