Maddie, Max, Mallory and Maguire's trip to Europe

The Museum...

MADDIE: Yesterday it was really cold and rainy. My grandma, who got here Thursday, my dad, and I went out to get lunch. We went to the market (stalls lined up outside with people selling all kinds of food) and Bolaungerie. When we got back home we were drenched. That afternoon we went to a museum. At first when my mom told us it was a museum, I groaned. I thought it would be really boring. But when we got there, it was awesome! It was not just a regular museum, it was a museum of animated figures that were dancing and moving. We saw a circus with a little bear riding a unicycle, a giant bear playing the cymbals, monkeys playing instruments, a trapeze artist, a clown taking pictures, and a clown doing flips on a bar. We also saw the nativity scene, Notre Dame with the characters from Hunchback of Notre Dame, and lots of other cool things. Then, we rounded the corner, and Maguire ran ahead of everyone. " IT'S PETER PAN!!!!!!!!! he yelled. He stood there for probably 45 minutes, his eyes glued on the pirates, Peter Pan, and all of the other characters. For dinner we went to Little Italy, it was delicious! For dessert, we got giant ice cream sundaes. Yum! Yum! Yum!

MAX: Yesterday it was raining. So we went to a children's museum. There were lots of little people that were moving, some looked real and some looked fake. I saw Notre Dame. The rose window looked real. It looked exactly like the real Notre Dame! In the next room their was a nativity scene. Then we went into a silk factory scene, because they used to make a lot of silk in Lyon. In the next room we saw a Peter Pan scene Maguire yelled PETER PAN !!!!!!!! (it was very loud) In the next room we saw a wine scene.

MALLORY: Because it was a rainy day, Grandma, Mommy and Daddy decided to take us someplace inside. We walked to a museum. Through the window you could see Cinderella and a Giant. Then when we went inside. There was a circus, the baby Jesus's stable and a Peter Pan scene. The Peter Pan scene looked really cool. It had Peter Pan, Mr. Grins -- the alligator -- Captain Hook, Tinkerbell and Wendy, John and Michael.We saw Notre Dame and Quasimodo and Ezmeralda. I got a paper that asked me to find things like "Which animal is at the circus?" It was the parrot. "Who has the biggest eyes?"It was Quasimodo. "Who has the longest nose?" Pinocchio was the answer. "What does the mouse eat?" Cheese is the answer. "Where is the wolf hiding?" Behind the windmill is the answer. And then we left and walked back home to our apartment and I colored the fish from Pinocchio on the paper. Then I went to the grocery with my dad and my brother, Max. Then we went to Little Italy, a restaurant. We ordered sundaes for dessert. I picked a coffee one.

MAGUIRE: The museum was so cool! Mommy showed me on the brochure that there would be pirates there. I got on my coat and shoes faster than I ever had in my life. "Real pirates?" I asked. "Are we going Right Now?!" I asked/demanded. When we went in the museum we saw lots of cool things. They were like the figures I saw in the "It's a Small World" ride at Disney. There was a circus and a baker. There was a cool nativity scene and I saw Quasimodo at the top of a floor to ceiling Notre Dame (I've seen the Disney movie. I knew who he was, but wondered why he wasn't wearing green). Then, we turned the corner. And there it was -- "Peter Pan!" I shouted, almost out of breath. The pirates weren't any old pirates, but Captain Hook (they call him Captain Crochet in French) and his crew in an enormous depiction of Peter Pan. I gazed at it for over an hour, entranced. Captain Hook's boots ran back and forth. Their was the crocodile trying to get him that moved in and out from under a log. Peter Pan flew overhead and Smee nodded with a goofy smile on his face. The lost boys spun round and round while Wendy, John and Michael smiled on at the whole scene. There were other things to see, other things I loved, but I couldn't stand being away from the pirates. When the museum closed, I had to wave goodbye, but I know if I ever return to Lyon, the first place I'll go back to.

The Soccer Game...

