The City of Christmas lights!

The lights of Paris!

A view of the Arch.

The Champs.


Fountain lights.

Crowded!

The ferris wheel looks beautiful at night!

Daddy and Carson in Front of the Hotel De Ville.

Riding the Carousel.

More Lights...

On Christmas night we headed down to the center of Paris to look at the Christmas lights. It was very beautiful and very crowded. Everyone in Paris seemed to have the same idea. We made our way to the Champs Elysees to walk through the Christmas fair that they had going on there. Carson and I found a Carousel to ride, which he always loves. We all ate crepes and checked out the Christmas fair booths and the lights along the Champs. Here are a few pictures of our night out.

Christmas!!!

So excited to get started!Showing off the new Wall-E.



Mr. Fix-it!The train set was a big hit!

Fixing Disneyland Paris.

The Weldy's have completed their first and last Christmas in Paris. We missed our families terribly but we enjoyed our intimate quiet holiday. On Christmas Eve we ran around getting some last minute things and our ham for Christmas dinner. Once back at home we watched Toy Story and ate pizza, then off to bed to wait for Santa. On Christmas morning Carson was up bright and early to open his presents. He made out pretty well. He got a Mickey Mouse train set, a v-tech lap top (from Grandma Weldy), play tools and work goggles, Horten Hears a Who, a remote control Wall-E, a set of cars (from Nana and Papa)and some Toy Story figurines. This was the first holiday that Carson actually opened his own presents and was excited and interested to do it. It was really cute to watch.....(don't worry Grandparents, we got it all on tape). After we opened presents we had a lazy day playing with all of the new toys and just relaxing. We had our Christmas ham for dinner and then headed out to check out some Christmas lights around town. This year was very different for us, but it was wonderful to be together in Paris to celebrate as a family.

Carson LOVES Macaroons!

Just thought I'd share these pictures of Carson enjoying his new favorite treat here in France. Whenever we go to the bakery he tells the lady "My need a cookie!" He loves chocolate macaroons. Here in France a macaroon is a sandwich-like pastry made with two thin cookies and a cream or ganache between the cookies. They are sooooo good! Pretty sure the Weldy's are going to come home a little rounder than we left! : )

Busy Weekend

Some pictures of the Eiffel Tower at night and walking around Paris.

Pictures from the children's garden.

Carson and Mommy riding the train.

Riding in the boats.

Riding rides in the Carnival area.

Swinging with Daddy.

Walking through the garden areas.

This weekend was filled with running around, looking for places, getting lost on the trains, date night and a day at the park for Carson. We woke up on Saturday with the intentions to find the Lennen School. It's a bilingual preschool school we are looking to put Carson in a few hours a day 4 days a week. Then we wanted to walk around and check out another shopping area close to our house and hit up the Casino (not to gamble....the Casino is a grocery store close to our apartment). We headed out that morning, maps in hand to find the Lennen School first. We rode metro line 1 and then hopped on metro line 13. We found the school pretty easily and walked around the area to check it out. I then decided that I wanted to take another train line home to see if it would be faster. The line it called the RER and Ryan and I are not familiar with how that line works. Long story short we got on the train going in the wrong direction and to fix our mistake it look us another couple of hours to get home, so that was pretty much our day. More sight seeing and the Casino would have to wait.

That night Ryan and I had a date night. Our new babysitter, Anna, came over to watch Carson. Ryan and I headed to the Eiffel Tower first. At night they have it lit up bright blue and it sparkles silver every hour on the hour. We went up to the middle section to see the lights of Paris at night. It was pretty spectacular. After the tower Ryan and I had dinner out before heading home. It was nice to get out and enjoy Paris on our own for a little bit. Anna said Carson was "as good as gold" and even requested a kiss from her before he went off to bed! He's a lover!
Sunday was all about Carson. We took him to Le Jardin d'Acclimatation. It is a children's park close to our house. It was much bigger than I expected and was so much fun for Carson. The park has a carnival area with tons of ride, a small zoo/petting zoo, pony rides, 6 different play areas with playgrounds and sand pits, gardens, zip line/tunnel area, boat rides and a train. We did it all! Carson had a wonderful time and the day tired him out for a long nap! Another great weekend in Paris!

Public Toilet

So, one thing I'm having to get use to is that Paris is every one's public toilet. On our first trip here to find our apartment I found out the hard way that you should always use the restroom before you leave your house/hotel. I naively walked into a public toillette and rushed right by the little lady in there passing out hand towels and soaps. "Madame!" She yelled after me. "1.50 euro!" She was asking me to pay to pee! I paid the fee and tried to get my money's worth while I was in there. I took my time, used the soap and lotion and searched for mints (no mints)! As we walked around the city I would notice these port -0- potty type things and to use them you needed a Euro coin to get in. I made a mental note to always use the bathroom before we left any place in Paris. I didn't want to ever have to pay money for a natural bodily function again! (I'm sure I'll be paying buckets of money trying to potty train a 2 year old!)
When we came back to move here I got an even bigger shock than having to pay to pee. Parisians have found a way around the price to pee. They use Paris as a public toilet. They all do it on the streets! At fist I thought it was only the Gypsies and homeless people that relieved themselves in front of God and everyone. On our second day here we were all on the way to the metro when I saw a little gypsy boy with his Mother begging for money. The little boy was squatting over some newspaper on the ground. As I rounded the steps to the metro and turned my head to see exactly what he was doing, I got a prime shot. I was staring right at his little cheeks as he was pooping onto the newspaper! I thought....yep that is actually happening and I (and Ryan) seem to be the only one shocked by this. Over the next few days I saw lots of homeless men peeing on the sidewalks. They just stopped mid stride, not caring who was around and leaned into the walls to relieve themselves in front of all the passers by. Including Carson and I! Now, I've noticed in the past few days that it is not just homeless people who enjoy to pee with the wind blowing through their hair. Business men enjoy this pass time as well. They just set down their briefcases and let it go! I'm just amazed that I seem to be the only one puzzled by this private turned public act. Guess we'll just have to get use to it cause it's not going to change anytime soon!
While we're on the topic of restrooms. Another issue that we've had to pay attention to is the amount of dog poo on the sidewalks. Here in Paris it seems that everyone owns a dog and everyone lives in an apartment. That combination makes it necessary for everyone to walk their dogs. Day or night you can see big, medium or small dogs leading around their owners. All those dogs make for lots and lots of poo on the sidewalks. Nobody and I mean nobody picks up after their dogs!!! They are suppose to by law but it doesn't happen. I guess it's their way of sticking it to the cops. Poo covered street! After two weeks here I have learned the hard way to always look down while walking. Never look around at the scenery or you will be sorry! Trust me....
So there you have it! A few more interesting facts. Don't get me wrong, this city is amazing and beautiful! Just watch where you are walking and always use the bathroom before you leave the house! : )

