If I were to write about our entire trip to London in one post, it would go on for a few pages. I will try my best to organize our time into comprehensible segments. I will say that after weeding through the photos I took, I still had 371 for the week we spent there. It's absurd, I know.
It would be much easier to just post all the pictures, but I'm a writer and I love to write. There is truth to that statement, but I will be honest by saying it's really hard to write about it when it happened some time ago. I've become a bit apathetic to the whole thing. Sometimes blogging becomes a bit of a chore. But my blog is a gift to myself (as well as for the family) as a diary of my time here. So I must persevere.
Alright, now on to London!
Our train was set to leave around 9:00 am, which meant we had to leave earlier than my liking. But we were going to my favorite city, so no complaints. I arrived to the house and Zac was having a conversation with his father about his doudous. These are his little three stuffed animals that he sleeps with every night. He has specific places for each one. Two he tucks under his neck and one he holds in his arms. His father thinks that he needs to leave them home because he is getting too old to need them. Zac was a bit sad, but agreed. I gave him a hug and whispered, "I'll be your doudou." How did he respond? Hilariously. He is still having a translation problem with the word
gentil which means kind in English. He said, "That is very gentle of you Connie, but you will not fit under my neck" and gave the saddest look ever.
We made it to the train station, where we had to wait in the immigration line and security scanners. I got a bit more questions as I was an American taking a seven year old Frenchie out of his homeland. The guy at the booth asked Zac in French what our relationship was. Zac said that I was his nounou and the guy looked at me and said, "He is a very lucky boy." Sweet, eh? We made it through to the other side and on the train. Two hours later, we were in London.
My boss had given me a gift for our host family which was a French olive oil gift box that weighed as much as I did in eighth grade. Promise. I had to lug that and my suitcase through the Underground. Not fun. We finally made it to Marble Arch station, to our new home for the week. By this point we were sweating and sticky. But I knew that our rooms were at the top of the four-story house. More stairs.
The best part was when we first rounded the corner near the house and saw a Starbucks and Subway. Zac screeched. Needless to say, we decided to eat Subway for lunch. Hyde Park is just across the street so we had them bag it. Zac ordered his usual meatball sub sandwich with extra ketchup (gag). I told him at the park that if he got sauce on his new clothes or on my blanket, then he would never have the joy of tasting Subway ever again. He took me very seriously. I couldn't stop laughing because he knows how clumsy he is and he tried every position possible to keep from getting food anywhere.
Once we were nearing the end of our meal, the wind kicked in. The poor kid was shivering.
We walked back to the house to grab jumpers before heading out for some touristy activities. Which activies? Hmmm, roaming through toy stores, scanning Picadilly Circus (which Zac still can't pronounce). He said Piccaladilla Circle constantly.
Hamley's, a famous toy store in London on Regent Street.
Loved this wall! I still laugh just by looking at the photo.
Oxford Street, just near the house.
We found a place to grab gouter. You can find parks everywhere in London. You can in Paris too, but they are mostly gravel and not grass, which is a total bummer. Also, the parks in London are like Paris parks on roids. They are MASSIVE. I feel like Hyde Park alone is the size of Paris. Good gosh it's a fantastic place. Anyway, we walked to the famous and sat and ate before heading toward Buckingham Palace. We went through Green Park to get there and walked through some streets which were typical London residential views.
Green Park
Buckingham Palace
As we were walking, I saw these policemen. I asked Zac if he would like a photo with them and he said yes. I, of course, said "Well you have to ask them yourself. Use your English." He hesitated and said that he didn't care anymore. For a good two minutes I just stood there and told him he needed to. We looked in their direction a couple of times and I think they knew what was going on. The one on the left said, "Hey kid, you know you want to! Just come over here..." Oh it was greatness. He didn't have to ask afterall.
One of the classic Zac photos
This was his idea and he was so excited about it. He does get a few humor points.
By this point we were extremely exhausted. It was still pretty early, so we figured that going to the cinema near the house would be a nice treat. Zac chose to watch Wall-E and I agreed. I told him there wouldn't be any subtitles and he gave me a good grimace. Funny that the movie didn't have any words for the first forty minutes. After it was over, we walked just down the street to KFC. Mistake. I've never felt so horrible after a meal. It was good alright, but the food was so greasy. I am not sure if any of you have seen the Mel Brooks movie Life Stinks, but for some reason I've always remembered this one scene where the main characters were eating at a homeless shelter and one of them had a piece of corn on his face. His friend told him so the guy moved it, but just to another part of his face. So the guy told him again. Again, the corn was just moved to another part of his face. After like the fourth time, the guy gave up. Then one of their friends walk up to the table and says, "Fool, you gotta a piece 'o corn on yo face!" and then knocks it off himself. The looks exchanged between the two friends was hilarious. Now why did I tell you that story? Because it happened to Zac. He had corn on his face and I told him and he kept moving it to another part of his face. I finally gave up, but I also took a photo. And so you see the corn on his nose. So funny!
We made it back to the house, showered, read, then slept. No air conditioning and no breeze equals not good sleep. Little did I know that it would be like that every night. Misery. But at least I was in London.
My boss had given me a gift for our host family which was a French olive oil gift box that weighed as much as I did in eighth grade. Promise. I had to lug that and my suitcase through the Underground. Not fun. We finally made it to Marble Arch station, to our new home for the week. By this point we were sweating and sticky. But I knew that our rooms were at the top of the four-story house. More stairs.
Once we were nearing the end of our meal, the wind kicked in. The poor kid was shivering.
We walked back to the house to grab jumpers before heading out for some touristy activities. Which activies? Hmmm, roaming through toy stores, scanning Picadilly Circus (which Zac still can't pronounce). He said Piccaladilla Circle constantly.
