Last day - the famous dead people and a place to pray

I always wanted to visit Pierre Lachese. The  cemetery that is the last place for a lot of famous people. The most known, Jim Morison but also Modeliani and Pissarro, Chopin, Edit Piaf, Yves Mountain and many others. The graves are either very simple or big monuments and there are Christians and Jews and probably others buried in the same place.  The boys decided not to join this fun activity and since it is the last day we went along with this. Peter and Marica met us there and we walked along. The weather was a bit rainy. 

The father of homeopaty

the one who decipher the heroglyphs

After the visit we went home to take the boys for the second half of the day - visiting the Sacre Coeur and Montmartre. We also ate a quick lunch (we need to clean the fridge) and took the metro to Montmartre. The area is full of Africans selling bags and some other stuff. The church is on the top of the hill. Since we are already trained to climb this was not an issue for us. The children chose the direct way through the grass - no stairs- and we stopped a little after each level. The view is indeed wonderful and the clouds moved a little so we saw all Paris. 

Behind the church, there are small streets with a lot of stores selling presents from Paris. We bought some and also icecream and coffee. There were a lot of portrait painters but we skipped this attraction. We went down a lot of stairs and got to a metro station, where we went down additional number of stairs. We were supposed to change trains at Madeline and since we were never there and we had time we went out to see it.  Very strange church, in the form of a pantheon. Napoleon built it similar to Roman buildings as he did several times. We didn't get into it but walked on the royal avenue, packed with fashion shops till Concord square. There we split off from Marica, they went home and we did as well. 

The packing went quite quick and we also prepared dinner for the children.  At last we decided to go out alone. There are several restaurants just below the house. We chose the Spanish one, with paella and sangria. It was not great and both of us had some stomach ache the next day :(

Champs Elysee Here we come

How can it be that we are in Paris for 4 days and didn't walk on the great boulevard of all. Well, today we will fix that. We took the metro to Arc de Triumph. Yet another building we can climb on top of. Tamar was injured on the foot from yesterday evening when she ran into a wall. So the girls just circled the monument while the boys took the challenge and the 264 stairs to the top. On the way they saw explanations on the building and on the way down the memorial for the soldiers from the first world. From the square there are 12 avenues (as the number of fights Napoleon won). After an hour the boys arrived and we slowly started to walk across the avenue. 

The hunger got us at the second store and we sat down in one of the restaurants. As u can imagine not the best one. But, after the steaks, hamburger, pasta and salad we continued with more energy. 

We stopped at a lot of shops and bought Tamar pajamas and a blouse from Zara. No Louis Viton or Guggi. The weather was very moody and it started raining so we took the metro home although it was just 17:30. 

Once home, Ioana went with the boys to the corner where they saw in the morning a magnum shop where u can make your own ice-cream. They were very happy that they got the second dessert and made no comments when we went to the super to do some shopping. 

I wanted to try some other store than the ones near the house. We tried to carefoure, some local one called g20 and now was the time for monoprix. This is some kind of target but very small. 

Yoram went to bed early and so did we. 

Segway tour of Paris and a little bit of modern art in Pompidou Center

Today is the day. Marica and Peter booked a Segway tour of Paris for 3 hours, including some guidance with GoGo tours. Tamar and Noga are too small so they cannot join. Yoram decided to remain with me and we were in charge of the girls. But, before that, we can use the time to see some more of Paris. We live in Marais, an area full of restaurants and galleries but somehow we don't enjoy from it so much. 

Again we left the house at 11:30 - after some groceries shopping with Yoni - and due to the short time we had we decided to visit Pompidou Center, which is 15 min walk from our house. 

    

Well, u know what happened when we got there? We were hungry. But this time we were prepared with fruits and croissants and some tuna & pasta salad for Tamar. We ate in the lobby and then we had 1.3 hours for our visit. The big deal was about the escalators that are somehow outside the building. At the top floor it is a terrace from where u can take picture of the city. The museum has a great collection of modern artists, which were very strange to the kids. And u can imagine what they thought about the contemporary art which was one level down. 

Time is up and we are heading to the offices of GoGo tours. A quick guide and all Segwayers are ready for the big tour. It was light raining from time to time and the kids got some raincoats. 

The rest of us went near home to look for yet another disappointment - the best cafe in town (Breizh Cafe) known for the best crepe or galette as they call it (but which are served with 70% cacao Valrhona chocolate. Definitely not milk chocolate and not sweet). I took the salty combination with mushrooms and eggs and creme freische and it was very good. Yoram ate chocolate, banana and whipped cream and the girls had some creme freische. I went with the girls home and Yoram went to take the boys back.

From what they are telling, they had a wonderful time, went through all Paris, and are masters with Segways. We have some pictures and movies we will show u at home. 

Palais Garnier and Gallery Lafayette

All were very tired from yesterday and wake up really late. After a lot of discussions I decide we will start with Palais Garnier ( to compensate all the Palais we didn't saw in London ) and also looking at it as a small museum. We left at 13:15 the house (it is shown we are getting tired) and the children did not show too much resistance but a lot of impatience during the short visit. The interior is wonderful. We also learned that the place inspire the phantom of the opera play. The Opera roof decorated with Chagall paintings was a big surprise. The children thought it is childish and not beautiful at all. 

