Bruxelles. Day One.

I've decided to break up our glorious trip into two days.  I feel its a lot of pictures and info to throw all in one long post!! We had an absolute blast and I learned so much.  I only hope that I can begin to convey that in this blog!  

Woke up Saturday morning at 6:30 am bright-eyed and excited for a 37 hour Belgian adventure.  We were meeting at 8 because we had to check in no later than 8:30.  Kerry and I both hop off the same metro at 7:45 and set out to find the Eurolines station.  Turns out, its just off the metro so we had quite some time to kill.  Why did we take a bus instead of the train you might ask?  The train is 2 1/2 hours and the bus was 3 1/2 hours.  The train cost $100 euros and the bus $50 euros.  Doesn't take a genius to figure out the math of 23 year old girls on a budget.  

The bus was quite comfortable and the ride wasn't so bad.  We were able to see everything (well, not everything because it was raining) as we passed all the little villages and fun things outside of Paris.  There are actually strip malls, (French) chain restaurants, gas stations, and free standing hotels....which I hate to admit but sometimes I forget they exist!! I let Kerry listen to "Dixieland Delight" on my Iphone to pass the time and she turned and asked, "What is a 'holler?'" hahaha...we both just died out laughing.  

3 hours later, we spied the Atomium from our window.  Our bus took us to Gare du Nord, which we were thinking was Gare du Midi (in the rain, I might add).  We had looked up the Brussels metro before coming, but we weren't prepared for how few and far between the stops were.  We walked towards the city center, thinking we would find a metro...but ended up at our hotel before one even crossed our paths.  In Paris, you can walk 2 or 3 blocks and see a metro on any corner...therefore taking you anywhere in Paris from that point.  Brussels metro runs certain directions, and except for 4 or 5 stops only runs the perimeter of the city.  The first time we tried to use it, we bought our tickets, tried to figure out what our destination was and got so frustrated at figuring out how to get there we just walked!  We are spoiled with the Paris metro and although its intimidating at first...its SO easy!! 

The location of our hotel was 2 blocks from the Grand Place...absolutely perfect!  It was very basic, but suited our needs just fine.  Kerry took some pictures of our room so I will copy those as soon as I get them from her.  We threw our bags in the room and set out to find some lunch.  Came upon Mannekin, a nice little brasserie just off the Grand Place.  After ordering our first glass of local beer, it was time to make a meal choice.  Of course I try something I can only get in Belgium, so Waterzooï it is.  It's a boiled chicken dish served with vegetables (leeks, carrots, onions, and potatoes) in a rich, buttery, cream sauce.  

It was "the bomb."  The chicken was so tender it just melted in your mouth.  And the veggies cooked down so that basically you were eating a creamy veggie soup.  Wash  that down with a local lambic beer and ....Yum!

Chatillon Brewery was on our list of things to do and was closed on Sundays so we wanted to be sure and get that out of the way on Saturday.  Well, as you can see from my pictures it was pouring down rain.  Not to mention Chatillon Brewery is quite far from the city center.  Attempting the metro, getting lost in a strange neighborhood, passing the TinTin museum, breaking my 'brolly' as Kerry would say, after walking 2.5 kilometers, we finally rolled into the brewery...looking like wet, soggy, dogs.  There was no tour in English so we were on our own with a brochure, but it was quite informative and answered all our questions.  

TinTin museum!

Storage room for the hops.

The "masher"

We learned all about lambic beer which is only brewed in certain parts of Belgium, one of them being this brewery.  They produce lambic, gueuze and kriek.  Lambic beer is produced by spontaneous fermentation and is generally very cloudy and sour.  It is normally kept in wooden barrels for 3 years and is only found on tap at a few locations in the world.  Gueuze is a mix of the young and old lambic beers.  It can last up to 20 years if bottled properly.  The last is Kriek, which is simply lambic refermented with cherries or raspberries or some other fruit.  The ending of our tour was a tasting...so we were able to taste gueuze and kriek.  I liked the gueuze even though it was sour...but the kriek can be left for someone else.  It was sweet with a very dry and bitter aftertaste.  Very unpleasant for me.  Kerry didn't like either of them...to each their own!  

This really pretty castle (now turned museum) was stumbled upon while wandering. 

The Palais de Justice

This really beautiful garden near Place de Sablons but it was so rainy I couldn't take time to fix out the kinks in my camera.  