MADDIE: Last night my parents took us to a pro soccer game! Lyon was playing Sochaux. We, of course, were cheering for Lyon. There was one side of the stadium that was singing the whole game. The game was really cool, both teams were really good, and they kept going up and down the field.! About 20 minutes into the first half, Lyon scored! The guy who scored hopped the fence, and started dancing around! The crowd went wild For the rest of the game, no one scored. But, the Lyon goalie had a lot of great blocks, when he dove for the ball. In about 25 minutes the game would be over, and the score was still 1-0, and Sochaux looked like they might score! Then, a Lyon player stole the ball, sprinted down the field, shot, missed, but the Sochaux goalie fell down trying to block the shot, another guy from Lyon got the ball, shot, and scored! Everyone cheered really loudly, and the other Lyon players all hugged the guy that scored. It was awesome!!!!! But, then, we had to sprint out of the stadium before the rest of the crowd did, hop on the Metro and take it home. That was one of the best days of my life!!!!

MALLORY: At the soccer game, which they call here "football", it was really fun! We brought food and we had to eat it outside of the soccer game, because we didn't know if they would let us bring it in. And, we didn't think we were allowed to bring it in, because the guards were feeling people from your feet to your head, because they wanted you to buy the food at the stadium. But, they let us bring our food in. But, they didn't let my mom bring in a water that was huge! It was like the size of a newborn baby. When we got in our seats we ate a little bit of baguette and then the game started. All through the game people on the different side from us were chanting in French like "go team!" "Allez Lyonnais!" It means Go Lyon!

MAGUIRE: I liked the football game. We had seats where there was plenty of room for me to dance to the constant singing and drumming by the rowdy section of fans. Everyone wore red and blue scarves (Lyon's colors) with big yellow lions on them, and people were waving red and blue flags. I loved their mascot -- a big lion who came out on the field at halftime. For the rest of the game I was looking for him, but I didn't see him again.

A Carnival...

 MADDIE:Yesterday my dad got back from South Africa. He had gone there for a meeting, and he brought me back a Soccer World Cup hat. The Soccer World Cup is going to be in South Africa next year! Last night we were going to get dinner at a cafe my mom found. On the way there we saw a parade marching by! Apparently, there was some kind of carnival going on. Then, when we got to the cafe it, and it didn't open until 7:00. All the other restaurants we saw either didn't open until 7:00 or their food looked disgusting! So, we ended up getting carryout McDonald's. On the way home from McDonald's there was a band playing at the playground closest to our house! They played all night long. Then, at about 10:00 p.m. I heard a loud "BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!" I walked into the living room, and there was an awesome display of fireworks!!!!!!!

MAX: We saw lots of signs for a carnival. So, we decided to go to it. On the 21st we heard a band playing at the playground closest to our apartment. We went to see the band, but they were on a break and weren't going to play for awhile, so we went on a walk to get dinner. On our way to the cafe, we saw a parade passing through and someone dressed up like Batman was leading the parade and passing out confetti. We could hardly get past the parade because they took up the whole skinny street. Then there were drummers and singers. The place we were trying to go to dinner at was closed and wouldn't open until 7:00 or 8:00 (like most French cafes).  We went back to the playground to see if a band was playing and we saw a big Frankenstien dancing to the music. So, we went back to the street our apartment was on, but everything was closed there too. So, Maddie and I went with Daddy to McDonald's, because it's the only thing that's always open. 

MAGUIRE: Our bridge was closed today because of the St. Georges Dragon Film Festival. We didn't know exactly what that meant, but it sounded like fun. We also noticed a big stage had been erected on our playground yesterday. We saw all kinds of crazy stuff today, but still aren't sure what everyone was celebrating. In front of St. Jean's church there were traditional French singers rocking back and forth and singing traditional songs. Meanwhile, crazy people dressed up in costumes, kids, grown ups, teenagers, were dancing nearby. There was a Charlie Chaplain and an Edward Scissorshands. There were fairies and dragons and Spiderman and a Dalmation and Cruella Deville. The parade literally blocked our way and everyone elses' way. It wasn't like at home where people sit on the curb and watch a parade go by. This was down a whole maze of narrow streets and the parade filled the streets and you just had to smoosh against the walls, or duck down an alley to avoid becoming part of the parade. I just wondered, "Is that a real bear?" "Is that a real dragon?" "Is that the real Spiderman?" I'm still not convinced it wasn't

A Soccer Game...

MADDIE: Yesterday we went to a playground near our house. We brought our soccer ball to play with. While Max and I were kicking the ball some French kids came. They started kicking it with us, then they said "play match", it was the only English they knew. Their mom and grandma came over and helped us figure out the teams and goals, they spoke more English. It was Max, me, and a French boy against 2 French boys. Mallory and another boy played for a little bit, and a French girl was the score keeper. We played for a really long time, and the ending score was, 10-10. It was really fun! Today we went to the park with the zoo in it again and went on a carousel. We also saw an angry monkey who bared his teeth at us and pounded on his glass!

