Champs-Elysees and museums

First of all let me just say that the sun not going down until after 10PM has made it difficult to get Bethany to bed at a normal time. She has been sleeping until about 8:30AM.

Yesterday we headed out for the Champs-Elysées and the Arc du Triomphe. When we got off the metro we didn't know which way was what so we just started walking and soon realized that we were headed toward the Place de la Concorde and away from the Arc. No problem, we were going to see both anyway. We think that they must already be setting up for Bastille Day celebrations because the main sidewalk on the way was blocked off with chairs and bleacher seats. They diverted everyone to the gravel walk on the other side of the trees. That was fine, too, except it really messes with the stroller! We couldn't even get up to the basilisk because of the same reason, we think. So we took some pictures and headed back the other way.

We decided to stop for lunch before we got to the Arc. We stopped at a little pizza place and had some really good pizza! It had tomatoes, basil and big chunks of mozzarella. Man, it was good. Of course, Bethany decided that she needed to go potty while we were there. We were sitting outside so I had to go into the restaurant and the toilettes was on the 3rd floor! Not fun being 4 months pregnant and carrying a 3-year-old up 3 floors (a spiraling staircase, mind you)! After pizza we decided to splurge and get dessert. We got some ice cream (totally worth it even though it was about 60 degrees outside) and it was SOOO GOOOOOD! It's hard to describe. It had so much flavor. I think if ice cream in America had so much flavor, we wouldn't eat so much of it.

Then we continued to the Arc. We decided not to do the climb to the top because it was just too darn cold. But we walked around it and took lots of pictures and Bethany had fun walking through the underground tunnel to get to it.

We stopped a lot on the way back to the metro station to look at some shops. There are tons of arcades that go off of the main strip that have tons of little shops in them. We didn't even notice until we were right on top of them. I found a really beautiful pair of shoes that were only 800 Euro (in case you don't know the exchange rate off the top of your head, that's about $1100). Nathan told me we could totally write off the purchase if they were for work! :)

When we got back we napped a bit and then went to the café next door for dinner. It was really good!!! I got this salad with big tomato slices, herbed chicken, apple slices and raisins. I'm not entirely sure what the dressing was but it was so good. Nathan had basically a kabob with chicken and peppers and it came with rice. He really enjoyed it. They made Bethany some plain penne noodles with butter but she didn't even want that. No problem - I had it for a midnight snack.

Today we headed for the Musée Marmatton that has a great collection of Monet paintings which his son bequeathed to the museum. It was a great little museum. It was nice to just be in a small museum and know that you can take your time because there aren't 7 million things to see.

After the museum we let Bethany loose in a little park across the street. She had a great time on the playground with the other kids. Then we headed for the metro to go to the Louvre (a little bigger than the Marmottan). That place is humongous. There is no way to put into words how big this place is. We saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. And we went into a room that had "princess crowns". That was B's favorite. We had a really good lunch in the museum cafeteria before we started our tour. Bethany fell asleep in the Mona Lisa room and slept for a little more than an hour. That was good because it allowed Nathan and me to really look around without her whining.

For dinner we checked out a food court that was just to the outside of the museum. We decided on the burger place. Nathan and I both agreed that it was the worst meal we had ever eaten. However, Bethany ate all 4 of her chicken nuggets! That is the best that she's eaten since we left the U.S.! I guess we couldn't complain too much. What made it even more surprising is that the only chicken nuggets she will eat are Chick-fil-A (which, as I mentioned before, she has asked about several times). Yesterday, when we were getting ready to leave to get dinner she asked, "Are we going to Moe's?" Have we damaged this child?

I think that about sums everything up. I'll leave the picture posting to Nate since he did such a fine job last time. :) Looks like we'll be in bed late again tomorrow morning. Bethany just fell asleep after an hour and a half. It is 11:15 here. Well, good night everyone!