                                 

Since it was rainy outside and hot, we went to the galleries Lafayette close by. As we enter, Amir decided he is going to die if he doesn't eat so again we are in the most expensive and not tasty place to eat, but "ce la vie". We went first to the roof to see the view and then we found the restaurants and ate. 

                

Now, we were ready to do some shopping. Tamar is a real shopper and spotted the desired floor in a second. Yoram went with the children and I went to the women floors (3 of them). The galleries are in a very fancy building with a very elegant rotunda. There are shops from the most expensive ones - Gucci, Fendi, Ralph Lauren, etc to the simple ones like Zara and Desigual. Since we didn't hit the jackpot i bought something at Desigual, Tamar bought a pair of shorts and we finally left. 

Outside was still rainy, so we went to play a little bit to an apple store and then finally home. 

Tour Eiffel

Our first day in Paris.

First thing first, need to do some shopping. Yesterday I just bought some milk and cornflakes but today I need to do some more serious shopping. I found a Carrefour city 8 minutes from the house, near Bataclan theater. Well , there is more army on the streets here then I ever saw in Israel. There are a lot of police and groups of 4 military patrolling around the city. But, when I pass through the the metal detector on the Eifel and it bipped, the guard asked me - do u have something under the dress? Since I trust u it is ok. So no real checking, but this is what it is here. In general they are very apologetic regarding the fact they need to look into your bag.
Ok, so the Carrefour was nice, and I bought fruits and other stuff and we had breakfast and went to meet Marica.

We met near the D'orsay museum. On the way we also found a bridge with locks - not sure if this is the only one but Amir was happy since he saw it in "the amazing race" (hamerutz lemilion).

The museum was closed from security reasons with no notification when it will be re-open.

 

 

So, we went on to the next attraction on the plan today- Eiffel tour. On the way we tried to stopped near a gluten free backery for Tamar but looks like the owner was also in vacation. we even  enter a chapel we found on the way - "Basilica of Saint Clotilde".

 

Slowly, slowly and with a lot of stops , we got to the Eiffel around 14:00. We were hungry and had a small picnic in the park below. Then , Marica convinced us to climb the stairs. There was almost no line for that and we got to the first floor and then to the second one.

The view was great, we had very nice pictures and got down. Marica and Peter went on to the top with the elevator but we turned back home. This time we took the bus. 

 

 

We rest a little bit and we decided we are going to eat outside, for a gluten free burger. Yoram choose the restaurant- NoGlu- which serves all food with no gluten, and we took the metro around 8:30 to there. The end it that the kids didn't like it, including Tamar. First , we sat on the top floor and there was very hot (no air condition). Second, there were around 5 main courses which didn't look appeal to Amir and Yoni. At the end Yoni settled for an enlarge first course - a salad with ham and cheese which was very good (better then it sounds), Tamar took the burger and Yoram a fish. All was very organic and health, so also the lemonade they got had no sugar so it was declined (We drank it happily). Yoram even tried the beer from kinoa which was very good (no difference from regular beer). Tamar was disappointed since there was cheese on the burger and also the bun was more sophisticated....

 

 

We tried. After that we went to the corner to buy Amir hamburger from McDonalds. There is a nice ordering system which cancel the long lines.

 

 

Tomorrow is supposed to rain although the temperatures will stay 27.

 

Traveling from London to Paris - Eurostar and London Summary

Today we are leaving London and moving to Paris. The attraction is that we are doing it by train - Eurostar. We were ready to leave the apartment ahead of time. It was good we did since still it is an international train and there are security checks, and passport control and the gates are closed 40 min before departure. The St. Pancreas station is near King Cross where platform 9 3/4 is located. We though we will have time to  visit it but we didn't. The luggage is coming all aboard and in each coach there is place for it. We had places in a 4 seats looking at each other and another one near by. The travel is 2 hours more or less. We are travelling 75 meter under the sea level, for around 20 min. Most of the travel is in France. The kids were very busy with the  computers so it was very short. Tamar felt some sick from the travel, but Yoram hugged her so all was well.

 

 

We arrived to the Paris apartment on time, using the metro and soon Marica and Peter and the kids come to visit us. We ate and finally around 19:30 we went to see the surrounding. Places de Voges is near by and the kids stopped and played on the grass. We wanted to see the Notre Dame that is nearby and we start walking there, not before we said good bye to Marica. We walked across the Siena where there were lot of restaurants and a great atmosphere. We saw Notre Dame from outside and also some people skating.

 

 

London Summary

 

What we didn't do and we should in our next trip:

Tea at Fortnum & Mason

Visiting the roof garden

Visiting Tower of London and London Bridge

Catching Mr. Mime

 

Exceeding expectations:

Greenwich

Bubble tea

 

Can be skipped: Quarrels with the other family members and children

 

The flat we sleep in - from airbnb was smaller then we expected but since it was central we got along with it. (it was not worth the money we paid for it and we should look longer to find something cheaper)

 



the leaving room

the kitchen





Children Sleeping Room



Our sleeping room











 

 

 

Harry Potter - here we come

Last day in London. 

