Hotel F1 and Fete de la musique

After we dragged our kids away from their new BFFs we made our way to our latest and what looks to be our final home, Hotel F1. This hotel did not pop up on any American hotel search engines and may very well be Europe's (especially France's) best kept secret. To begin with it's 49Euro a night with a 3 person limit. Two kids and two adults can fit comfortably in their small rooms If you don't mind bending the rules. If you don't mind shattering the rules like us you can also fit 2 adults and 4 children! Yes, 6 in total. The Hotel's motto is "Spend less, travel more" and it offers perfect budget friendly accommodations. It's not a fancy hotel but it is clean and to the point.

Each room has a queen size bed and a overhead twin size loft bed, a sink, and a tv. The whole floor shares 2 large washrooms, each one includes 5 showers and 6 toilets. Some people just cringed after reading that, but it's much better than you can imagine. The showers and toilets are state of the art, high tech, and self cleaning. Although more spacious, they look like airplane bathrooms. The people who designed this hotel thought of everything. We seem to be the only Americans here and we have met other guest from all over the world.
The next morning we grabbed a bite to eat and we headed back downtown to participate in La Fete de la Musique, a city wide music festival. We had a blast and ended up at the Notre Dame Cathedral. Im currently unable to upload the videos I took of the many talented artist we saw. Paris is a deliciously diverse city and the music fest represented that well with rock, African drums, and folkloric Ecuadorian tunes. We ended the day exhausted and returned to Hotel F1.

Notre Dame at sunset

 

F1 hotel sign

 

Notre Dame

 

Hotel F1

 

More Notre Dame

 

 

New Friends!

Last night we spent a very comfortable and relaxing night at the Adagio City Family Hotel in the Buttes Chaumont area of Paris' 18e arrondissement. The hotel was one of few family friendly hotels in Paris. Almost every hotel in the city of Paris cost about $300 a night and has a strict 2 person limit. So if you have a family of 4 or more this is not affordable, at all. They are serious about their 2 person limit and that those two people remain very very quiet!! At almost all places we've been renting (apartments and hotels) we've had to lie about how many of us there are, then we sneak around very quietly to not give away our numbers. Adagio Family Hotel has been the only place we haven't had to do this. It's it however $250 a night, but thankfully without a guest limit. We will only stay here one night because we have a cheaper place booked for tomorrow. The hotel had about 7 channels, all offered in different languages for its international guests and it was very clean and comfortable.
When we checked out the following morning there were a group of friendly looking kids playing soccer in front of the hotel. The street where they were playing is blocked off from traffic and is also shared by an elementary school. We convinced Zane and his classmates to join in the games, little did we know that they'd enjoy each other so much and play for the next 5 hours!!!!!
They played soccer, rode scooters, played tag, we're introduced to friends of friends, the girls braided each others hair, and ate iceys. They had so much fun that we had fun watching them. We were only able to make them take a break long enough to eat a quick lunch.

After about an hour Dude was singing a French song with his new friends and Zane learned new soccer moves and taught his new friends how to play basketball. Zane was concerned about communicating with his new friends, but after about 10 minutes they were communicating through hand signals, English, and French.

Finally we had to leave we promised our kids and their new friends that we will reconnect in the future. All of the kids know that we will keep that promise so our departure was a sweet one.

Hair fun with new friends

 

 

 

 

 

 

B-ball at the Eiffel Tower & Chocolate Heaven

Until I can give more detail I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

Chocolate stillettos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peace

 

 

 

Cigarette butts

 

 

No gas

Paris is beautiful, and it knows it. It's so beautiful in fact that it is too cute for gas stations. At home we have gas stations at every interstate exit and every few blocks in most cities. Not in Paris. It took me a while to realize that I haven't seen a gas station in over a week. Where are all the gas stations? How do people fill up their teeny tiny cars? Yesterday was the first day I saw something that even resembled a gas station and it was tucked under a beautiful building, hardly noticeable. I do from time to time see singular gas pumps on the street. Look at my picture below. Paris is too fly for big ugly gas stations, I guess they say no to gas.

