Caca à gauche!

Our family has the amazing privilege this summer of traveling with Jason around Europe.  We are seeing so amazing places and meeting some terrific people.  We are so thankful for these adventures together as a family.  

We started out in Paris.  I love this city so much.  We lived here 11 years ago when we first began our overseas adventures and were studying French.  It's been so much fun to return especially as our older girls are old enough to really appreciate the places we are able to see.  

There are A LOT of pictures in this post because there are LOTS of things we want to remember as a family, but also because I thought it would be fun for you to take a walk with us around the streets of France.  We've made some great memories along the way, laughed at each other and at ourselves and walked, well, a whole stinkin' lot!  (wish is a good thing because we have eaten more than our share of pain au chocolate- but I'll save all the food goodness for another post)...

When you are walking around France, the most important thing to remember is that there is dog poop EV-ER-Y-WHERE.  The French love their dogs who apparently love to take care of their business anywhere and everywhere.  Since so many people walk, I kid you not, POOP.  EVERYWHERE.  For this reason, Naomi declared herself to be the "poop patrol" during one of our first walks from metro station to bus station to home.  She would walk ahead and call out "poop on the right" or "watch out in the middle" etc.  At one point, Abbey chimed in "caca à gauche!"  (someone apparently DOES remember some of her French!)

We are trying to teach the girls the art of blending as we walk and not taking over the entire sidewalk with our loud, colorful American-ness.  We've gotten pretty good at that in the Middle East, but apparently not so much here.  (to be fair, I should say, Jason is actually trying to teach the rest of us this particular art, I seem to be erring on the side of oblivious tourist more often than not....).

In the below picture, we have lots of space, but try squashing our family of 6 in the Paris metro corridors and attempting to keep us together while keeping up with the kids, the stroller, the water bottles etc.  If he's said it once, he's said it 1000 times- "WALK TO THE RIGHT, PEOPLE"....  

One of my favorite parts about walking around in France (and this may seem silly...) is coming up out of the metro.  Maybe it's because of the stress of navigating the underground maze with stroller, kids etc., but I love emerging from the metro to the beauty of the blue sky, green trees and beautiful buildings...

And I mentioned colorful...  Europeans as a whole tend to dress in dark colors, or at least neutral ones.  One particular day we headed out to sight-see in Paris and I happened to glance around at our overall ensemble.  What a colorful bunch!

 As I said before, we've laughed at ourselves a lot!  The girls and I, for whatever reason have had our share of air headed moments....  

During our very cold, very wet day at Euro Disney we seemed to have lost a few brain cells along the way.   After spending literally hours in the downpour,  we were standing in line for a ride and thankfully were standing under a covered walkway.  Jason looked at Maddie still holding her umbrella over her head and says, "Maddie, you can put your umbrella up."  She stares back at home (looks a bit confused) and very innocently raises it up just a few inches higher....  (I guess she did put it UP!).  I also might have spent a few seconds longer than necessary banging on the wrong side of a public garbage can to throw something away instead of moving around to the other side where it was quite easy to deposit one's trash.  We'll blame it on the rain!  

Miss Anabelle has been such a trooper during our travels.  She is little miss independent and is loving every minute.  The first week or so she woke up every day asking, "I'm going to meet new friends today?!"  

She has once again perfected the art of stroller riding.  We really don't use it much where we live!

She's a huge fan of the metro and/or tram.  She loves to get out of her stroller and find her own seat.  Even if it's beside a total stranger...

She also loves to walk (as long as the stroller is a back-up option!) and hold big sisters hands...

...especially if they will play "1, 2, 3 wheeeee....."

Her absolute favorite mode of transportation would have to be the horse though.  Especially this variety... (there seems to be one of these everywhere we go!)

Naomi enjoyed it too!

AJ and Maddie are getting their fill of shopping!  Here they are browsing the streets of Paris....

And here in Marseille....

Naomi has been fascinated by all the street performers.  Music, pantomime, whatever- she loves it and wants to give everybody money!

We celebrated Maddie's 13th birthday in Paris and allowed her to choose a few things she wanted to do on her special day.  We started out going up to Sacre Coeur- one of my favorite places in Paris.  The church on the hill is beautiful (pictured above- the girls and I on the steps), but I knew she would particularly love the artists square around the corner from the church where artist's set up and paint and sell their work.  It's such a fun place to visit!

  

From there we walked down to the Seine River where we had booked a river boat tour of the city.  It was a beautiful day and a perfect way to get a first glimpse of Paris sites.

Naomi has been SO excited about seeing the Eifel Tower!

And what a great first way to see it!

This past week, we've made our way down to the south of France.  We've enjoyed visiting with friends in Marseille and this weekend we're in Montpellier.  Jason and I lived here 17 years ago (WHAT?!) when he was doing his internship for a French insurance company while doing his international MBA.  It's an amazing city and we've had a lot of fun coming back and showing the girls some of our favorite spots.  

Of course, there's been LOTS of walking.  (gotta work off all those French pastries somehow!).  But it's hard to mind walking in such beautiful scenery.  

The port at Marseille....

Say what you will about the French, but they do outdoor space very, VERY well.  I think I'm remembering now why it was such a rude awakening for me to move from France with green spaces and playgrounds on every corner, to the concrete jungle of Beirut! 

Here's where we walked around and enjoyed our baguette sandwiches today...

Look at this place!  It's just a public park right outside one of the malls!  Fountains, flowers, people enjoying the weekend with their families- beautiful!

Anabelle was fascinated by the playground.  Especially this thing....

(having one of my spacey moments- what would you call this?  The big girls would whisper to her in one end and she'd look so confused as she tried to talk back then figure out where they were...)

And no Saturday afternoon in France would be complete without a little fountain frolicking...

I hope you've enjoyed walking with us through some of our favorite places in France.  Remember, avoid the "caca", walk to the right, savor the beauty coming out of the subway, and don't be afraid to  kick off your shoes and dance in a fountain when you're given the chance!