July 8 - Photos & Churches

One plan we made ahead of the trip was to do family pictures while we were in Paris. I booked a photographer based on her website gallery and crossed my fingers. We were concerned we'd have to cancel the appointment due to rain, but postponing for a couple of hours brought out the sun.

Before I show you my favourites, here is our view (behind the photographer). There was a major triathlon going on. It was kind of funny to do a photo shoot in the middle of a triathlon, but probably only funny to us. It was Paris, after all, and photo shoots were everywhere.

I snapped this one with my iPhone while we waited for the photographer to arrive. I'm sure you won't be able to tell the quality difference at all in the next photos. ha.

The high heels catch Jaclyn and Carmen up to Steven a bit.

The photographer does mostly couples, and really didn't know what to do with our group. Probably half of the pictures she took were just of Ken and I. She kept wanting to take more 'romantic pictures' of us kissing and looking into each other's eyes. She'd encourage Ken to give me 'lots of compliments' to try and elicit the expression she was trying to get from us. We failed miserably, I'm afraid. Maybe we'd do better without the kids laughing at us.

Family pictures kind of stress me out - I'm super happy they turned out so well.

Everyone likes having nice photos, but I'm sure no one likes the process. We rewarded ourselves afterwards. 

Carmen wore more make-up than usual for the picture (and my big earrings). She looks so old!

Things that didn't show during the photo shoot: jackets, bags, and other people (I don't know how the photographer managed that one).

Chloe had popcorn instead of ice cream. She judiciously managed her food sensitivities on the holiday - I was really impressed! OF COURSE she had pastries, but she only risked a stomach ache when it seemed worth it. And really, she felt pretty good most of the holiday.

I didn't use Instagram nearly as much as I thought I would, but I'm really loving seeing everyone else's Instagram photos! I'm so glad I signed up.

Jaclyn had to catch this calculus graffiti.

At this point it was Sunday afternoon, and Jaclyn took a Sunday afternoon nap, while the rest of us explored some churches.

Notre Dame. Our museum passes that had helped us skip so many lines was only good for admission here. We would have had to have stood in line for an hour to climb up to the top, and we weren't up for it. (Next time! As I keep saying.)

Should we have bought more berets?

I realized today that so many of our vacation photos are grainy not because they were taken by iPod (many were) but because we still had our good camera set to football season mode with a high ISO, darn it. However, I think we have to credit the high ISO here. It was so dark inside Notre Dame, I can't believe how well this photo of Ken's turned out.

Carmen had read about the Rose Window of Sainte-Chapelle in a guide book before we left. We certainly would have missed it without her. The church is inside the courtyard of the Palais de Justice buildings. It may be the oldest church we visited, dating back to 1248. This is the Rose Window - every pane depicts a scene from the Book of Revelations.

Was Steven reading The Da Vinci Code really good preparation for a trip to Paris? Maybe, maybe not. But it brought us to see the Rose Line in Sainte-Sulpice. 

Really, it is just the sunlight line at Easter, but that's still pretty neat.

Fountain in the square in front of Sainte-Sulpice.

Same fountain.

While we were in the Sainte-Sulpice neighbourhood we bought our first street-food crepes. I had lemon and sugar, everyone else had some form of Nutella. It was delicious. After Sainte-Sulpice we found this awesome tree in Luxembourg Gardens, saw fun parks the girls were too old for, and watched some serious Bocce Ball.

Once again, the day ended with a sidewalk cafe.

(We finally took some pictures at dinner the next day.)