Sunday, June 23rd:

Blog by Emily:

Hi everyone, it is Em writing from our paris apartment. Sarah woke up on the early side this morning (7:30) and the rest of the family was up by the time I woke up at 10:00. For breakfast it was pain au chocolat, yogurt, raisin bread :( and baguette. After breakfast we headed out to the Muse de l'homme (the museum of man kind). We saw two very interesting exhibits on evolution and genetics. We found out that sarah was an eskimo (in height). From there we headed to the trocadero for a view of the Tour Effel. We went to a bakery to pick up some sandwiches and waters and had a picnic lunch at the place de voges. We went shopping and sarah bought a new watch. Ellen, sarah and I walked home and mommy headed to yet another medical museum with daddy. When we all arrived home after a long walk sarah and I took to giving Ellen and Mommy foot, hand and back massages. Ellen, Bop, Gok, sarah and I went out for dinner at a crape restaurant while mommy and daddy went to a small cafe for a bight to eat. The crapes were amazing but the dessert crapes were to die for, especially the original with butter and sugar. From there we had a cafe at a cafe :). We said au revior to B and G. We meet up with mom and dad and headed home to watch the paris episodes of I Love Lucy. A good day was had by all. I will write tomorrow.

-Em :)

Sunday, June 22nd: We wake up moderately early (some of us) and I meet El at her hotel to pick up breakfast. Turns out she has already had a cafe at a nearby cafe! We bring breads back to the apt for breakfast. Bop and Gok taxi over to the apt after their breakfast and we decide to separate and do two museums. Mom, El and Em head to L'Orangerie to see the water lilies and then have lunch at a cafe in the 6th (details will have to be filled in by them). Bop, Sarah, Marc and Deb take two metros to the 16th to see the Musee Marmatton. More Monets. It's a warm day and the museum is NOT air conditioned. We don't spend too long, just long enough! We walk through the 16th and find a cafe for lunch.Bop has saucisson and frites, Sarah a Croque Monsiour with Chicken and Marc and I two divine salads. We metro back and drop Bop off at Odeon. Marc, Sarah and I head to a medical museum. This one is the history of public assistance hospitals. We have always wanted to hit all these museums but they are all closed in August and that is when we have been here. The exhibit is small and in French but very interesting (collection of "baby bottles" from the 16th century to the present, instruments used to do all sorts of things.. ). Outside there is a garden with medicinal herbs (belladonna, nightshade etc. ). Sarah and I walk back via Eric Kayser and meet up with El and Em walking back from B and G's hotel. We all chill out in the apt until our 8:30 dinner reservation at Le Dome.
The restaurant is as we remember, elegant and ornate. We somehow end up with a private room (someone has cancelled). We eat well, too well. El and Sarah start with asparagus soup and Deb, Marc and Em have our favorite tuna carpaccio. B and G share oysters and langoustines. We almost all get the Saint Pierre fish except the girls who get their favorite Langostines with fresh pasta. For dessert (yes dessert) Sarah gets her chocolate mousse and Em and Gok get sorbets. Bop gets some house special mille fielle thing with rum and creme that is wonderful. El gets Fraise de bois and Marc and deb just "taste"! Home to bed at 1AM. Its easier to manuever the streets tonight!!

Saturday, June 21 (summer solstice)We have been in Paris a few days but have been lazy about blogging so here goes. We arrived off the train relatively sleep deprived and feeling grungy and taxied to the hotel near our apartment. The woman didn't have the key, which was strange, so we dropped our bags and headed over to the apt to see what was going on. When we got there, Marie (the keeper of the apt key who works at the hotel) came running down stairs and said that there was a problem. The man who was supposed to be vacating the pt today had everything stolen from him last night (at first we think she means someone broke into the apt, but it turns out that he was out the night before and had everything stolen off of him...where was he?). So she tells us to come back at 4pm. We head to rue Moufftard and pick up sandwiches and head to Jardin du Luxumborg where it is sunny and great people watching. We head back to the hotel (this is where El is going to stay so we figure we can freshen up and nap (?) In her room). Before going back to the hotel we try the apt again. I go up the stairs and knock on the door. No answer. I use the key and go in. It's quite but doesn't look competely cleaned up. No one is there but the bedroom door is shut. I knock. No answer. I open it up and the man from Witchita (sans passport) is sleeping in the chair. I hurry out and down the stairs. We head back to El's hotel and fall asleep. Three girls on the bed and Marc on the floor. Its a small room but we are exhausted. We find out that tonight is the Fete de la Musique (night of music) and next door to the hotel is a catholic school with a concert in the courtyard. Sarah and I go to hear it. A string quartet. It is lovely and in the shade (it is in the low 80"s here). We find Em and Marc and decide to go back to the apt and try again (its now 5pm abnd we figure he should be out). He is. We hang out and wait for Bop, Gok and El, whose plane is delayed several hours out of Florence. When El arrives we decide to walk to Bop and Gok's hotel and get dinner. Easier said than done. Its the night of music and the streets are filled and crazy. We finally make it but have difficulty finding a restaurant for 7. Marc tries Bouquineste on a whim (just goes in and asks!). We soon are seating and having a great dinner and wine.Deb and Marc and Bop all have Sea Bass, El has Smoked Salmon (as do Gok and Em) Sarah has chicken. We finish dinner just before midnight and head home (imagine walking a mile through the french quarter at midnight on Mardi Gras in New Orleans. That's pretty much what it was! To bed.