PARIS AND THE EIFFELTOWER...

MADDIE: On Saturday, we took a train to Paris! When we got there, we checked into our hotel, Holiday Inn, and then took a Metro to the Eiffel Tower! It was way bigger than I thought it would be, and it looked way cooler than it did in books. It was really windy there! When you stood under the Eiffel Tower, you looked so small, and the Eiffel Tower looked so big! The view was awesome, you could see all of Paris. On the sidewalks outside the Eiffel Tower, there were lots of people selling key chain Eiffel Towers. They had big rings with all the key chains on them and they shook them. The next day, we went to a museum and saw Monet's water lilies. They were huge and took up the whole wall. Then, we went to church at Notre Dame. There was a ginormous rose window that had lots of really bright colors. It was cool. The same day we went to Sacre Coeur. Outside of Sacre Coeur we went on a carousel and ate pizza for dinner. We needed to go to the bathroom and there was a really long line. Everytime someone came out of the bathroom, they had to shut the door and wait about five minutes until the bathroom washed itself with water. When you walked in your feet were soaked and it smelled really bad too! Then we went inside Sacre Coeur. Inside it was really cool. There were huge mosaics on the ceiling and walls. The ceiling was really tall. Outside of Sacre Coeur there were people breakdancing and flipping on their hands. There were also people singing and playing guitars on the steps to Sacre Coeur, and there was a painter who painted stuff in really bright colors. There were also a million people selling Eiffel Tower key chains. The next day we went to a park called Tuillieres. We saw a big pyramid called La Concorde and got crepes for lunch. My favorite kind of crepe is Nutella, a chocolatey spread that's sticky and has hazelnuts in it and makes it taste really good. After lunch we went to the Louvre a humongous museum.  The entrance to it is a glass pyrmaid. We saw the Mona Lisa and Winged Victory. No matter where you were standing in the room Mona Lisa was in it looked like her eyes were always following you. It was really creepy! Then we left the park and went to Pizza Hut. The pizza was really good, but it took really long and they forgot about our breadsticks until the very end. We took a two hour train ride back to Lyon and walked home to our apartment. I almost fell asleep about ten times when we were walking home, because it was about 11:30PM. When we got home it was not exactly fun to go up all our steps again, but at least we could go to bed. Paris was really cool, and I hope I can go  back someday.




MAX; I ACTUALLY WENT TO THE EIFFEL TOWER . (IT WAS TALLER THAN I THOUGHT). JUST ONE OF THE PILLARS WAS BIGGER THAN A SKYSCRAPER IN CINCINNATI. I WENT ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP, AND I COULD SEE ALL OF PARIS, AND I GOT TO TAKE THE ELEVATOR! THE NEXT DAY WE WENT TO MASS AT NOTRE DAME. IT WAS REALLY COOL. THERE WAS A MODEL OF THEM BUILDING NOTRE DAME. THEY BUILT IT HANDMADE. WE SAW MONET'S WATER LILIES. THEY TOOK UP TWO WHOLE ROOMS! THEN WE WENT TO SEE SACRE COEUR. IT WAS REALLY TALL, AND REALLY HIGH UP ON A HILL. THE DAY AFTER THAT WE WENT TO THE LOUVRE, AND WE SAW SOME SARCOPHOGI AND A SPHINX. THERE WAS A GLASS PYRAMID THAT WAS THE ENTRANCE AND WE HAD TO GO DOWN A BUNCH OF ESCALATORS AND WE WENT UP ON A CRAZY ELEVATOR, BUT WE HAD TO GO RIGHT BACK DOWN ON IT, BECAUSE WE ACCIDENTALLY TOOK IT UP TO THE ENTRANCE. WE SAW THE MONA LISA BY LEONARDO DA VINCI. SHE WAS A LOT SMALLER THAN I THOUGHT SHE WOULD BE. HER EYES LOOKED AT US WHEREVER WE WENT. I GOT TO EAT ALOT OF CREPES AND THINGS FROM PATISSIRIES.(THAT IS THE FRENCH WORD FOR BAKERY)

