Bateaux Mouches

Today we took a ride on the Bateaux-Mouches. (fly-boats). It was hot and sunny and not much breeze, but still fun anyway. We followed along the Seine from the Eiffel Tower, down and around the Notre Dame, and then back again. This was our route:Matt just got done eating a large pain au chocolat that we bought at the Marché.

Here are a few shots of the Eiffel Tower from the boat.

You can see the tip top of Les Invalides and the Pont des Invalides.

A little further away from le Pont des Invalides.Here we are approaching the Louvre.

On the other side of the Seine across from the Louvre, you find the Musée d'Orsay.I can't really remember what this building is. Anyone? Class? Bueller? I love it though because it's so medival looking.

And then we reach Ile de la Cité where Notre Dame is.

At the end of the Ile de la Cité, people like to lay out. The boys noticed all the pigeons. "Look at all the pigeons!" they cried. Thankfully they didn't notice the old men in thongs.Lots and lots of bridges. I don't remember which ones are which because I wasn't paying close attention during the ride. Plus, Timmy wasn't very happy to be stuck in his stroller on a hot day.

There was a good looking guy hanging out on this bridge.

The boys thought it was really fun to have their dad on the bridge taking their picture. He ran out of work to meet us. I think the tourists on the boat were entertained as well when the boys were jumping up and down waving to Doug.This is a park that I saw along the bank. I was impressed by it. "Why?" you ask, well...

Because it had cool shaped trees. I love carved bushes and trees.

J'ai chaud!

"I'm hot" is something I hear from time to time. OK, it's actually me saying it most of the time. That's what happens when it's 96 degrees outside with humidity and you don't have central air conditioning. We do have a window AC unit and one half of it goes on the balcony (where it's against the rules to put anything on the balcony anyway) and we've discovered that it accumulates water that then drips off the edge of the balcony onto the balcony below and unaware passer-bys.

Today after walking through the outdoor market and then going on a boat ride at high noon, I let the boys come home and go "swimming" in my bathtub.
They're practicing putting their faces in the water. They've both come a long way since last summer. Guess it's a good thing we were stuck in a hotel for a month.

Showing off their muscles.

Chocolat

Paris is the capital of dark chocolate. I am so thankful. And it's good for you too, you know.

Anyway, today I went on a chocolate tour of Paris with my friend from my mission. Our tour started out with where chocolate comes from. (I already knew. I've seen one of those shows on the discovery channel). Anyway, our tour started at the Louvre.

Chocolate was introduced to France by 1643 when Princess Maria Theresa was engaged to Louis XIV and she gave him a gift of chocolate. The Louvre was the palace for Louis XIV. Chocolate was very popular with Louis XIV and the members of his Court at Versailles. But at this point is was just for nobles.The Pyramid at the Louvre. It is a pyramid because the pyramid shape is the oldest know thing to have been built. So they took ancient shape and modern materials joined together to make this. Knowing the symbolism helps a little, but I still think it's so out of place. And by the way...no, there are NOT 666 squares of glass. More like 687 (or something like that)Here is the inverted pyramid inside the Louvre. Our first stop at La Maison du Chocolat (The house of chocolate), and it's located next to the inverted pyramid. Infact, there are a whole lot of shopping places under the Louvre. Who knew?! And you thought it was just art.
Here at La maison du chocolat we got to try hot cocoa and an almond chocolate. Apparently there is a time of season for different kinds of chocolate. So we got to try something from the summer collection. We got to have a truffle rolled in cocoa powder. They are called truffles because they look like the black truffle mushrooms found at the base of trees in the south of France. Our tour guide wanted us to try a black olive chocolate, but they didn't have any more. The hot cocoa was excellent. (although it tasted almost like when you take left over ganache and melt it down and add extra milk.) I bought a new chocolate cookbook to add to my collection. When I told Doug, he said, "Why am I not surprised?" Hee hee.

Our next stop was Michel Cluizel. This place smelled like heaven (or how I would wish heaven would smell). It helped that it had a chocolate fountain on the wall.

Cocoa beans.

This is a chocolate smorgasboard. Yum. We had little chocolate disks with sugared nuts on top. I could tell that it was good quality chocolate because it didn't melt in my fingers despite how hot it was.

I got to try a truffle that had gold flakes on the outside. So I'm worth more now. This truffle's inside was 99% pure chocolate ganache with a 60% chocolate outside. The ganache on the inside was so smooth it was like chocolate silk on my tongue. The outside was tempered just right and had the perfect crack once you bit into it.
This place also had patisseries (pastries) with chocolate. These look so perfect, like they're made out of plastic or something. It's amazing how shiny they get their ganache on the outside. I was very tempted to get one. Maybe next time.
We stopped by Jean-Paul Hévan. There were all sorts of chocolate sculptures behind the window. Here is a chocolate Eiffel Tower. There was also a chocolate stiletto heel shoe. This place is also a tea room, where you can go upstairs and have lunch. Go to the website. The menu looks yummy.
Our last stop was Pierre Marcolini. He is actually a Belgian chocolate maker, but has made his mark on Paris. (also I think this is the favorite place of our tour guide). Here I tried a chocolate with a nutty crackle inside. I'm trying to remember exactly what it was but the way I remember it was as if there was ground up almond brittle inside and then chocolate on the outside. I also tried a 4 spice chocolate. It was really good. I still really like dark chocolate with cayenne pepper. My friend tried a raspberry heart. She absolutely loved it so much, that she bought more. This place is located close to the Opéra, so I know where to go to get some more.
So, if you ever come to Paris, I highly recommend taking a tout. We went with a group called Paris Walks. And, no, it's not free. This chocolate tasting tour was 25 Euros. But worth every centime!

le 4 juillet

Happy Forth of July. It was a nice day today, although it was a little weird not singing "The Star Spangeled Banner" at church. That song isn't even in the French hymn book. Oh well.

We celebrated the forth by inviting over all the missionaries from church to have an American feast. We had BBQ pork sandwiches, hot dogs, potato salad, Jell-O jigglers, chips, watermelon, cheesecake, chocolate chip cookies, and root beer floats. Sounds like a lot, but there were 13 of us. Too bad I didn't get a picture of the table all decorated. It was crafty with stars and stripes and flags and everything. We enjoyed each other's company and the boys love having the missionaries over. We played scripture pictionary and the Elders won. They were pretty impressed that Matt came up with words like "rameumtum" and "synagog".

I imagine that we will go through many sets of missionaries while we are here. I love being able to feed them and have them over. I know that I didn't eat that well on my mission and when the boys go on missions, I would hope that there would be a family who will feed them well. Here is a picture of our first group of missionaries.

Pic-nic avec l'Ambassadeur des Etats-Unis

Today we went to a Forth of July picnic at the U.S. Ambassador's residence gardens. It was the hottest day of the summer so far. We were there in the early afternoon with 96 degrees and 800 of our closest friends (well, employees of the Embassy and their families). We enjoyed hotdogs, hamburgers, and cookies.

There was a band playing (Navy band, maybe? I don't remember. Doug will correct me, I'm sure)

Timmy enjoying his cookie.

The boys had to go to the bathroom ( as usual) so we got to go into the Ambassador's residence. I only got to see a couple rooms. There are tours of the residence from time to time. I'll have to sign up for one one of these days.

This is a large staircase. There is a portrait of George Washington at the top of the stairs.

Entry room.

Another sitting room.

I can just picture people in 18th century Empire wasted dresses all lining up for a dance. It's the perfect setting for a ball with Mr Darcy.