Spring Break, April 2012

Our last adventure saw us returning to Paris, only this time we were able to visit with Mayland's friend, Giselle and her family, for the weekend and then off to Edinburgh to see Mayland's friend Loura and her family.  The whole photo album of that trip is here.

all solid chocolate

We did do a little sight-seeing - Up to La Defense for the Grand Arch, which was really to make our way to the BEST artisanal chocolatier in Paris Remi Henry, Atelier-Boutique à Courbevoie; 53 rue des Etudiants; 92400 Courbevoie - oh, my gosh - they even made dark chocolate with beer centers - Mayland has finally found a beer she likes.  The egg pictured here is 300 Euros and 6kg of chocolate.  It turns out that France is losing it's turtle population and they are now encouraging people to adopt them in order to keep the population up; so we were delighted to find a dark and milk chocolate turtle to give to the kids - turns out they are hollow, but full of little chocolates.  Such a special treat!

drawing of Clark & MJ

Saturday we headed to Montmartre - for the Sacré-Coeur and then down to Moulin Rouge (that was a walk I would not want to take with teenagers, oh, my!  Very grateful that my two kids were so engrossed in their conversation about Pokémon that they did not realize the types of shops they were walking next to).  I was grateful that Moulin Rouge was easier to explain than the other places they had ignored.

After lunch, we made our way back up the hill to the art area and had a portrait done of Clark and MJ.  It came out really well and now we have two drawings of them from Montmartre from 2007 and 2011.  We also found an original oil painting that we fell in love with - landscape of Normandy.  I feel another trip coming on!

Saturday night was a mini-reunion of Westtonians - Joe Augustine, Giselle Delsol Wackernie and Mayland Reilly - our kids got along well and it was a lot of fun!  Thank you Giselle for hosting!  Francis, Giselle's husband made an amazing BBQ meal - from sausages to grilled zucchini and tomatoes.  It was amazing.

MJ and Morgane, Giselle’s daughter got along so well.  They are both smiling beauties who love “little” things – oh, my gosh these two girls love “Littlest Pet Shop“, My Little Pony, little PLAYMOBIL characters and anything else girlish and little.  When we went to the flea market on Sunday afternoon those two bargained shopped for little animal figures.

Sunday we headed out to a local market, they have everything you can imagine from books to rabbits and pre marinated seafood.  The vegetables are so fresh and we picked up the makings for a vegetable soup.  Every meal had fresh bread and except breakfast there was wine.  After each meal we enjoyed the cheese course.  I think that has become my new favorite way to get the calcium in my diet, much tastier than milk!

Train station Darlington England

Monday off to Edinburgh.  We left super early, arrived at the train station with more than 40 minutes before our train left and decided to eat lunch.  It did not occur to me that when leaving Paris on the train we would have to go through customs, as we don't go through customs to get from Germany to France.  We ended up missing our train by 1 minute.  Well, I can't say enough good things about the Eurostar customer service.  They didn't even blink an eye, just put us on the next train, found 4 seats together and wished us bon voyage.  Mayland spent the hour waiting for the next train arranging for new tickets to Edinburgh for Tuesday instead of Monday because the price to change the tickets was NOT reasonable within the UK.  Found a hotel next to the Thames, thank you priority club points, and set us up for a night in London.  After an Argentinean steak dinner, which was highly recommended by the hotel, we took a short walk to see the London Eye and Big Ben.  Prices in London are higher than ever because of the upcoming 2012 Olympic Games this summer.  So, we think that exploring London will happen in 2013! We did come in and out of Kings Cross station; but never found platform 9 3/4.  The train ride to London from Paris is so cool.  The train travels under the English Tunnel and the entire ride is 2.5 hours with almost 30 minutes in the tunnel. 

Our trip to Edinburgh held yet another surprise.  First, Mayland was pleased to learn the train went through Darlington, England - her mother's maiden name, Darlington; so a lot of family history there.  Interestingly, in Darlington we learned that we were switching trains in New Castle from the electric train to a diesel because of the snow?!?  

The scenery was stunning with the hills, ocean and snow on the ground.  Edinburgh was warm enough that no snow had stuck and the temps rose into the 50's making in comfortable to walk around.  Our “hostess with the mostest” here was Loura Brooks class of '87 from Westtown.  She is an art historian and actually kept Clark and MJ enthralled at the art museums.  When your guide shows you firework farting dragons you know this is going to be a great trip to the art museum!

Her partner John and their daughter Sarah are wonderful.  Sarah a very mature 12 year old still managed to have fun with our two very immature 11 and 8 year old.  Despite their maturity level their love of dragons gave them a lot in common allowing the grown-ups to talk into the wee hours of the morning.

Elephant collection at Elephants cafe

We loved Edinburgh - the castle is stunning and the center of the city.  Clark was thrilled to learn that the first Harry Potter novel was penned there.  The castle inspired Hogwarts, the Greyfriers grave yard gave the book many of the names including Longbottom, McGonagall and the ever famous Tom Riddle.  We even had the chance to eat cake at the Elephants Cafe where JK Rowling drafted the first book.  I can understand the inspiration. 

The best part is that the city was hosting the international science fair and in different museums there were booths set up with interactive science experiments.  When we were tired of history we could switch to science.  Wonderful for all!

We flew home on Ryan Air, not a horrible experience as the plane was not full and given the hour of the night Mayland had splurged and spent the extra 10 Euros to reserve seats at the front of the plane.  The total flight home with reservations was a whopping $150 for all 4 of us.