Day Eleven: Fancy Pants

Today we started with a visit to L'Opera National de Paris. We took the opportunity to snap a shot of the girls with the Kid's Post, hoping to get their picture published as part of a vacation series they are doing:

Next, it was a self-guided tour around the ornate opera house:

 My little phantomes of the opera across the way:

 

Looking out on l'avenue de l'Opera:

 

 Eliza loved dancing on the slippery floor:

Unfortunately, photos of the theater and the stunning Chagall ceiling are forbidden.

Oops:

 Eliza preparing for her debut:

On the way out, the girls were mesmerized by a video of children's ballet:

 Catching our breath with an energy muffin break:

 A sweet, fleeting moment:

Pandemonium ensued when someone was slurping faster than the other, and the smoothie almost landed on the floor.

We stopped by the Place des Vosges on the way home:

 

French folk lying around being French:

I am starting to wonder if this whole unemployment "crisis" is truly the tragedy that the French make it out to be. Everywhere I turn, in the middle of any given weekday, these people are lying around doing a whole lot of nothing. Hmmmmm....

After a brief rest at home, we headed out to the Luxembourg Gardens. Stopping to dance to some live Jazz on the bridge:

We now have our "favorites" at the Luxembourg Gardens and the girls just run off as soon as we get there:

And, of course, back to the carrousel. Who knew grabbing rings on a stick could be so fun?!:

We decided to dine at the little snack area in the park. Samantha ordered her usual baguette with cheese and Eliza opted for the hot dog. What arrived at our table was some other worldy version of an already dubious meat dish-- an odd colored weiner covered in swiss cheese and jammed into a baguette. Eliza's face really says it all:

Her exact words: "That's a hot dog? That is NOT a hot dog!" She yanked out the dog, I ate the bread with cheese, and everyone was happy.

A rare moment of sweetness and class:

A more typical moment of laziness and whining:

As we approached the apartment, both girls requested a Notre Dame viewing. Since the last time I was in Paris, they have erected some bleachers in front of the church. At first I thought it was pretty ugly, but I've grown to appreciate it:

A few minutes after we arrived, some dancers started setting up for a show:

To the music of artists like Bruno Mars and Rihanna, they did some pretty amazing stuff. This guy is in the air:

Samantha loved it:

And insisted we pay them for their performance. She proudly dropped some euros in one of the dancer's hats.

Finally, it was back to Ile St. Louis for ice cream and bed: