Paris

After spending a half day at work on Friday, November 16, I took a 2:30pm train to Paris to meet Mom and Dad. I arrived around 6:00pm and went straight to meet them at their hotel, Hotel Millesime, in the Latin Quarter. We had a fabulous dinner at a nearby restaurant called Pouic Pouic. I had lamb chops with ratatouille and mashed potatoes... amazing.

After dinner, we took the Paris metro over to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night.

There was an international art exhibit of "Buddy Bears," decorated by local artists from about 140 different countries representing something historical or cultural about each place.

 Here's Dad in front of the Lebanon bear (since his boss/partner Jimmy is Lebanese):

 And here's the Swiss bear... Kind of frightening, right?

 Mom and Dad loved seeing the Eiffel Tower --- it really is beautiful at night. It's hard to believe this was their first time in Paris! But they definitely felt the Paris vibe...

 
Day 2 in Paris: unfortunately, no one set an alarm so we slept in until 9:45am. By the time we got out of the hotel, it was already after 11am... we headed straight to the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur at the top of Montmarte, the highest point in Paris. We saw some really beautiful views, although it was too overcast to see all the way to the Eiffel Tower. But the basilica was quite gorgeous. Here are some views of the steps leading up to the basilica:

 Then the basilica itself:

 Dad snapped some photos of me, too... gotta get the Swiss winter hat:

Dad was especially proud of the juxtaposition on this one:

Parents being cute...

Mom was really into the double-decker carousel:

After leaving the Montmarte area, we took the metro down to the Royal Palais to walk through the courtyard of the Louvre and take some tourist-y photos in front of the IM Pei pyramids. I wanted my parents to at least check out the Louvre from the outside even if we didn't go inside.

 Dad: "Allison take a picture of me with this lion..."
Me: "Um, seriously, Dad?"

Dad: "Carla, go stand over there."
Mom: "Um, seriously, Steve?"

What are you going to do... Dad's photo happy sometimes.

After the photo session, we crossed over the Seine to go check out all of the Impressionist art at the Musée D'Orsay. Here are Mom and Dad in front of the river with the museum in the background (it used to be a train station):

I totally forgot that there was construction at the museum when I went there last year on my trip with Melanie, so I actually got to see the 5th floor this time and paintings that I wasn't able to view before, including "The Luncheon on the Grass" by Manet and "Dance at Le moulin de la Galette" by Renoir. We also had a really awesome lunch at the museum cafe... I had this great salad with walnuts, haricot verts, duck bacon, and a poached egg:

Followed by vanilla ice cream with raspberry sauce and a marinated peach on the bottom:

By the time we left the museum, it was really too late to do the Rodin or Army museums like Dad wanted to, so we decided to go on the Seine River cruise that came free with Mom and Dad's hotel. We saw all the various bridges on the Seine in central Paris, and saw the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and Notre Dame, among other sites. Unfortunately, the pictures didn't come out very well, but here are some of them anyway:

 The Eiffel Tower without flash:

And the Eiffel Tower with flash:

The Alexander III Bridge:

 I tried really hard to get a picture of the ferris wheel that was set up near the Louvre, but it never really worked...

After the cruise, we went back to the Latin Quarter for dinner at a little cafe recommended by Rick Steves --- I ate too much and ended up feeling a bit sick... but it helped me to sleep well that night!

Day 3 (last day) in Paris: Dad and I got up in the morning and went to see the Tomb of Napoleon and the Army Museum where we walked through the exhibits on World War I and World War II, which were incredibly interesting... it is easy to see how this is one of the best military museums in the world. Meanwhile, Mom stayed in... Here's the dome of the church above the tomb of Napoleon:

 The actual tomb of Napoleon:

The courtyard of the Army museum:

When we met Mom back at the hotel, we had juts enough time to take a little walk around to find the art gallery where Mom and Dad saw a photo that they wanted to buy and, with my generous assistance, we managed to find it and write down the contact info for the gallery. We also stopped to take this picture in honor of our California cousins:

 Then Mom and Dad took a taxi to Gare de l'Est to head to Strasbourg for a couple days and I headed over to Gare de Lyon to head back to Geneva. On November 19-20, while Mom and Dad were away in Strasbourg, I went to a workshop on the costing of new and routine vaccines at GAVI... I was just observing, but it was pretty cool stuff. Then on the evening of Tuesday, November 20, Mom and Dad took a train down to Geneva (their first train was delayed so it was a bit hectic for them getting here, but luckily they made a different train in Basel and only ended up being delayed by 30 minutes). For their first evening in Geneva, we met my friend Jill and her mom Judy who was visiting Geneva at the same time for dinner in Old Town at a restaurant called Cafe du Centre. Mom and Judy got along splendidly... they had great fun bonding and making fun of their daughters. I was a good sport, of course... The adventures in Geneva continue in the next blog post!