Hamley's, a famous toy store in London on Regent Street.
Loved this wall! I still laugh just by looking at the photo.
Oxford Street, just near the house.
We found a place to grab gouter. You can find parks everywhere in London. You can in Paris too, but they are mostly gravel and not grass, which is a total bummer. Also, the parks in London are like Paris parks on roids. They are MASSIVE. I feel like Hyde Park alone is the size of Paris. Good gosh it's a fantastic place. Anyway, we walked to the famous and sat and ate before heading toward Buckingham Palace. We went through Green Park to get there and walked through some streets which were typical London residential views.
Green Park
Buckingham Palace
As we were walking, I saw these policemen. I asked Zac if he would like a photo with them and he said yes. I, of course, said "Well you have to ask them yourself. Use your English." He hesitated and said that he didn't care anymore. For a good two minutes I just stood there and told him he needed to. We looked in their direction a couple of times and I think they knew what was going on. The one on the left said, "Hey kid, you know you want to! Just come over here..." Oh it was greatness. He didn't have to ask afterall.
One of the classic Zac photos
This was his idea and he was so excited about it. He does get a few humor points.
By this point we were extremely exhausted. It was still pretty early, so we figured that going to the cinema near the house would be a nice treat. Zac chose to watch Wall-E and I agreed. I told him there wouldn't be any subtitles and he gave me a good grimace. Funny that the movie didn't have any words for the first forty minutes. After it was over, we walked just down the street to KFC. Mistake. I've never felt so horrible after a meal. It was good alright, but the food was so greasy. I am not sure if any of you have seen the Mel Brooks movie Life Stinks, but for some reason I've always remembered this one scene where the main characters were eating at a homeless shelter and one of them had a piece of corn on his face. His friend told him so the guy moved it, but just to another part of his face. So the guy told him again. Again, the corn was just moved to another part of his face. After like the fourth time, the guy gave up. Then one of their friends walk up to the table and says, "Fool, you gotta a piece 'o corn on yo face!" and then knocks it off himself. The looks exchanged between the two friends was hilarious. Now why did I tell you that story? Because it happened to Zac. He had corn on his face and I told him and he kept moving it to another part of his face. I finally gave up, but I also took a photo. And so you see the corn on his nose. So funny!
We made it back to the house, showered, read, then slept. No air conditioning and no breeze equals not good sleep. Little did I know that it would be like that every night. Misery. But at least I was in London.
This is where Moliere is buried. As you see, there are professional grounds keepers that keep this cemetery quite beautiful. His might be the most taken care of that I've seen.
As we were on our way out this little lady bug landed on my hand. I think it's an albino lady bug. I've never seen a yellow one. I loved her, so we took pictures. She was quite keen with me, I think. She stayed for quite some time and I didn't mind.
We went to Opera (where I took them to the top of Galeries Lafayette), Madeleine, Champs Elysees, then to Trocadero, then over to the Eiffel Tower before we called it a night before dinner. I didn't take many photos because I already had some of all of these places and I knew my computer would be not so happy with me. 
The next day is a bit of a haze. I'm pretty sure we started the day off with going to Le Cordon Bleu, the famous culinary school in Paris. I guess it's worldwide. I actually looked into taking some classes there and I would LOVE IT, but it's not the most cheap place. I will probably do a couple of night seminars or weekend classes. Kyle wanted to see it because he went to the same school, but in Portland. 
Afterwards, we trucked it to Montmartre. We went through Place de Tertre (a word I will never be able to say) to check out the artists, then to Sacre Coeur to sit and each lunch with a breath-taking view of Paris. Not my favorite, but still pretty amazing. 
Then we headed down the massive hill to the main drag which leads up to the Moulin Rouge.
We hopped on the metro to Hotel de Ville. Our intentions were to continue on the tour, but we found ourselves in a state of exhaustion so we spent a long hour or so in a little cafe-type shop talking. Oh and we had the strangest lady next to us. I do remember that. Very quirky and eccentric. Our last stop was Notre Dame. It was then that I had to leave them so that I could pack for London. I will say that I still didn't get to bed till 4:30am.
We kept walking and walking until we found a couple places and chose the tropical restaurant. I was actually, shockingly, in for trying something new. Might be my first. And on the menu I chose the "risk". And I was happy. Johanna was not happy with her choice as you can see from her facial expression. My meal was so unimaginably scrumptious. I'm a new fan of pineapple and that's putting it mildly. I could marry pineapple.
My mouth-watering meal.
Johanna's knack for capturing me with odd expressions. I might give her a reward. At the time we were walking along Boulevard des Capucines. I love that street.
After dinner we took the metro, clogged as it was, to the Eiffel Tower. It was mass chaos. More people that I could have imagined were huddled around the tower, just waiting for the fireworks show. We tried to be in view, but failed. We saw parts, but not the full thing.
At one point I put my camera setting on rapid and basically have part of the show in still shots. It's kind of cool. Instead of posting each picture, I put it in a comic strip setting. Hope you like it.
Then we thought that if we walked toward the river, we would get a better view. And we trampled, jumped, climbed, hopped fences, all of it. As we walked past the tower, I was a little amazed. One of those moments when I said to myself, "I'm in Paris!" It always hits me at the most odd times. I took this photo to mark the moment.
We got to the river and still, no view. Stuck behind trees. Too many people. At this point it was close to midnight. The coolest part of the whole show was that it was syncronized with opera music. It put emotion with the display and I was in awe. Only if I saw the show. Fantastic.
The most of the show that we saw all night.
This was our main view. Thanks tree, love you better at winter. Shed those leaves, shed em.
And once it ended, we walked our separate ways. Johanna over the river to the Champs Elysees, and me across Invalides. That was Bastille Day for us. A little anti-climactic, but good. 