We have plans for 16:00- tickets to visit the Warner Bross studios and to see where Harry Potter was filmed. 

I decided to go and visit a museum in the morning and meet all the others later. After a lot of thoughts I opted for Albert& Victoria, which I never saw. But before that I had a visit to the super with Yoram. First time in London.... 

The metro took me direct to the museum, without even getting out to the street. All the other museums are there, the national history and the science museum and a lot of people. I took the museum guide from the first floor and decided to visit the ceramic and glass, the furniture and peak through the fashion exhibition. The museum is very big and to my impression not very well maintained. But the collections are very nice and interesting. Without notice, I spent two hours. 

 I met Yoram and the kids at the abbey road studios. They were trying to cross the street and get the most clean picture. We had some attends but didn't fully succeed.

It's time to go to Harry Potter. There is a long way and it is required to switch several means of transportation. We took the metro till Euston station ( not the Huston- I have a problem), then we took the train till Winford junction and from there a shuttle from the studios drove us there. In the train station, the ticket seller didn't understood Yoram well and he gave us the wrong number if tickets. It took years to redo the mistake. The people here are less flexible.
Anyhow, finally , and in time we got to the studios. The atmosphere is similar to us big studios. People were flowing in all the time. We get a small 20 min introduction by a movie and then short explanation on the grand hall and from there on the visit is individual. The studio presents costumes and decors from the movies. There are parts along the rooms where u can picture yourselves riding on a broom or in the flying car or in the train and there is a short movie or picture waiting for u for 14 £. We passed this. It took us around 3 hours to visit.

On the long way home we bought some food from Leon and from burger king and we packed our bags since tomorrow we are leaving England

One day outside London - Secret place, Bath and Stonehenge

The treat of all days. Having someone else taking care of the trip!!!

While in  Israel, Yoram found us the boutique of one day tours with "The English Bus". A company which arrange one day trips with a minibus of 16 places. Trip Adviser reviewers gave it 5 stars.
Given we were already 5 - there were additional 3 families with us from US and Italy. 

We started at 8:45 on the clock (well, we were a bit late but the others were on time). We rely calculated the distances and all but we didn't count that it is Sunday and the buses frequency is lower then usual. So Yoram, in-spite his back had a vigorous morning walk.

We started the trip and Jonny, our driver and guide, described all the places we pass through, including some stories about himself (not sure true) and in general he was very vivid and fun, sometimes too much i must say. We stopped after 45 minutes in a truck station, bought some coffee and continue. 

After the short stop, the driver took us to a secret place - that's how they call it. It is part of the atmosphere they are trying to build " our tour is special, small bus, more time to spend in each place, u can take food onboard and we take u to places nobody goes to".

Also, the driver took us off the main road and turn into smaller country roads. We passed through the Sherwood forest and all is very green and nice small cottages. We stopped at Avebury. This is a place where u can see a stone circle. There are 800 around England , the one in Stonehenge is the most popular but there are others. Same Neolithic area and no explanations why or how they get there. We were allowed to stroll around and we saw the area. The grass was green with a lot of sheep poo, as well as sheep.

 From there we had one hour to Bath. Bath is a small city, Georgian and it is famous due to its natural water spring, the only one in UK. Here we had 2.4 hours, of them a short 20 min guided tour with Johnny. We were hungry so first we went to eat. We didn't try Côte braserie yet ( another chain with gluten free food) and they have a branch here so we decided to give it a try. It was not exactly the most appropriate thing to do giving the limited time we had, but since we didn't have the opportunity to have a steak outside till now, and there was sunny outside, why not. We sat on a porch, with the view to the town abbey and had a wonderful time. And not even so long. We finished just in time to join the tour. Only us and an additional family went and then Jonny took us into the Roman bath. This is one of the 3 springs in Bath. It is located in a restaurant that was built near the old baths. A lot of people had afternoon tea ( with very nice cookies). This is something we need to put in our bucket list for the next visit. We got some small shots of water with a mild smell of sulphur. This was the tour more or less.

 Tamar saw a guy in the street with some pigeons and she wanted to try to have them sit on her. It turned pretty creepy when there were 5 on her and one on her head. I screamed as crazy when I tried to take a shot and one pigeon thought it can rest on me.

Anyhow, a lot of icecream stores around and we also had ours. My pistachio was very good. And also the others were pleased, except Amir which once in a while need to be upset. 

We all boarded on time and on our way to Stonehenge. Henge is actually a word describing a circle. The kids opted for the option to wait on the grass nearby while myself , Yoram and Yoni walked around and listened to the audio guide. We also purchased a book to learn more afterwards. The weather was great and there was still sun and we took a lot of photos.

We finished the tour around 18:00 and tired but happy  we started our trip back to London. This time the driver was quiet and let us sleep. We reached London almost at 20:30. He dropped us off in Pimlico and we walked for 10 min home. We ate at home and went to sleep. Great day!!!