Burkelet: August 2016

Robert enjoys water in a wine glass at a little French bistro.

Hey, look at that! The Arc de Triomphe!

Posing with my boys with the Arc de Triomphe in the background, tricolor flag billowing in the wind (all decked out in preparation for Bastille Day!

From our trip down the Champs-Elysées, we caught the metro to Trocadéro, where everything was pretty blocked off by construction. Whomp whomp. Later, when we were crossing the river, we saw people in the lower part (gardens? I don't know how it works, haha), but we couldn't figure out how to get down there from the top. Sigh.

Buying a waffle and a beignet ("Can I have a bite as a special treat?") and some WATER. So thirsty.

Not really sure what this pose is all about. Inspired by the Parisian fashion world? Thinking deep thoughts about how to finagle more bites of beignet and/or waffle?

Surely here, he is paying homage to Charles Lindbergh's historic flight across the Atlantic, ending in Paris after circling the Eiffel Tower? Thereby paying tribute to his great grandmother's deep and abiding love of said pilot/complicated historical figure? Sure, we'll go with that. (He was probably complaining about the heat and/or the people.)

The Eiffel Tower from just across the Seine.

Down on the banks of the Seine, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, we got our daily Batobus passes and hopped aboard our first Batobus of the day! Saying goodbye to the Eiffel Tower as we pull out!

More excited than he looks.

This guy was SO EXCITED.

Also, it's a good thing this boat was glassed in, because Robert would've tried to crawl right out into the water with the other boats.

Being a fish? Not sure.

So we hopped off the boat to try to give Donald a break from trying to keep Robert from crawling up the walls of the boat, and of course, William needed to use the bathroom (no bathrooms on the boat!). So, we disembarked at the Musée d'Orsay stop and wandered for a bit, until we came upon a sign for a free exhibit of Chinese art in a little side entrance at the Academie des Beaux-Arts. There, we saw this nifty little sculpture of a mother and child, and the very friendly security guards let us use the very clean bathroom tucked away downstairs. Win-win! Culture and bladder relief, rolled into one!

From there, we trudged (there was so. much. walking.) to Notre Dame for the second time, by which I mean we went to the playground at Notre Dame to let William blow off a little steam, Robert get a little snooze in his stroller, and Donald avail himself of the pay toilets there (notice a theme?).

Making friends without the benefit of a common language.

Passed. Out.

Posing with John Paul II in the side gardens at Notre Dame.

Back across the river to catch our Batobus again!

Pretty cool guys in their sunglasses with Notre Dame in the background.

Back on the boat again! (This time we weren't so lucky as to get window seats...)

We took the Batobus to the Hôtel de Ville, but we still had some time to kill before our dinner reservation with Jessica and Charlie, so we wandered for a bit. The troops were tired and hungry. So, in a radical maneuver, I decided to stop and get us each (except Robert) a macaron as an hors d'oeuvre (when in Paris...). William chose the pistache!

So happy with this development!

They had free bread samples, so, as Robert doesn't know what a macaron tastes like yet, he was pretty happy, too!

Then we wandered some more, and we happened upon this delightful little tucked-away garden--so peaceful and serene and lovely!

Then it was time for a lovely dinner with Jessica and Charlie! We went to a most delicious steak restaurant (Robert et Louise), and we started with a plate of escargot for the table--here is Donald, chugging his beer to steel himself for the moment of truth.

Snail: successfully procured from shell and popped in mouth.

The face of victory? Disbelief? Relief that it mostly tasted like delicious butter and garlic?

After dinner, a special treat: SUCH delicious ice cream from Une Glace à Paris (Olivier MENARD & Emmanuel RYON meilleur ouvrier de France glacier, seems to be the rest of the title, haha). It was seriously amazing.

I highly recommend the caramel croquet parisien--and William highly recommends the dark chocolate (don't remember which fancy particulars of the dark chocolate he chose), if his inability to contain himself is any indication!

Back on the boat and joining a conference call! (Sigh.)

We had originally planned on taking the Batobus back to the Louvre (closest to our apartment), and then we thought maybe we'd take it all the way around past the Eiffel Tower again (to see it at night and to see the weirdo stop we didn't understand) and on to the Musee d'Orsay stop (right across the river from the Louvre stop, so not much more walking! We were headed home too late to go beyond the Eiffel Tower, though (the start of the line/circle), and they went and skipped the weirdo stop we didn't understand since we were one of the last boats of the night, I guess, so we just went to the Eiffel Tower and cabbed it home from there. Still worth it for the excitement of the Eiffel Tower at night!

Clapping? Continues to be delighted by being on a boat.

Sooooo tired, though. Mama-Robert selfie!

Oh, hey, you guys, did you see all these boats??

Approaching the Eiffel Tower (and the Pont Alexandre III?) as heavy clouds roll in!

Mama-William-Eiffel-Tower selfie! (It was a little windy...)

Highest degree of difficulty (why didn't I buy a selfie stick??): Mama-William-Robert-Eiffel-Tower selfie on the deck of the boat! (While Daddy was on his phone call.)