First...Paris Flea Market

Notre Dame... yes, same day...

Not yet checked in, just walking around...  We haven't slept in 24 hours at this point and I'm pretty amazed how well the girls.are doing, really...  It's thanks to Emma because if she wasn't there, Charlotte would have been so much more complaining...  And Emma?  She never complains and is ever positive and game for anything, at least she makes it seem that way to us!
They were interested in seeing the church and we got great pictures along the river and all this will have to come separately somehow or we will show when we get back... But because I was depressed thinking there was something wrong with my phone because even with wifi connection strong, I couldn't submit these pictures and I guess the jet lag was making me start to give up.  So I focused on good pictures with the camera.
  Just wanted to let you know the rest of the first day before I go to bed...
   After Notre Dame interior view, and sitting for a bit, we decided we were far enough away from the hotel that we should attempt the hike to The Louvre because we needed to use restrooms...  After all it wasn't quite time yet to check in and we needed to use our day well.  We were "relieved" to make it and maybe Charlotte and/or Emma could submit a comment about the people who approached us about the Deaf and Dumb Society...?
  Trying to shorten this but ...we saw Mona Lisa.... and a few other masterpieces...  we were walking zombies...  left soon to take subway back... got little lost, finally found it... Checked into hotel.... Still had trouble with wifi...  Kids took showers and watched tv in their room across from ours while Bob and I fell on the bed and slept for 1.5 hours....  They came to wake us and we were hungry so we went out to learn about our neighborhood and where to eat...  Much more walking but it was worth it because we found a great market street full of great food.  Wish I could share these pics now but I will figure that out later.  After picking up great food at the market, we had a dinner parry in the girls room next door and watched the news in French seeing if we could jointly figure out what it was about.  They are helpful because they are taking French in school.
  After they went to bed tonight, I went down to talk to the reception desk guy about my trouble connecting to email with the wifi and he helped me!!!  I was so amazed because I thought I wouldn't be able to write and I had told people they could follow  us... Anyway I'm thrilled.
So tomorrow I will have the pictures from my phone to upload but still taking with my camera for another show...  Got to sleep now.  So glad to be connected with you.  Can you sign in to follow my blog and comment?

Blurry picture because....

...it was a shot I took on my regular camera and I still haven't figured out how to post those pics to this blog from here... Until just now...  I thought of taking a picture of my camera screen with my phone....  Here we walked to the beautiful Luxembourg Gardens.  
  See, what happened was:  when the driver brought us to the hotel they said our rooms would not be ready for a few hours.  So that was good, in a way because they rallied even tho they were exhausted and jet lagged.  Bob and I didn't want to waste the day sleeping when we have so few here.... So the gardens were near and we walked.  Chilly air refreshes and revives one when taking a brisk walk.

Air France airplane food.... amazing!

Bob and I were so amazed and impressed by the service and the meal on Air France!  It was like a throw back to the 60's for me, (without the cigarette smoke in the cabin) because I remember fancy menus and being able to chose between 2 or 3 choices, and they were also hot...  This one was actually pretty tasty too.  Then they kept offering us free glass of champagne, complimentary wine with dinner, and and an after dinner dinner little taste of cognac.... We were like, "wha??? sssure...(wow!)". It was fun for us... It wasn't too much... a taste and it was so... perfect. But it boggled us about the being included with the price of a ticket, because it doesn't seem to happen much lately in the states.
Char and Em said they were having a good time on their side too playing with the fancy flip up tv screen with about 30 choices of current movies for free, TV shows, music, games and even a in-plane chat network which would have been good for us to talk to each other but the sign in process was so convoluted and confusing we gave up.  Time flew faster than I thought it would.  Soon they gave us a little breakfast of orange juice, muffins and yogurt with coffee or tea when the sun was rising, but I was still full from dinner....

From my sketchbook...

I will probably refine this drawing much more but I couldn't wait to pass it along about our trip.  I've never been on such a large plane!  Pretty amazing for Emma's first ever flight.  Bob and I were really impressed with how nice everyone was who worked for Air France and how much like first class it seemed!  We were hoping Charlotte and Emma were enjoying it too...  Of course they don't have as much to compare it to....

Arrivals!

We are waiting for the car service guy.  The girls are tired!  They couldn't sleep on the plane.  Bob and I didn't either, but it was a pleasant and easy trip.  Now, how to keep them awake?

The long wait at JFK