MALLORY: We came up from the train station and then we got on an elevator and we went up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. At the top you could see a little bit of Sacre Coeur and you could see some of a hotel that we saw lots of times while we were in Paris. Everything looked pretty small because we were on something big and we were up really high. The Eiffel Tower was really cool. It looked the same as I thought it would. The next day we woke up and then we went to Notre Dame for church because it was Sunday. It was alot bigger than the church I go to in Oxford. There was humongous rose windows in it and everytime there was a start of a song it sounded like really scary music coming from the pipe organ. We went to see Monet's Les Nympheas. They were alot bigger and the benches were so full in the middle I didn't even get a chance to sit i nthemiddle and see if it was really like floating in a pool. There were two rooms but they were both Monet's water litllies. There were four different ones in each room. I liked one of them most, because it had a special ocean with trees at the top. I took a picture of Maguire by one of the paintings and he smiled very funny. We went to Sacre Coeur and went on the carousel two times around, one with just the kids and with the grown-ups the second time. After the rides were over we went up a little more and ate pizza for dinner in the grass. The next day we went to the Louvre. It was packed. There were lots of cool mummy things and lots of cool paintings. There were two special ones. One of them was John the Baptist and his eyes followed you wherever you were in the room. Another painting was of Mona Lisa. Her eyes followed you wherever you were in the room too. Paris is really cool and I would like to go back again when I have my kids.

MAGUIRE: Paris was really fun! I couldn't believe I actually got to see the real Eiffel Tower. I've seen it in so many books. I love to call the power lines at home the Eiffel Tower, but the real thing was so big. I could see it almost everywhere we went in Paris. "There it is!" I'd declare and point with all my might. When we went up to the top, everyone was pointing things out -- "There's Notre Dame." or "There's the Arc de Triumph, do you see it?" but what I wanted to know was "Where's the Eiffel Tower?" Mommy said we were on the Eiffel Tower, actually on it, but that was hard for me to grasp. I couldn't see it while I was on it. I loved the Louvre. Again, I think I love museums more than anyone else. I'm obsessed with all the statues of kings and the kings depicted in the countless paintings of the nativity. I loved Monet's Water Lilies too. "Look at the blue in this one!" "Can we look at the blue in this one?" "Blue is my favorite color!" I announced, as I flitted from one canvas to the next. I loved the pizza we ate hillside at Sacre Coeur and ate three pieces! I also love crepes -- strawberry, sugar and cheese. I can't eat the chocolate ones because of my allergies, but all the others are good. Can I eat the whole one? I ask. We played in Tuillieres garden. I picked up a stick and used my best French "En garde! Touche!" There are statues of kings out there too :). There were also these two cool fountains which flank La Concorde. They have mermaids holding fish and in the middle are Gods in boats. I think they're pirate boats. When we went to bed in Lyon last night I asked Mommy, "But what about Paris? What about our Paris hotel? When are we going back to it?"

A day in Lyon...

MADDIE: Today we went to the shipwreck playground again. I went speeding down the slide with Mallory on top of me and landed really hard on my bottom! Then, this afternoon we went to a park and we played soccer. Tomorrow, we will take a train to Paris.

MADDIE: Yesterday we went to a museum. It had sarcophogi, weapons, alot of statues and alot of paintings. I saw some paintings that were cubism. They were really cool, because you could see all sides of the subjects of the paintings. The weapons were also really cool. They were from the Roman Empire. In the sarcophogi room my dad said he saw a head and a hand in a case!!! He told me not to go over there. When we left the museum we went to Puma, because we needed a soccer ball (they call it a football here). We got a white soccer ball with gray and silver swirls and a big silver Puma. They said they could deflate it for us when we have to go home, so it could fit in my suitcase. Today we went to a playground. It was wooden and supposed to look like a shipwreck. There was also long tube slides going down to the shipwreck. Max, Mallory and I all laid on top of each other and went down on all top of each other. It was fun. This afternoon we went to another playground and we kicked our soccer ball around. A French kid was there and he kicked it with us. Some highschool kids started screaming at each other, so we decided to leave before there was a fight.

MAX:

MALLORY: At the museum there was lots of cool pictures and lots of sculptures.There was an exhibit of sarcophogi. One of the paintings was of ballerinas. They were my favorite, because I do ballet.  One of Monet's paintings was there. We had a great time. I think we should come back agaian. I think that the United States is much different because the cars hear are much smaller. There's alot of advertisements on cars and we've seen bike/car things at the parks. I can't believe that we're going to Paris in two days. I think it will be very cool there -- Monet's water lilies, The Eiffel Tower and many other cool things I've heard about. I think it will be cool to come back home in a couple of weeks too. I miss all my friends and my grandparents.

