Anything to do around here?

For the third and final weekend of visiting with Ross' family, we met up in Paris to celebrate Brian's birthday. I can't believe we've been to Paris twice in the past three months. Who do we think we are? The Rockefellers?

The hotel we stayed in was located at the Arc de Triomphe. This proved to be very convenient for us. Friday, our first night in the city, we went to the top as the sun was setting.



This is what the chaos of the traffic circle around it looks like from the top.


Saturday we overheard the end of a ceremony where they were raising a gigantic flag in the center. The delicate flag moving in the midst of this fortress was a very powerful sight.


Sunday morning, Ross' mom heard a marching band outside. Sure enough, a service for Armistice Day was starting to take place at the Arc, with the Champs-Élysées as the procession route. We hurried down and took our place on the street. The security was extremely high; there were police everywhere. In order to stand along the street, you had to be scanned with a metal detector. At the top of the Arc you could seen guards standing in twos watching all below. There were screens all along the Champs-Élysées showing first the procession, and then later the President Sarkozy's speech and the service, so everyone could have a view of what was happening.

Obviously everything was in French, but it was still meaningful to listen to, as we all know the themes of November 11th. If anything, it allowed us to interpret it however we chose.

After the service, Sarkozy walked around and shook hands with people in the crowd. As he was doing this, film footage from France's archives of WW1 was shown, while a boy's choir sang in the background. It was beautiful.

After Sarkozy was finished, he was hurried into his car which we had plain sight of. I knew this was my one chance to get a photo of him, so I stood on my tiptoes and raised my camera high above my head and snapped this impressive work of photographic genius:


I can assure you, at least one of those legs belongs to him.

Following the motorcade was the procession back. In the background you can see the screen we watched the service on.







It truly was an amazing sight.

This morning, our train left for The Hague at 7am, meaning it was a very early start for us. The only benefit of being on the metro at the crack of dawn is that you actually get a seat.


We have had so much fun these last few weekends jaunting off to meet up with Ross' parents, but unfortunately it can't last forever. As Ross' dad so eloquently stated, "We are not the Rockefellers. . . We are the Milnes."

Next weekend we'll just be in The Hague, but we're looking forward to that, too.