Viva la France!

When we booked our FEML we decided to do a long layover somewhere special so that we'd have something to look forward to when we were leaving North Carolina. It's always hard to leave friends and family behind and the shine has worn off of Bahrain enough that none of us were really all that excited to go back. Stella has wanted to see Paris (namely the Eiffel Tower) for a couple of years now so we figured a layover in Paris would be the perfect Christmas gift/peace offering to leave NC. Not to mention, nobody does Christmas better than Europe, so we figured we'd really be in the Christmas spirit when we headed back to the land of sand. 

Stella has NO idea how lucky she is... Christopher and I switched seats so she spent the entire flight camped out like that or asleep on me like that. 

We arrived early in the morning and surprised her friends Reece and Laremy! They had no idea we were coming to Paris and were shocked when we knocked on their door first thing that morning! Our hotel room wasn't ready yet so Ashley and Hayden were nice enough to let us use their bathroom to shower off the airplane and get refreshed for our day in Paris! 

We headed out in search of Breakfast and everyone was excited about the Christmas decor that was out...

I was just happy to be back in Europe.

We found a cafe close to our hotel and had a... less than stellar breakfast while we watched a ton of police vans filled to the brim with protesters drive by. We were keeping eyes on the news and trying to stay away from the rioting and still enjoy our time in France. The protests had started after we had all gotten our tickets to France so we didn't have much choice but to go anyway and hope for the best. At that point the protests and riots hadn't turned violent and were just causing a major disruption in Metro services and a lot of the big attractions and streets were closed or blocked off due to the protests so we had to keep turning around and rerouting ourselves to get to where we wanted to go.

It was cold. And I mean COLD in Paris. Much colder than we anticipated. So after breakfast, we headed back to our hotel to put on some more layers and get gloves and scarves. On our way back the Gluten Free Patisserie that was across the street from our hotel had opened so I rushed in and bought almost one of everything! 

They had just opened and were setting out all the pastries for the day!

Stella was a very happy girl!

She had pain au chocolat for the first time in her life!

And it was pretty damn good!!! It was flaky and layered with flavor although slightly more dense than your normal wheat pastry. 

She also got to try one of my favorite things ever... palmiers!!! These were also really good! The kids all had gingerbread men (which had a great texture but everyone agreed they needed more spice!)

After bundling up some more we headed out onto the streets of Paris! I seriously forgot how beautiful Europe is...I feel like we've been living in a haze of dirt and dust on all the buildings we ever see and I forget how much I love old world, Gothic European architecture!

Our hotel was about a block from the Louvre (and, funny enough, was the first hotel we ever stayed at in Paris!) So we stopped by the Louvre so the kids could see the architecture and the great glass pyramid!




The parents




Joan of Arc


On our way to the Eiffel Tower we stumbled across a Christmas market! Which... if you haven't been to Europe during Christmas-time, happens a lot. And there's always warm drinks, snacks, and fun things to see and do so we hurried in!



Plates and plates of escargot!




There were some...questionable but interesting rides and decorations...


All three kiddos going down the giant slide!

At this point, Stella had had all the cold, Paris fun she could take. We made it about halfway to the Eiffel Tower and then, after being redirected and retracing our steps, couldn't get a taxi or an uber so we ended up having to call it and walk back to the hotel to get warm. She at least saw the Eiffel Tower from afar... but it was past time to get in and warm her up!

We got back to the hotel and checked into our room and made plans to meet up later in the afternoon. We were going to try and make it to Versailles since most everything in Paris was closed (thanks protestors), but we all opted for a nap and our little jet lagged selves passed right out and slept for two hours! 

We woke up and decided to head to the Eiffel Tower and grab some dinner on the way or after we saw it. We all got bundled up and headed down to the lobby and were met with this... the lights out and the doors locked and the protesters making their way down Rue St. Honore.... we were right in the middle of the riots... the exact opposite of the place we wanted to be.

We went back to our rooms and hung out a bit, hoping it would clear. The guys went out and walked around a bit and we tried to decide what to do. They came back with wine and snacks and news that the protesters had moved on. We bundled back up and decided to head to the Louvre. There is a whole marketplace underneath with some restaurants and shops (one in particular that I wanted to visit), so we made our way there and were met with only half the shops open and none of the restaurants. There was a McDonalds across the street and down a bit so we headed back out just to get some food in the kids.... We got to McDonalds and it was closed.... luckily, they were preparing to open back up, so we waited and went inside to eat the great Golden Arches. 

We found out that pretty much everything on that street had shut down at around 3 in the afternoon due to the rioting. So we ate our McDonalds and then headed back over to the Louvre marketplace.

There were lights and decorations everywhere!

Underneath the large glass pyramid is an inverted one!

Ahh... the shop that I came for! Mariages Frères...my favorite tea on the planet!


I walked in and realized that this is what my heaven smells like... tea! It was wall to wall...and amazing!


They even have a cafe!




No one else was as excited as me so, after Christopher snapped a few pictures of me living my bliss, they took the kids and left me to browse and sniff tea to my hearts content! And I did... forty minute of unadulterated, tea sniffing joy!




I picked out all my goodies and headed to have them weigh and measure what I wanted.


My purchases!



I got the following:
1 kg Russian Breakfast (my absolute favorite tea on the planet!)- its a dark, malty black tea with orange and spices. I was skeptical when I first tried it but it was love at first sip. Its rich and amazing and I don't know how much I've gone through since I first discovered it, but its a lot. I received it as a gift from a family friend about four years ago and I have had to order it online since then and shipping to the states is crazy expensive, so I ration it out to make it last.
100 g Russian Star (the green tea version of my Russian tea)
100 g Darjeeling Rose Camelia (Darjeeling tea with rose petals)
Marco Polo (their signature blend) tea bags
Morning Glory (a citrusy black tea) tea bags

I also found out from the man doling out my tea that they just opened their largest store ever in Covent Garden in London... I might have squealed when he said that! So no more rationing out my tea. I'll be able to pop over to the shop to get it when I'm running low! I could not be more excited!

After that we walked back to our hotel and hung out for a little bit before calling it a night! Everyone was exhausted and we had a big day ahead of us the next day!