Friday

No walking tour today as I was busy at school.  Mia and her classmates very proudly presented their Tiny Town to the parents.  Very cute....

Then they had a parade through the school in their Halloween costumes followed by a party in the classroom with games outside.  Lots of fun.

Halloween

Tomorrow is the last day of school before the Toussaint break (tattie holidays to you and me) so the children celebrate Halloween a bit early.  The lower school kids have a parade through the school in fancy dress followed by a little party in the classroom.    

Tomorrow is also the day when the 2nd graders present their "Tiny Town" to the parents.  Pictures to follow.....

So Jarle comes back from Houston tomorrow and then we leave on Saturday for our new flat in Antibes.  I will post again when we get back.

Dessert at Jarle's birthday dinner

Oslo

The Grand Hotel, Oslo.

Vigeland Park

The New Oslo Opera House

Lovely weather, lovely hotel, ill birthday boy!  We made the best of it.

Lunch in Paris

On Sunday we drove into Paris and had lunch outside in the sunshine.

Friday - Ile de la cite

I am officially on the Friday walking tour now, yippee.  We met on the square in front of Notre Dame on the island which is where the earliest Parisians settled.  We went underground to visit the crypt where remains of cellars from the middle ages and from Roman times were found in the 1970's when a carpark was being built!  Luckily they saved the remains and they can now be viewed by the public.  We saw the remains of the Roman central heating system and bath houses.  They were very advanced in those times, what happened in between??  It was very interesting.

Then we moved on to Saint Chapel which was built by Louis the 9th in the 12th century to house holy relics which he apparently bought from the Turks because they really needed the cash to try to save the Byzantine empire.  So the church contained the crown of thorns, nails and bits of the cross of Jesus.  During the French revolution however, the relics were moved to Notre Dame for safety and are still there now!

The Chapel is the only building of its kind with such a large number of stained glass windows.  It is very beautiful.

Afterwards me and Lotta dashed off to Le Marais to buy falafel for lunch.  Vegetarian fast food Jewish style - perfect.

Saint Germain en Laye

Saint Germain en Laye is a lovely town on the outer edge of the Paris suburbs.  We've been there many times but this time Lotta and I went inside the Chateau where there is a an archeological museum.  Lots of very old things........ bones, flints and stuff.  I was hoping to see inside the chapel which looks lovely from the outside but we didn't get access to it.  We did a little shopping afterwards and then a quick lunch in a cute creperie, yum.

Chateau Malmaison

This was Josephine's "posh" bedroom, she had another one next door!


Well, I finally visited Chateau Malmaison which is just down the road from where we live!  This was the home of Josephine Boneparte, her place in the country where she enjoyed time with her grandchildren and collected exotic plants and animals.  Oh, and Napoleon was there some of the time too.....

Lotta and I were interested to see that Josephine's ancestors now are the kings and queens of half of Europe (including King Harald of Norway and King Karl Gustav of Sweden) 

The Chateau is lovely, cosy and homely compared to the giant castles at Versailles and Fontainbleau.  The gardens look a bit neglected though.

Thanks Lotta for getting me here and showing me the centre of Rueil Malmaison.