MAGUIRE: I think I liked the museum best of all. I loved all the nativity scenes, the pirates on their horses, the statues of kings....I wanted to look at every picture in the place, but Mommy and Daddy kept pulling me ahead. I could have spent alot more time there. Mommy surprised me today by taking me to a pirate playground. It was set up as a shipwreck with crashed boats to climb and steer, nets I pretended to get stuck in and rowboats to climb in and out of and bounce in. We took a picnic of baguettes (my new favorite food), plumbs and little chocolate milk boxes called "Candy Up". I slid down huge slides on Mommy's lap to race Maddie, Max and Mallory -- Wheeeee!

The Zoo

MADDIE:Yesterday we took the Metro to a big park with a zoo in it. We followed a trail around the park and saw lots of animals. The first animals we saw were some kind of thing like deer. They were just out in the open in a big open area and there were only some rocks between us and them! Then, we saw lots of other animals including lemurs, flamingos, alligators, a bear, bat-eared foxes,(they were eating mice, and it was cool) elephants, giraffes, longhorns, storks, cranes, and(they had funny mohawks) elks. Then, we went to a playground in the park it had a pirate ship to climb on.(Maguire loved it) Then, we went to an Italian restraunt called Little Italy. I tried gnocchi, penne pasta, and pizza. It was all really good! Stay tuned!

MAGUIRE: When I looked way up into the trees, I could see the bird's nests. I pointed to them to show my Mommy and Daddy that I had seen them. The elephants were "hoomungus" and I liked watching the bear too, but my favorite part of the zoo, by far, was the playground with the blue pirate ship on it. It had two steering wheels. I drove from both of them. I had to be the captain and Maddie, Max, Mallory, Daddy and Mommy all took turns being my first mate. I wish they had playgrounds like this in the states. I cried and cried when we had to leave. I literally couldn't get a hold of myself. Mommy promised we could come back. The zoo is free in Lyon, so she said we could come back every week. That helped a little, but I still wish I was there.

Cool Stuff...

#1 seeing a biker dude doing a pop-a-wheelie

#2 getting my dragon shield

#3 getting my own TV on the flight to London

#4 getting to be on French TV

#5 seeing the Tower of London, London Bridge, and Big Ben


these are in no order

by Maddie

Churches and Ruins and Toys, Oh my...

MADDIE:This morning we went to St.Georges for church. I couldn't understand what the priest was saying. There were probably 10 servers, and they were all boys. At communion we had to go up and kneel at the alter and the priest put the bread in our mouths. There was no wine and the bread had more of a taste than the bread at home. Then, we took a Funicular(bus on tracks attached to cables) to Fourviere(a church) and just looked around. It was cool. It had big stained glass windows and pictures on the ceilings made out of little tiles (mosaics)Then, we went to a old Roman Coliseum. It was a place where sporting events and shows would take place. It was built in 43 BC. There was crumbling stone everywhere and a pillar had fallen down. It was huge! 11,000 people could sit there! We ran around and had lots of fun. On the way home we walked past a toy store. My dad said we could go inside and look around. Then, my dad, mom, and Maguire came in. Max, Mallory, and Maguire got figures. I got a wooden shield with a dragon painted on. It is awesome!  

MALLORY: WE WENT TO THE RUINS AND PLAYED TAG AND RAN. WE HAD LOTS OF FUN. WE LEFT THE RUINS. BEFORE  DINNER WE WENT TO A TOYSTORE WE  WENT INSIDE.THERE WAS LOTS OF TOYS. I GOT A PRINCESS. MAX GOT A KING. AND MADDIE GOT A SHIELD.     

MAGUIRE: I'm obsessed with kings and therefore love nativity scenes, because of the three kings. I point out all the kings on the mosaics and stained glass windows of churches. There were tons for me to see in Fourviere. I loved climbing all the steps and running around on the stage in the ancient ruins. I try to keep up with all my brothers and sisters and refuse to let my size get in the way! Luckily I had my stroller to ride down the super steep hills leading back into Vieux Lyon (old Lyon) where we live. If Mommy had let go, I would have gone zooming!