Here we are in Paris. The week at the villa was terrific, but we did not blog...we can sum it up in a few sentences: a lot of pasta, wine and gelato. We made daily road trips (and I mean down a dirt and gravel road to the main road and then about 50 kilometers a day at a minimum) in to the towns of Siena, Perugia, Deruta, San Giminagno and Radda in Chianti. We ate lunches, walked, saw Duomos and made purchases....pottery and purses. Our gelato choices ranged from wild berry to green apple to pear and peach. Ellen was partial to caffe and Isabelle to chocolate.
The true highlight of the week (as the temperature warmed from the 70's to the 90's) was the last night. We arrived home from Radda to a wine tasting by Emilio (Owner of the villa and vineyards who is also an protein chemist). And while we were wine tasting many of his fabulous wines the kids were all making pizzas in the pizza oven downstairs with "the pizza man". We never got his name, but were told by Emilio that he used to be one of the best chefs in all of Arrezo until he got head and neck cancer and lost all taste. The pizzas were brought into us periodically by Isabelle, Sarah and Emily. They were so simple and great: rosemary, tomato, lardon, zucchini and the last one: nutella!! What a great evening, but alas, all of us were too drunk to play one more game of dictionary. The villa was wonderful and large (essential for all 12 of us to co-exist) we were disappointed not to have use of the pool (the water never warmed up enough and there was no pool heater). But the villa itself was well equipped for all of us (including everyone practically having their own bathroom!).

Friday morning we woke up to a foggy sky that burned off quickly and the temperature rapidly rose to 90 F. We left for Florence at about 2pm and arrived in one piece at the hotel in about one hour. Marc dropped off the rental car (van...so glad to get rid of that huge thing we needed to manuever through the streets of italy!) The girls and I found the closest cafe we could (it was soo hot and we were thirsty and tired). We had a little lunch and a bottle of water and Marc met us. We walked back to the hotel via a bag store (both girls made purchases) and wandered around Florence in the heat....our train not leaving until almost 9:00, we needed to kill some time. We found a little place for dinner after awhile (one meal to the next) where the waitress could not have been ruder. She just couldn't understand that we wanted a bottle of water...no english at all? In the middle of Florence?? I had a farro salad and Marc had spaghetti and fungi. Em had gnocchi and Sarah had a caprese salad. We found a quiet, cool courtyard to relax in until it was time to go back to the hotel to get our luggage and a taxi to the hotel. We make it to the train station in plenty of time, but the train is going to be 35 minutes late in leaving. It's a secondary train station so there is no real place to sit and wait except right by the tracks. We sit on our luggage and feel like college students traveling through Europe. We watch other trains come and go and wonder which is our "sleeper car" we are a bit concerned, dubious that it is a cattle car for the next 12 hours. It finally arrives and we find our door. But our seats are not together..so the conductor person helps us switch so that we have two rooms adjoining (each with two bunks). The cabins are SMALL, but they have two bunks (one over the other), a closet, a sink and a place for shoes! We settle in: Marc with Em and Deb with Sarah. The girls watch three ILL episodes and we decide at about midnight to try to go to sleep. The train is noisy and has a lot of "turbulence" as Emily calls it. We wonder if we will be able to sleep?? Emily is on the top bunk, Marc on the bottom. Sarah and I cuddle in together on the bottom. I think we all sleep on and off throughout the night. It is very bumpy and lurches frequently. Then there are times that it is just sitting still. Sarah and I wake up at around 6:30 and open the shade to watch the small towns go by. We are all up by 8am and the conductor helps us fix the beds into seats. He also tells us that the train will arrive 2 hours late, at 10:30...which is actually better for us since we don't want to get to Paris too early. More about our arrival in Paris later....

Bonjourno! Such a relief to be typing on a keyboard where I know where the keys are. Nothing that interesting about today...I lost my bag, we visited the Academia, saw the Arno, and WALKED. Wow, I can sum up my day in less than a minute!

But of course, I cannot possibly convey today in just a few words. The light shining on the Arno, the incredible view, welcoming Ellen to the Hotel, the Gates of Heaven, and the threating cathedrals. All imposible to describe. Do want my advice? Come see Florence yourself!

And so, for now...Ciao!

