Bath Time

Getting Miguel to dive head's first in the tub is no problem.... now to get finicky Bernardo takes a little bit of persuasion and creativity. A guitar concert one day, a bubble bath the other... but at the end of the day it is all so worth it - and daddy's favorite time of the day! This is for you daddy, that has been traveling all week and away from your little ones - and big one too :)

Paris!!

As I mentioned before, although I've always been sure Paris was a very romantic and beautiful city, for being so popular it never topped my own travel wish list. I like to think that the more secluded places are the most memorable... but oh boy was I wrong!! Everything about Paris took me by surprise: the monuments, the architecture, the history, the gardens, the patisseries, the bike tour... it is all so magical!

We started and finished our 4 days in Paris with the Eiffel Tower. Our Parisian apartment was just 2 blocks away from the 'yellow elevator' as Bernardo used to call it and we couldn't have asked for anything better. There's something about seeing the tower in person that makes all the images you had in your head completed null. To me, it was pure MAGIC. Seeing my kids run (or crawl) up and down Champs de Mars without any idea of how huge of a scene they had behind their back was even more magical... because believe me or not their sparks was even brighter than the Tower at midnight!

Another magical moment for us was the bike tour - thank you Big Fat Tours! We quickly put our fears aside - mine of not being able to balance my big butt on the bicycle, hitting my head on the floor and taking my kid with me; and Chiquito's of being forced by his lovely wife of doing something he really did not sign up for - and were loving every single moment of it after a few minutes on top of the cruiser. What a treat!!! The only draw back was my tiny little shirt pocket... it looked like a handy little thing to put my lenses cover in until I saw my pictures... urrrrrgggg!!

Last but not least and totally worth of sharing. As you may imagine, while in France we've visited numerous churches in every little town that we've been too. In every one of these churches, Bernardo used to ask daddy for some coins to donate to the church so he could light a candle - and they we prayed the "Now I lay me down to sleep" prayer. When we finally got to Notre-Dame, the lines to go inside were humongous and the silence inside was just broken by the sound of feet sliding across the nave or by hundreds of people praying in whisper. Bernie, again, asked daddy for his coins and off they went to buy their candle. Daddy puts the candle on the stand, lights it up and tells Be: "now we pray son'. Be quickly and LOUDLY responded: "no daddy, now we sing: happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you....." SOOOO funny!!

Miguelito, although only 13 months, also had his share of memorable moments. As you might have noticed, I LOVE photography, and thus my little one first official word, besides mommy and daddy, is 'cheese'!! So we are on top of the Eiffel Tower and Miguelito cannot see a single camera, mine or yours, that he will put up his picture perfect smile and scream 'cheese' from the top of his little lungs. What makes this so funny? He only has 2 teeth, peaking at you like a warm welcome on a cold day!!

Here some of the pictures from our 4 days in Paris.


Rue de Montessuy, our home away from home

On the cruiser during our bike tour.... I warned you, but go ahead and laugh!!!

Miguel saying 'cheese' to whatever camera crossed his path!

Miguel trying his first steps in front of the Eiffel Tower

Luxembourg Gardens with its pretty wood boats...

Be sipping his cappuccino at Luxembourg Gardens

Batobus boat ride... and please try to convince this little man that it's time to get off the boat!

Champs Elysee Avenue

Sacre-Coeur - 3 metro lines later to just enjoy it for a few minutes before the rain got us off guard

I guess we were not the only tourists strolling around Paris...

Inside the Louvre Museum's famous pyramid

One of many pretty flower shops in France

Be enjoying some good music at Saint Germain Des Pres - we even bought their CD!

Last shot of Paris, and could not have been any prettier :)

C'est la vie II

Okay, it's time to finish telling you about our trip to France before we go on to our next adventure (surprise, surprise!!).

But before I do that, let me go back and pay homage to the prettiest carousel we've seen to this day: in Avignon. To our luck, the carousel was in the square right in front of our hotel, and Bernardo and Miguel went crazy! We started buying 2 tickets at a time and ended up buying in bulk, 'cause these kids would not step off of the spinning horse. Fred and I used to take turns inside with them, afraid they would get dizzy and hit their heads on the floor, but they could not be more pleased... while me and Chiquito were dying for the darn horse to stop so we could go seat on the bench outside and look at anything but the carousel, at least until our heads stopped spinning :)

Now, homage paid let's move north! From Lyon we drove to the Loire Valley, and let me tell you that athough the drive was long it was not tideous in any way, shape or form! Every 5 minutes I used to scream of joy and squeeze Chiquito's arm so he could stop and let me take pictures. We drove through miles and miles of the most beautiful farms and fields of wheat, lavender and sunflowers! Too bad I could not manage to get really close to the lavenders and sunflowers... but I did get close to a field with all those gigantic hay rolls on our way to Chenonceau's Castle

The castle was also the prettiest and most interesting we've seen in the Loire. The history, the women, the kitchen, the grounds and the meal we had at the restaurant were all lovely!

Next day we went castle hunting again... first to Azay-Le-Rideau and then to Villandry. This time I got lucky and went inside a wheat field... oh so pretty! There's something about raw nature that maybe only the smell of wet earth on a rainny day can beat!

Here is Villandry's pretty gardens:

Paris I'll leave to a brand new post... too much to tell about that magic city!

C'est la vie!

Get your cup of coffee or tea 'cause this post will be a long one...

Yes, we were on the road again.... I mean, airplane! No wonder my kids cannot see a flying beast that they go bunkers about it! This time around we went to France (yeah, I know what you are thinking!!) for two whole weeks! Let me start by telling you that France has never been at the top of my travel list, I've always had (and still have) places like Ireland, Norway and South Africa at the top instead. Regardless, Chiquito really wanted to go there and hey, France sounds great too! I am SOOOO thankful we went there... that country is DROP DEAP GOURGEOUS!

We started our journey in the South of France, Nice to be more exact, after a looooong 30 hours trip (missed our connecting flight in London). Nice was our base for 4 days and we loved everything about it. The best though, in my opinion, was the pebble beach... the sound of those pebbles rolling every time the ocean came ashore is unbelievable! The kids also loved playing with all the rocks, and Bernie stripped himself down to his underware as soon as he saw the beach :)

Still in the South of France we also visited Monaco, Eze, Vence, St. Paul De Vence, Tourrettes Sur Loup, Grasse, Aix-En-Provance and Avignon. By far St Paul de Vence wins the prize of the most charming and magical/historical place we've visited while in that area. Imagine an old villa stuck at the top of a mountain, like a cherry on top of your sunday.... that's Saint Paul :)

Moving north, we stopped at Lyon for 2 nights and it was GREAT! Best accomodation and by far the best food we had in all of France. I also had some time by myself... as on a rare occasion hubby and kids head over to the hotel for a 3 hours nap after lunch and I hit the pedestrial shopping mall street alone! Yep you heard me.. ALONE! Ask any mom of two small children and they will all agree... what a blessing!! Armed with my curiosity, time and some money let me tell you... I had a ball! Tasted some great orange slices with dark chocolate and wish I could say I shopped until I dropped by that really wasn't the case... but taking it all in at my own pace and more importantly, taking my pictures with no complaints along the way was awesome! Here is Lyon ladies and gentlemen:


to be continued....