Tortillas, Notre Dame, sparrows and unadulterated glutony

Sunday is the day we stop and relax. This last Sunday, we went to church in the morning (which I absolutely love). All of the people there are from EVERYWHERE. The main speaker was from Nepal, the speaker after that was from China, we sat in the back with all of the American expats (Virginia, Boston, Wisconsin). There is something so very uniting about being in a place where you weren't born, and being with people from back home. You immediately become family and have to know everything about everyone. I couldn't stop talking to a woman from Boston who had moved to Paris and had lived there for 3 years so far. So cool. Maybe me someday :)

After we got home, Chris had the energy to make tortillas from scratch! Not sure what inspired that, but boy was I thankful, because it was seriously delicious. We have been craving a little food from home, so it was nice to have a good old taco. Nothing more to report for Sunday!

As for yesterday, we decided to climb the Notre Dame. (I can't really remember if I've ever done it, and for some reason it sounded more interesting than the Eiffel Tower which is basically drowning in tourists right now.) It was a rainy day- but perfect for the mood when we were surrounded with all the GARGOYLES.

For those of you who haven't climbed, when you get up half way up there, and at the top, you are walking in extremely narrow passageways around the exterior of the building. I was a little skiddish for the kids to walk by themselves since the outside walls were pretty much 10 flights down, but I gave in...and off they went. Here's Emi coming around the bend.

Another cute face a mother couldn't delete.

These guys made the trip worth it. Talk about detail... especially for a gothic cathedral (started in 1163!!! That's almost 1000 years old!) on the top of the church where probably most people couldn't get up this high. And- the imagination that went into creating them is unbelievable. They call this the "bored" gargoyle.

I love the personalities of all of them. I would have loved to meet the mastermind behind the construction of them.

I wish I could have taken pictures of all of them, but because of the metal wires protecting all of us (which I am truly greatful for), I couldn't really take very many wire free.
We thought the climb to the top was going to be deadly carrying the kids, but it was actually not that bad. Esp compared to stuff in Italy.

While we were relaxing for a bit before heading off to Saint Germain, Steve and Maddie saw a man feeding the sparrows who would just eat from his hands... they had to get some lessons. He was soo nice- he told them that they don't like crackers, but prefer bread... and let Maddie use some of his.

Here are a sequence of shots- I couldn't delete any of them because they were just all so cool.

After walking a bit, we walked to a restaurant someone had recommended, and I would now recommend to any beef lover. It's called Le Relais de L'Entrecote and there are 4-5 around the city. There is no menu- just "Rare, Medium, Well?" Ha! Well, we got a couple of Rare's and a couple of Mediums... and were so pleasantly surprised at how good it was! They bring you steaks covered in this amazing sauce that I couldn't stop eating, and a side of french fries. That's it. That's the menu. And, it was very very very good. Yum.

Later in the afternoon, we went shoe shopping on a street where there are more reasonable prices. As shopping always goes, there was a long stent of too many frills, or too gaudy... but we hit a ballet flat shoe store where each shoe was either 8 or 10 euro!!! Of course I had to buy 3 pair!!! So cute.

Later that night, Steve and I found a KILLER pizza place... and even though I had eaten dinner already, I ate my whole pizza. Ahhh. I really think Italian food is one of my favorites.

As for today, why I have no pictures? Well, to be quite honest, because we spent the day filling our faces with every food in sight! Even though my belly feels a little bigger, I just can't help stopping myself. I kind of feel like the main character in "Eat,Pray,Love" when she goes to Italy. How can you stop yourself when the food is just better than anything you've had in years???

So- how embarrasing is this? In two days, I've had an eclair, an apricot croissant, a chocolate/nutella twistee thing from heaven, 2 panini's on the street, homemade lasagne from a dreamy Italian restaurant, a rasberry torte, a mozzerella/ham/artichoke pizza, 5 oranginas, steak, french fries, a chicken hamburger, and finally a "my berry" yogurt.

Pure glutony and pure heaven.