The end of the first day in Florence. We finally arrived on Thursday evening via CityJet (not a large plane) and made it to the hotel by about 6pm. We checked in and found Bop and Gok in a room down the hall. Our room is big enough for 2 roll aways but of course we later find out we only really need one. Gok has identified a place in Place de la Republic for dinner...for 11 of us. We meet up there and have dinner (salads, pasta and pizza). Simple enough and Isabelle announces to the harried waiter that she wants "capoos (capers) on my spaghetti". During dinner it starts to POUR but our table is protected under a white tent. To bed by 10pm. We actually sleep until 11am (except for the minor 3am wake up due to the hotel clock alarm). Up and out by noon and we land in a small cafe where the girls have pizza and sandwiches and the rest have coffee and roll and yogurt. Then we are off to find the Duomo...only from the outside. We shop around (window shopping) amazed at the high prices everywhere. But still, there are Americans here.
We have 2:30 reservations at the Accademia to see the David. A long line but fortunately we have that all important reservation that lets us in after only a short wait. We see the David and some other sculptures and then an exhibit of musical instruments. The girls each buy something in the gift shop (Em: magnetic "dress up David" and Sarah: David notebook). We find a small corner cafe for lunch (sandwiches for all...5 different types, all great). Then we have gelato, and Deb unwittingly orders them and somehow gets the 5 EURO version (they are big),Bop: pistachio, Sarah: Chocolate, Emily: Kiwi and Marc: coconut.
We walk back and meet up with the Fresno gang in front of the Duomo...then Sarah realizes she forgot her purse at the restaurant. Marc and Sarah rush back and fortunately find it.
Deb, Sarah and Bop walk back to the hotel. Bop breaks off when we head into a Dolce and Gabbana store...too much for him.
Emily is intersted in a purse or a bag for school. Everything is crazily expensive. No decisions today.
Back to the hotel. Ellen, it turns out has missed her connection (just like us) and has to take the 3:50 plane out of CDG into Florence. She arrives at the hotel around 6pm. The place for dinner has been recommended by two people Marc knows and it is a winner. It is a tiny place (10 tables, under the Ponte de vecchio). They have a table set up for all 12 of us. Because the kitchen is so small (2 chefs) the waitress (who we later find out is from Missoula Montana!), she recommends family style and it turns out great. We get a salad to share, bruchetta to share and then some melon with procchutio (sp?). Then we geat a variety of pasta (ravioli with sage butter, Pasta with wild mushrooms, gnocchi, and a large noodle (handkerchief) with meat. All are delicious and then we add to it lamb chops with rosemary and frito misto and some grilled asparagus and wild mushrooms. WOW. Everything is great and we are stuffed. We walk home via the gelato place (for the Fresno kids) and back to the hotel. We come home to the sad news on the front page of the NYT that Tim Russert has died. Deb is sad. Sunday mornings will never be the same.

Hey everybody! I'm writing this from the airport in Paris, because we've still got about 1 hour and 35 minutes until out flight takes off. Why are we sitting idly in this lounge trying (in vain) to exchange dollars for euros and amuse ourselves by annoying each other when we should be high in the air on our to Florence? That's a really good question. An even better question is, do I know the answer? Well I think I do, and here it is...or at least, my version.

Our flight from LA to Paris was pretty good, considering. OK, two TVs were broken and sleep was hard to come by, but that's not really so bad. About an hour before we landed, Mommy got into her pessimistic mood and started to tell Daddy that we were never going to make the plane to Florence because we were soooooo late coming in. (Not to mention that we landed on an abandoned freeway and had to drive in to the airport!). The only problem was, she was right! We ran as fast as we could to the passport place, but we knew it was no use. Still, we persisted in our valient efforts to board the plane (after all, our luggage was on there!). I ran like a crazy person, my sweater half off and Blankie dangling dangerously close to the floor. But we were too late. After all of our hard work and effort, we won't leave Paris until 15:50...1 hour and 20 minutes from now.

And that, everyone, is why I am sitting uselessly in the middle of a Parisian airport, waiting for a ride that should have started 2 hours and 25 minutes ago, trying to think up an ending for this blog.

New year and new trip. We are at CDG airport awaiting our flight to Florence. Our trip from LAX seemed uneventful, it took off a few minutes late but the taxi into the gate took about 30 min (in what city did we land?) and then it took 10 minutes to open the door so the 2km trek to the next terminal to catch our 12 noon flight put us at the gate afer boarding had closed. No problem, ther is another plane at 13:20, but in order for our bags to be moved ze need 2 hrs. So we are waiting on thte 3:50 plane in the lounge. They gave us free sandwich and beverages tickets. Thanks a lot. The lounge has a row of Mac computers to use, which is great but the keyboards are French ones.....not QUERTY keyboards so this blog is taking me quite awhile. The "w" and the "z" are switched so I keep writing "ze" instead of "we". Sounds more French that way anyway. Don't even get me started about where the "a" is and all the punctuation marks!
More later from Florence. We hope.