Snow Day in Paris

(Photo 1) Breakfast was included in our room price and with the value of the dollar against the euro, we took advantage of it every morning. This is the "grotto" where it was served every day.



(Photo 3) Coffee and cocoa in the morning with friends, what could be sweeter?


(Photo 4) Hallie left a note for the room attendant asking for more toilet paper. She didn't know if she spoke English, so she wrote it in French.


(Photo 5) Our first glimpse of the snow on the Eiffel tower. Look close.


(Photo 6) When life gives you snow, make snowballs!







(Photo 9) Hallie and Gaiten show off their little snowmen. Hallie's has a leaf for a nose.



(Photo 11) Maison du Chocolat - a favorite place of Amy's.


(Photo 12) Jambon and Gruyere sandwich with Amy's favorite soft drink - Orangina


(Photo 13) Sara Beth's zucchini and cheese gratin. It was delicious!


(Photo 14) Galleries Lafayette - Gaiten shopped at the Chanel Counter





(Photo 15) Sara Beth and Amy in front of what we think is Opera. We are on a catwalk between buildings at Galleries Lafayette.


(Photo 16) The girls ate Nutella Crepes almost every day. This is the biggest jar of Nutella we have ever seen. Sams are you watching?


(Photo 17) Amy's french onion soup which Gaiten said was good as long as she didn't eat an onion. It is not near as salty as the soup we eat in the United States.


(Photo 18) Sara Beth's eggplant and mozzarella gratin. Very good!


(Photo 19) Steak with bearnaise. Sara Beth and I really enjoyed the little salads that came with our meals. The dressing always tasted homemade and very fresh.


(Photo 20) Gaiten's gigantic hamburger. This one came with bacon which looks a lot like ham here. Hamburgers come rarer than you order them. You have to order them well done and sometimes send them back to get them cooked completely through.


(Photo 21) Amy's soft chocolate cake which she shared with Sara Beth came molten just liked she liked it with vanilla bean ice cream. Double yummy!


(Photo 22) Gaiten's last nutella crepe. Sad.


(Photo 23) I promise this is Hallie's dessert although it looks like something Amy would order. It is a chocolate crepe (dark chocolate sauce) with chocolate ice cream. Way too chocolatey for some people but for Hallie and Amy, just right!


The blessings of great weather unfortunately did not extend to today. One of the activities we had saved for today was to go up in the Eiffel Tower. We had only seen it in the evening on our first day so this was going to be the day to view it in all of its’ glory. Gaiten was very excited because she was planning to go to the top level. We had been watching the weather report and it was calling for snow, but there was no indication as to when it would start. Well, we woke up to snow falling lightly and decided to go ahead and go to the Eiffel Tower anyway and maybe we could go up even if it was just to the second level. We were quite disappointed when we arrived to find out that the ticket office was completely closed because of bad weather. The snow had begun to fall much heavier so we had to make the best of our time there. Amy took a few pictures and the girls made snowballs and little snowmen. Hallie had actually said earlier in the week that she thought it would be pretty to see the Eiffel Tower in the snow. It was very pretty and we are afraid that our pictures will not do it justice. By the way, snow turns into water pretty quickly and most of you know that Amy does NOT like to get wet, which meant that we would need to find something to do inside and for us that meant more shopping. Sara Beth remembered some little shops under the Louvre that she wanted to see again and we decided to eat lunch there. We did not go into the Louvre because the girls were tired of museums, but our lunch was delicious. The girls and Amy had a sandwich and Sara Beth had a delightful little zucchini and cheese gratin. Amy tasted it and deemed it not yuck and actually wished she had chosen that instead of another jambon and gruyere sandwich! We then headed over to Galleries Lafayette (a large department store) where Sara Beth and Amy shopped for perfume. We found a gourmet grocery store there and picked out several goodies to bring home. We mostly just wandered around until we realized we were hungry and thirsty and still had packing to do. Sara Beth and Amy had scouted the area around the hotel a couple of evenings earlier and found a steak restaurant that looked interesting. We decided to go there for our last evening meal in Paris and had a fantastic dinner. This was our most expensive meal of the trip since we have mostly been eating crepes, omelets and sandwiches and we were glad that we saved it for last. After dinner, Hallie and Amy took the long way back to the hotel which gave them a peek at the Eiffel Tower over the buildings so that Hallie could see it sparkle. It sparkles at the top of the hour and Hallie said she was so glad that she was able to see it before we left. She wishes she could have seen the whole thing, but a peek at the top third would have to do. We have had so much fun here, but we dearly miss our loved ones and friends back home. Hallie said she can hardly remember arriving in London because it feels like it has been so long ago. She is very nervous about our trip back over the “big water” so please pray for us and especially for her as we end our journey. We hope you have enjoyed our blog as much as we have had fun sharing it with you. It made our early evenings much more exciting to go through our pictures and pick out the ones that told the story of our trip. If you have been following the blog, we added a movie clip or two today to previous posts so you may want to go back and check them out. We are all packed and ready to leave tomorrow. As they say here in Paris, Au revoir (Good night)!