Some highlights from the last few days. I have realized that it is getting more difficult for me to blog each day, so I'm condensing things (I'm sure that many of you following are glad for that!)

The day after we returned from Brussels, we spent the day walking the Champs-Elysees. We started the morning with a petit dejeuner at a place called La Duree. The Blondeaus had recommended it to us when we had dinner with them. It was in a great building. We ate in the back room that was more casual. The room made you feel as though you were underwater where the merfolk lived. It was very cool. We had some excellent hot chocolate; it rivaled Angelina's but didn't surpass it. That kind of hot chocolate just makes one happy!

We walked to Place de la Concord and onto Madeleine Church. It is the church with the Roman columns. It's not particularly dynamic, but was interestingly juxtaposed with a modern art exhibit inside. So in front of a statue of St. Peter might be Poisson Homme (Fish man), a sculpture of a fish that was man like. Interesting, huh? After exiting we went into some very expensive gourmet shops. There was also a caviar store nearby with 1,000 euro caviar in the window.

We walked back up the Champs-Elysees and went into a bar for a drink before our tickets to Harry Potter. We watched some of the Tour de France on tv and then off to the movie. It was in english with french subtitles. We all enjoyed it. Our favorite part was when Dumbledore tells Harry to have "his wand at the ready" and the subtitles translated it as "la baguette a la pret". Griffin and I both giggled that wand was translated as baguette. I've eaten a lot of wands this trip! It inspired us to take a dueling picture with our baguettes.

The next day we decided to head up to Sacre Coeur in Montmarte. It is the beautiful white basilica the sits at the highest topographical point in Paris. It was made from the gypsum that was mined locally. Gypsum turns white when it ages, hence the look of Sacre Coeur. We thought it was spectacular, once you bypassed the hustlers trying to sell you bracelets. They literally bar your way up the stairwell. The views as you made your way up were spectacular. The inside was gorgeous. It had incredibly high ceilings and a beautiful altar. We walked through it and then hiked up a very narrow, spiral staircase to the tope of the dome. It was 300 steps up, but worth the effort. It gave us a panoramic view of Paris.

After descending Sacre Coeur, we took Rick Steve's walking tour of Montmarte. We walked through the square, Rue Norvins, where the local painters and artist sell their wares. We had a glace and then walked the hilly streets to see the homes of Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent Van Gogh. We wound our way down to the Moulin Rouge and the cabarets of Paris. It had a very different feel than the rest of Paris. Topographically, it's so different. We enjoyed the change.

We headed home to eat foods that we had bought at the local market that morning. We were on a hunt for olive tapenade, Kristine had served it with breakfast in Belgium and Todd loved it. We eventually stumbled on a small Italian restaurant where we waited for about 10 minutes while the cook went down to their basement kitchen to hand pack a little jar for us to purchase. It was very tasty and a fun local experience.

Tomorrow, we're off to the Marmottan Musee and a walk around in the afternoon.