Saturday began with Haden and her dad going out for pastries for the family. They were so delicious (my mouth is watering now as I think of them). After we ate breakfast (and cleaned up the crumbs) we head to the metro to go to Monmarte. Monmarte is a big hill you can see from many of the sites in Paris and it has a huge church, Sacre Coeure (Sacred Heart), at the top. There are also a lot of street artists that come and paint or draw portraits for money. Angie and Gerin wanted portraits of everyone in the family and since it took so long to get them drawn, we all ended up getting other portraits of ourselves as well.
Thomas and I also hit up the Dali Museum that was up there. I have been a fan of Salvador Dali since a high school trip to Europe that included Spain, his home country. I was a little disappointed at how small I felt the museum was (and the rude kids running, not walking quickly but RUNNING, through the museum). They did have a "penny smusher" machine which is one of my favorite souvenirs to get! We skipped the big church due to the crowd and met back up with Gerin, Haden, and Allison at CLUNY, a medieval history museum.
On Sunday, Angie was feeling under the weather so she decided to stay home while the rest of us set off on the train to Fountainebleu. It is an old chateau, much like Versailles, but not quite as popular. Old kings of France had lived there, or passed through and stopped while touring the country. Napolean lived there and we saw his throne room. We also saw the table on which he signed his abdication before heading into exile. It was a really fun day trip.
Monday was our last day in Paris so we all split up to visit last minute shops and museums. Thomas, Gerin, Julie and I went to the Paris Sewer Museum (learning all about the sewers while being down in the tunnels above the sludge) before going back to Angelina's for lunch and hot chocolate. I bought some last minute gifts, and Thomas and I headed to a Naval Museum. There were replicas of lots of old ships (Thomas now wants to start building his own models of ships) and there were lots of paintings of ships and storms and the sea. There were also a lot of models of modern war ships from European countries as well as the US. We took a few more pictures at our carousel and then met everyone at Baci for one last dinner. Haden and Allison had found some purses they were excited about. Angie and Gerin found some steak knives they really liked. And Gerin and Julie found an antique sword to add to Gerin's collection. All in all, a great ending to a fabulous trip!
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