Day Sixteen and Seventeen

AP discovered that you could see Montmarte from this museum. She remembered that we had seen this on our tour last time.
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After our crazy and hectic day in Versailles it was a good day for some down time.  The girls were scheduled for Pony Club in the afternoon so the whole day was spent getting ready to go!!!  The girls were excited since they woke up.

At the barn the girls were given two new horses to ride and joined up with another large group of children.  They went through a lot of the same exercises as the last time and a few new ones to work on.  They spent most of the class jumping and learning the correct position to be in when they jumped.  AP's horse was a tiny little pony named Nougatine and when he got close to the jump he would gallop over the jump.  This was very exciting and gave AP lots of confidence.  Nai'a's horse got a little mad at her for using the crevasse (whip) and he gave a little buck.  She still managed to do the jump and got a "Bravo" from the teacher for staying on and completing her exercise.  The smiles on the girls faces were huge when they finished and now both want to keep on jumping when they get back to their own barn in Hawaii.

Goofy girls smile
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Off to bed early, as we are headed to Paris in the morning.   The girls were very excited to be heading back to Paris for another fun-filled day.  We started our day by heading to the Musee d'Orsay.  This museum is one that mom and Nai'a were very excited to see.  Impressionists were their favorite artists.  The museum itself was a truly impressive sight.  It used to be a main train station back in the days of the steam engines.  It is now a beautiful museum with lots of natural light coming through an arched ceiling of glass.  The main room is filled with sculptures which looked a bit like people mulling about (except that the majority of them were naked!).  The museum offered guides for the children to use to find the major works of art.  It gave them clues to look for that would lead them in the direction.  This was very exciting for the girls to go on an "art hunt".  It was so awesome to see the girls recognize some of the art that we have learned about on other trips that we have done.  For example Nai'a absolutely squealed when she saw the waterlily paintings and the bridge by Monet.  She was amazed that the paintings up close looked like the paint was put on in blobs but as you stood back you would see the pictures come to life.  AP saw the Van Gogh paintings and recognized many of them.  All of us were in awe by the ballerina sculpture by Degas.  We stood and looked at it for a long time.

Already we could tell that AP was not a happy camper today!!!
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After the museum we found a cafe to eat lunch at.  It was a delicious French lunch and the girls loved sitting in the small cafe getting much attention from the "cute" waiter!!!  We decided to go to the book store to stock up on some new American books to read on the rest of our trip.  Both mom and grandma were in need of new books, and the girls can never leave a bookstore empty handed.  Amazingly we found this bookstore that had almost all English books.

We strolled and window shopped up the Rue De Rivoli which had some very nice stores.  Of course Nai'a wanted to buy everything, but it was a little out of our price range.  The girls settled on one ride each at the fair in the Jardin Des Tuileries.  Nai'a picked her favorite-the swings and AP wanted to drive the little cars.  That was all it took to bring the big smiles back.

The lipstick scupture. We loved this one.
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Off again to do a little more affordable shopping.  We went to an incredible department store called Galleries Lafayette.  The inside of this store was amazing.  The ceiling was a dome of stained glass with a view of this ceiling from every floor.  There was a floor for everything.  The kids wanted to head straight for the toys and clothes...  there they found some adorable back to school clothes.  Nai'a says she'll be the best dressed girl in school!!!

Well, we spent too much time shopping and had to rush back to the train home.  It was nice that we just had a short drive after the train ride.  Back to our house and our beds.  Another great day in France!!