Pierre Marcolini's store in Place de Sablons.  This is quite the posh area of Brussels...only the best chocolatiers and boutiques are found here.  Our wet, soggy, dog-selves felt quite out of place here.  

I didn't leave Place de Sablons without having a Neuhaus praline!  Neuhaus coined the phrase "praline" in 1912 and is the most famous praline shop in Brussels to date.  To me, being from the south, when I hear praline I think of pecan/buttery/creamy goodness.  But to Europe (or at least not southern Americans), a praline is simply a hard chocolate shell filled with endless types of fillings, some creamy, some liquid.  

Beautiful Valentine's Day cake in the window display.  Completely made out of sugar of course.  

L'Eglise Sablon (not on our list but as we pass....pourquoi pas?)

And the best part of our day?!?!?!? WAFFLES!!! They looked immensely delicious...but only tasted better!  You could get anything you wanted on your waffle...strawberries, bananas, nutella, cherries, sugar, jam, etc, or just have it plain!  

I chose chantilly cream with chocolate.  I ate most of the cream first, because there was so much I could hardly find the waffle.  The chocolate was dark and rich, and oozed out all over the waffle dish.  Once I finally reached the actual waffle, I couldn't wait to take a bite.  It was crisp on the outside and perfectly soft on the inside.  It tasted of butter and eggs...just as I expected.  I have never eaten a waffle like this....and I'm not sure what can compare.  Definitely not at Eggo I'll tell you that.  

Excuse my appearance, but trekking around in the rain all day doesn't exactly allow for beautiful pictures.  

We sauntered back to the hotel in silence, each of us stuffing our faces with our newfound Belgian friends, waffles.  We put our clothes on the radiator for 30 minutes or so, tried to look a little more presentable (to no avail), and went menu searching for our dinner.  The street below is full of seafood restaurants one after another.  There must be at least 50 all with gentlemen outside trying to guess what language you speak and persuade you to come dine in their restaurant.  Since that is a turn-off to me...we went in the one that didn't have a man yelling at you to come dine with him.  Turns out, we made a pretty solid decision.  Three course meal for 12 euros?  Spot on.  

I just had shrimp as an aperitif, salmon as my entrée, and chocolate mousse for dessert.  Nothing too fancy and definitely not local...but for 12 euros-who can beat that?! We popped in the Delirium Café to check out the scene, but totes headed home early so we could get an bright start at our second day.  Our list of things to do seemed like it was growing as the night went on making Sunday a little more formidable.....

Spending The Day With A Sick Child...

Chloé called last night and asked if I could watch Marie-Césare for a few hours today while she went to her doctor's appointment and had lunch with some friends.  I of course told her yes, excited to see the little monster.  

When I arrived today, she was as sick as a dog.  She had a fever, runny nose, coughing, sore throat....man, was I as excited as ever.........................................................................................?

And it also happened that a few hours turned into 6 hours.  I am just hoping my immune system will keep out whatever she has.  I washed my hands probably 20 times and made sure not to get too close.  The last thing I need is a sore throat while I'm trying to shove waffles and chocolate down my throat in Belgium.  

Chloé did buy some new activity books for us to use and arts and crafts items for next week! Yay! That's something we can do together very well.  I have always loved my art box, and although she doesn't have a "box," a bunch of paints and colored paper shoved in the top of her closet will do just fine.  Chloé also bought a nursery rhyme book that has each song in English and French!  With an accompanying CD.  Woo hoo!  I have been dying (really) to learn exact translations of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Row, Row, Row, Your Boat for months now!! Turns out, they aren't exact translations, and the songs aren't even exactly the same tune because of the syllables and pronunciations, but....its the same idea.  I took a picture of just a few comparisons:  

  

 

I also found some pictures from Monday that I've been meaning to post.  Ashleigh and I both had the afternoon until 4 off on Monday, so we decided to check out the Bois du Boulogne.  I was picking up Marie-Césare there later so we figured...why not?  It's just on the outskirts of west Paris...bordering Neuilly Sur Seine, one of the more posh suburbian neighborhoods.  