Speaking of gas, a common question you hear in restaurants is, "Would you like your water with gas or without gas?" this question perplexes Americans traveling to Europe for the first time. To clarify, water with gas is what we American call perriere water, ya know the water with the bubbles in it? Water without gas is just plain water. To me water with gas is tolerable but not preferable. It's an acquired taste that I haven't fully developed. So I guess that makes me just like the city of Paris, too fly for gas. :-P

 

Home sick & Father's Day

Poor Zane is terribly terribly homesick. All he wants in life right now is his dad and grandma. Me, Zane, and his friends are not cutting it. He wanted his daddy and he wants him NOW!!!! Dude is doing well thought. He's perfectly content with Skype conversations and only really cries for FoxyMama when he's being naughty and I tell him "No". I make sure to address Zane's homesickness without giving him too much emotion. If I cross the line and give him too much he falls to pieces. "It's ok that you miss them I miss them too, but right now you are in Paris and you enjoy this present moment to the fullest. You will see them very soon.". I explain to him that he must be stronger. When I was his age my parents put me on a plane (alone) every single summer to visit my favorite aunt and uncle in upstate new York and I would spend 6-8 weeks with them. What would you say or do to Zane to help his homesickness?

Today is Father's Day and we happily Skyped my dad and AlphaPoppa from near the Eiffel Tower. I informed them that their gifts were free trips to Paris and the Eiffel Tower via Skype. After that we had big plans for the day but instead collapsed on the grassy areas at the red carpet market. The kids played for hours, meeting many groups of new friends. The ate pistachio treats and made Eiffel Tower nunchucks. All of big plans went out the window and we decided to "be" instead of "do".
What Parisienne topics would you like me to investigate or give my perspective on? I'm already organizing my thoughts for posts on fashion, race relations in France, and French culture. If you have questions or ideas leave a comment to let me know!

 

 

 

 

 

Jumping in the rain & a new temporary home

How is it that kids are jumping castle magnets?   Right after a late breakfast on the way to our favorite park we ran into a small kid carnival located right on the street corner. There was no way I could get a group of kids past all that! Each activity was 1 Euro and the it was worth it. Zane and his big friends jumped in the jumping castle until they were exhausted and Dude found a little car track for kids his age. I giggled when I notice that each uninterested activity operator/ employee was smoking a cigarette and some even didn't even turn their heads from the kids to blow out the smoke. That would never fly in the US. After about half an hour it began to rain, Dude got off his bike and stood under an awning with me, but Zane and his friends continued to jump since the castle had a covering... or so I thought. After about 11 minutes Zane and his deliriously happy soaking wet friends came to find me. "That was so fun! It was so cool that the jumpy castle had small little holes to let the rain in!". I took the about 10 more minutes to realize how uncomfortable, cold, and according to Zane painfu,l wet jeans and clothes were. By then it was too late because we were already in McDonald's ordering French fries. After our snack we headed to our apartment for a change of clothes and I dragged their little butts to a laundry mat to dry their clothes. Dryers are rarely used on France. From what I'm told people are perfectly content on washing their clothes at home (washing machines are located in the kitchen) then hanging them to dry inside the house or if possible on a clothes line outside. Once we left the laundry mat we headed to our new apartment on a new side of town. The area was lovely and the weather cleared up. One of the first things we ran into was, you'll never guess... A PARK!

The best part about park hoping is watching the kids interact with French children Zane does a great job of making friends despite the language barrier. While they played their school owner surprised then with an assortment of regional candies from all parts of France.  Once we got back to our new place the kids quietly played with each other, as is the norm in France then we all tucked ourselves in for a nice long sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Le Moulin Rouge & Sacre Coeur

Yesterday we went to The Moulin Rouge! Very kid appropriate, right? Believe it or not in the mist of all the sex shops there is the perfect kid activity. There is a wind vent that kids can stand on and watch their clothes blow up like marshmallow men. They can make leaves float and scream into the wind. This kept the kids busy for about a whole hour! While there we took pictures of the Moulin Rouge and of course our silly kids. After that we walked over to Sacre Coeur.

Sacre Corur means sacred heart and this historic cathedral has one of the most beautiful views of the city. It is in walking distance of the Moulin Rouge but in order to reach it you have to climb a very long stair case. When I say long I mean looooong, like you may have a heart attack on the way up long, like your only thought is "this better be good!". There is an alternative to this long walk though, you can instead take a lift that cost you one metro ticket. Since we are on a strict budget we took the stairs. Since I'm forever optimistic I saw this as an opportunity to some exercise and even better a way to get the kids tired enough for a seamless bedtime.

The cathedral and view were worth it. There were hundreds of people sitting on the last stair case before the main entrance just sitting, talking, laughing, drinking, and enjoying the amazing view of Paris. We hung out a while and once the sunset we headed back home. Dude was so exhausted he fell asleep before we got in the train home. Did I mention that his stroller never left Atlanta? I'm happy we didn't bring it even though Dude is like a led weight once he falls asleep. We got home and slept soundly.

Sacre Coeur

 

Sex magazine on the street

 

Sacre Coeur

 

Metro Map

 

Le Moulin Rouge