The first two weeks in France

A view of the plane from our seats.

Carson on our 777 to Paris Getting ready to land, we are all VERY tired!

Sorry this first entry will be a long one but I’ve got lots to catch everyone up on. We boarded a flight to Paris on the 3rd. Carson did great on the flight! It was a nine hour flight from Houston to Paris and Carson slept for 6 of those hours! The other 3 he spent looking out the window and watching his DVD player. We arrived in France on the 4th of Dec. A car picked us up from the airport and took us to our apartment. That’s were things started to get a little rocky. When the car dropped us off we stood out in the rain for 20 min. waiting for our agent (Eva) to let us in. We soon found out that our bell was broken (and it is still broken to date). Once we finally got in the movers showed up with our US stuff and they brought it all in and unpacked it. Our agent, Eva, whizzed around our apartment showing me how things worked (all the appliances are in French and look very different than my US versions), she then said "Voila, so everything is ok Jane (she always calls me Jane). I must go, don't forget the gas man comes sometime between now and 4! But how will you hear him.....(she tought for a minute) Jane you should wait for him outside!" Mind you this was 2pm and she was telling me to stand out in the rain for 2 hours so I could make sure I was there to greet the gas man and get it turned on. I did not take her advice and we missed the gas man that day. He ended up coming the next Wednesday and called my cell phone when he got there.....much better plan. On Eva's way out she introduced us to our next door neighbor who asked if we were a quiet family. He then informed me that he had lived in his apartment for 30 years and is a quiet man, so we need to be quiet too. He ended our visit with the casual comment that he was a member of the French police.(French cops carry around machine guns, they are very intimidating) Pretty sure that last comment was to drive home his point to us to be QUIET! He only speaks French, so if he does yell at us I will have no clue about what.When Eva finally left I sat in our apartment very overwhelmed thinking what have we done? I still had no idea how anything worked and the place was beyond grossly dirty! We got something to eat and pretty much went to bed that night, that's all we had the mental and physical strength for.

The next day we discovered that we did not have cable/internet/phone set up like we were promised. We were informed that it would not come on till on or around the 22nd. Hooray for early Christmas presents...it was finally turned on yesterday a few day early! Ryan was home with me till Monday the 8th when he had to start work at his new office. He left that morning at 8:30 and I wanted to cry. What was I going to do to keep myself and Carson busy and not lose our minds without any communication till he got home at 6? If something went wronge I couldn't even call him!!! Well, thank goodness we brought the portable DVD player and lots of kid movies for the plane trip, it was my saving grace! Carson watched movies and I cleaned our apartment from top to bottom. (it looked like it had not been cleaned in a decade) The French have a different quality of "clean" than I do. Before we signed our lease I asked if the apartment would be cleaned before we moved in and they (the relocation company and Eva) said "But of course it will be cleaned, what do you think?" I think they didn't clean it, that’s what I think. So for the next week I cleaned, organized and unpacked our things in our apartment and made a list of things we would need to get. I also took Carson out for walks to check out our new neighborhood and to get a feel for where things were.

That weekend when Ryan was home we took a trip out to the Achan (it's like the French version of a super Wal-Mart but much crazier). The place was packed full of people and the French do not know the idea of personal space. They pushed us out of the way, moved our cart, jumped in front of us, stood extremely close to us, they basically broke every rule of personal space. We got our things and got the Hell out of there. Nightmare! Luckily since then I've found a smaller closer grocery store that I can go to, making trips to the Achan a thing of the past. Sunday was a day of rest for the Weldy's, France wears us out.
This week has been a better week. My neighbor is warming up to us. Carson has been killing him with kindness. Today he offered Carson a piece of candy with a smile and held the door for us. Carson yelled up to him "Merci for my cany!" (we’ve been working on hello, goodbye and thanks with him) I now also have a much better understanding of where we are in Paris versus where the things I want to go are. It’s a good feeling to know where you are in the world. I am also feeling better about my French and have a few phrases down. I’m hoping to take a French class while we’re here. Also the best thing that has happened this week (next to getting internet) is our meeting Anna. I got her name from another Cerner Mom who knows her and has used her as a babysitter. She is from England and she was a teacher there. She moved to France to move in with her French boyfriend. (he's going to school to be an opera singer) She is wonderful and I liken her to my own Mary Poppins! She will come to our house a few nights a week/weekend to let Ryan and I have some “couple” time! She and the internet have made my week!
I will keep adding to this blog when I have some good stories and will add more pictures soon. I’m sure I’ll have lots of stories to share about our life here. It’s going to be a bumpy but amazing ride.