This picture is only a small fraction of the park, as it is 2.5 times bigger than Central Park in New York City.  Just to be honest....at night and early morning, this is where the prostitutes of Paris hang out.  I will say that even during broad daylight, with Ashleigh....I didn't feel very safe.  Strangely enough, I feel safer in the city at midnight than I did that day.  There are parts of the park that are obviously safe...where families hang out..near the lakes, playgrounds, and various waterfalls, but if you venture off that path.....well, just don't.  After what felt like miles of walking, we found the Jardin d'Acclimatation.  

 I picked Marie-Césare up from Les Ateliers at Le Jardin d'Acclimatation at 4.  She had an all day kids art "workshop."  The Jardin d'Acclimatation is where every child that lives in Paris dreams about going to on vacation from school.  It's a small "theme" park if you will, with crêpes, gaufres, barbe á papa, carrousels, small water boats rides, bumper cars, etc.  Everything you could imagine for the kiddos.  So, naturally we couldn't leave that afternoon without riding something and having a tasty snack.  

Also that night we had an interesting craft project.  We made this chicken "egg" holder.  Naturally, she wanted an egg for dinner so I boiled her one right up, popped it in its new holder and voila!  

Of course she didn't like the egg, she actually spit it back onto the counter because she found it so disgusting, so I ended up finishing it off.  She just wanted to fulfill the idea of having an egg in its new home.

SO excited about going to Brussels (excuse me....Bruxelles) this weekend with Kerry!!! It is going to be a whirlwind of activity but we will not stop until we get it all done!! We both pretty much have the same list of things to do.  Amongst our items:  Chantillon brewery, Chocolate museum, Mannekin Pis, EU capital building, the Atomium (cheesy, I know), St Michaels Cathedral, oh yea, and WAFFLES.  This is only a short selection....but I can't wait to fill you all in when I get back!  

High Above the City.

Kerry's birthday Saturday night was so much fun.  Her friend Fran was in town, so we all had a night on the town to celebrate.  She wanted to show Fran the fun, touristy Paris so of course we met at St. Michel.  We went to this place first called "Ze Bar" which, to hear me say it in my fake French accent is hilarious.  We sat down at ze tables, got ze menu, realized how much ze drinks were, and left out ze door.  We popped in and out of several different places before deciding on a really really tiny place that was probably 85 degrees inside.  Yuck!  They had really fun drinks though....at quite the expense.  But we don't do this all the time so...why not get a sparkly drink every now and then?! 

Addie and Ashleigh

Ashleigh's sparkly drink!

Addie, me, Ashleigh, and Cathie

The next morning, Ashleigh and I went to church while Kerry and Fran packed in as much of Paris as possible during the few short hours they had.  We all met at The Catacombs, and waited in an enormously long line with really annoying American teenagers in front of us.  No wonder the rest of the world thinks Americans are crazy....because we are!  They were so typical...girls in their leggings, Uggs, huge designer bags, big sweatshirts, and "messy" but "fixed" hair.  The guys in khakis, tennis shoes, North Face jackets, and baseball caps.  

We knew what we were getting into by the name of course, but each step we walked down, and each corner we turned deep underground we became a little more freaked out.  We turned corners with much caution, not knowing what was going to be around each one.  We finally reached a sign that read:

Stop!  This is the empire of death.

So, here we were, 19 meters below ground, 1 km into our journey and around the next corner we saw walls that looked like small stones.  As you walked closer, you could see that actually, they were orderly piles of femurs and tibias, occasionally divided by a row of skulls.  It was SO creepy.  The tunnels were quiet and eerie, with the occasional drop of water hitting your head.  We kept going and going and going...would this ever end?  Around 6 million people were buried here from 1786 to 1814.  The noble piled against the poor, the young next to the old, all because there was no room in the cemeteries.  Most people were buried back then without a coffin, and over time, the deteriorating bones seeping into the ground was unsanitary for a city depending mostly on water from the wells.  Many people got sick, and in turn, they decided to remove the bodies from the cemeteries and put them in the old quarries.  The quarries are 185 miles long....that's longer than the entire Parisian metro system.  Since the lighting was so dim, and no flash photography allowed, pictures weren't all that great....which is probably for the best.  

It of course was impossible in the 1700's to document the 6 million skeletons placed in the quarries.  They did however use a fairly organized system and each stack of bones has a stone plaque with what cemetery they came from and the year.  When we finally we reached the end and ascended up some 80 stairs to get the the top there was a man checking bags and coat pockets.  "For what," we asked?  He simply said, "bones."  Like it was no big deal and people actually tried to get away with stealing bones on a daily basis.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  That was the most disturbing thing I've heard in awhile.  

Onto a more enlightening tourist adventure, Addie, Ashleigh and I headed to the Promenade de Plantée near Bastille.  Its an elevated garden walkway, if you will, which use to be part of a railroad track for freight trains.  It is 4.5 km long and expands the entire length of the 12th arrondissement.  Beginning at Opéra Bastille and ending at the Bois de Vincennes, it showed the first few signs of spring....so exciting!  

It was getting late, and I was meeting the other girls at the Eiffel Tower at 7 to attempt to go up again!  Luckily, there wasn't any bad weather, the line wasn't long, there were no technical difficulties, and we were able to get past the ticket booth this time!!!! We all crammed in the lift pushing our way to the edge so we could have a good view going up.  The lift takes you up to the second floor, then you have the option to purchase another ticket for the top, or descend to the first floor.  Kerry, Fran and I chose to go to the very top, while Natalie and Cathie waited for us on the ice rink.  I felt that since I was halfway there, I might as well go to the top...right?  We crammed in another elevator for what was another fairly lengthy ride up.  We stepped off and the view immediately took my breath away.  All the lights of Paris twinkling in the distance, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, and Notre Dame gleaming with pride.  It was incredible and I could have stayed there for hours despite the cold and wind.  

Fran and Kerry

I took about a million pictures, but have tried to only pick the best ones to post here.  Now, I want to go on a sunny spring day and catch everything in the day time!  We descended back down to the first floor and met up with Natalie and Cathie for a little skating.  The ice rink was quite small...although I don't know what I was expecting on the Eiffel Tower.  Luckily, there weren't a lot of people so we actually had room to skate.  Most were amateurs like us, and were doing it just for the sake of saying..."Yes, I've been ice skating on the Eiffel Tower...haven't you?!"  

The ride down to the ground floor was sad, and I didn't want to leave, but the wind was beginning to pick up and I wasn't wearing as many layers as I should have!  

It was late, but I decided to grab some dinner with Fran and Kerry...completely losing track of time.  I sprinted to the metro, twiddled my thumbs the whole ride and dashed up my stairs because I forgot I was suppose to Skype with my Mimi at 11!! Ooh la la.... it was the fastest I have ever made it up my stairs and the chances of that happening ever again are slim to none. :)  

Wonderful first vacation week, although I hope my second week is a little more relaxed.  Going to Brussels Saturday and Sunday with Kerry and am SO excited!!  Ready to get out of France for a couple of days!  

Versailles.

It was pouring rain in Paris this morning and I seriously debated on whether or not to stay in bed.  Ashleigh was going to the Palace of Versailles with her friends that were in town, so I toughed it out, got up and met them at the metro.  We had to take the RER out to Versailles, its too far out of the city to connect to the metro.  I'm so fortunate I don't have to take the RER in every day, as I know other au pairs who do.  I can basically go anywhere in 30 minutes or so by metro....ultimate convenience!

Versailles was the royal palace of France, beginning as a small royal hunting lodge.  They still have head of state meetings in the hall of mirrors, and if they are amending the French Constitution, the senate session is held at Versailles. I heard that you should really take a day to do the palace, and a day to do the gardens, so I decided since it was raining today it would be a perfect day to tour the palace.  Doesn't make for very good pictures outside...but the inside ones are great!  The palace is so impressive, and sometimes its so overwhelming how impressive each room is.  I hate to say it, but they all kind of run together.  When I got home I wasn't sure what pictures were taken in what room.  Factor that in with 50 different rooms and it creates a bit of confusion!  

The gardens from a window inside the palace.

I found the ceilings to be most impressive.

Hall of mirrors.  

The queens bed.  

All of us out front in our rainboots and coats!  

Hopefully will be able to go again when the gardens are beautiful and its a pretty day!!

We caught the RER back into Paris and had lunch at a small restaurant near St-Michel.  French onion soup anyone? It was delish!!

Also, some pretty good mousse au chocolat...although they didn't wear themselves out over presentation! 

Tonight, we're celebrating Kerry's birthday at a jazz bar.  She has a friend in town so tomorrow we are going to try ice skating at the Eiffel Tower once again.....I'm running out of time so I hope it works out!! :)