Last stop on our summer adventures was London! Our train from Lille was running pretty late so we took a cab to the hotel (Great Scotland Yard Hotel) and Andrew hurried to his work dinner. The kids and I went to the pub at the corner (The Clarence) for dinner.

The next day was my 44th birthday! Andrew planned a nice day with the kids (British Museum, Westminster Abbey) so I could do some solo sightseeing. After a lovely breakfast at the hotel we went our separate ways and I walked over to see the Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House. It was a beautiful little museum notable due to its impressionist collections, including the famous self-portrait of van Gogh with bandaged ear! I enjoyed the informational panels as well, great little museum.

After the museum I got a quick bite to eat and walked back to the hotel (past the Benjamin Franklin house) to shower before the matinee of Hello, Dolly! starring Imelda Staunton. She was amazing! I’d never seen the show before (not even the movie) but I so enjoyed it.

That night we got a sitter so we could go out to a fancy birthday dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant. So good! A perfect end to a memorable birthday.

The next day we went out to the Greenwich Observatory in the morning.

The prime meridian line!

We learned about John Harrison and the years of hard work that it took him to develop the marine chronometer to determine longitude at sea.

Then we walked down the hill and had lunch at a sausage place.

Sarah for some reason loved the text on this box of water.

The Cutty Sark

Then we took a boat taxi from Greenwich around to the Tower of London stop.

By this point in the trip the kids were completely rejecting any audio guides, which is a shame because the one at the Tower of London was very well done. Our experience with audio guides had its ups and downs — the one at the Rodin museum was a highlight, then the one at the Louvre was just terrible, and the Versailles one was pretty bad as well. Erik Satie was a good one.

Anyway! I listened to the audio guide and learned that this little alcove was the royal toilet! No plumbing, it would just go outside the walls.

I also learned about the execution block and this poor guy — it took three swings of the axe to behead him. So when Anne Boleyn was to be executed apparently she requested that it be done by sword rather than an axe, and Henry VIII acquiesced and brought in a skilled French swordsman for her beheading.

We learned that the Tower at different times housed a lot of exotic animals including an elephant, a polar bear, lions, monkeys. It sounds like none of them survived that long since no one knew how to take care of them or what to feed them.

On the way back to our hotel we eavesdropped on a Harry Potter walking tour going by our hotel and learned that the street was used for exterior shots of the Ministry of Magic entrance. This spot in particular you can see when Harry, Ron, and Hermione are sneaking in using polyjuice potion in the Deathly Hallows part 1.

That night we took the kids to their first Michelin star restaurant, perhaps the best Indian restaurant in the world? It’s called Benares. They enjoyed their usual chicken kebab appetizer and butter chicken entree and acknowledged it was tasty, though Sarah still claims our local place (Coriander) is her favorite. 🙂

Friday July 12 was (supposed to be) our last full day in London and we’d planned a visit to the Harry Potter Studios while Andrew went into the office for work. The Studios visit was a big hit; both kids declare it to be their favorite part of the whole vacation. You get to walk through the various sets and see costumes and props. And also learn about the creatures and special effects.

They opened with the Great Hall and we learned that originally the floating candles were really lit up and hanging from wires, but the flames burned through the wires causing the candles to fall! So they switched over to CGI flames.

The story of Hagrid was pretty interesting — they had one actor who did all the closeups. And another who was just really tall, but he’d also wear lifts and a robot Hagrid head to make him even taller, for scenes he is in with other actors. We’ve been rewatching the movies and I keep trying to notice when it’s a robot head but it’s pretty seamless.

I liked seeing that the invisibility cloak was a green screen on one side.

There was a green screen area where you could ride a broom but we decided not to purchase the video, it was kind of disappointing.

The Forbidden Forest set was particularly cool and creepy.

I was also really impressed with the train and Platform 9 3/4.

About halfway through the tour there’s a Backlot Cafe with lots of kid-friendly food options — chicken tenders, burgers, fries, etc, so everyone was happy. I also got a butterbeer to try but the kids refused to have a sip – they are both anti-carbonation. It was a butterscotch soda with a weird foam that was sweet, almost like marshmallow on top.

Outside on the backlot we also got to see Privet Drive, the Knight Bus, the Herbology classroom, the bridge first added by Alfonso Cuaron in the 3rd movie. It was all very cool.

The second half of the tour was focused more on creating the magic — there were rooms on makeup, special effects, creature robotics, artwork, and models. They also had the Gringotts sets, before and after the dragon escape.

Oh and Diagon Alley of course!

Lastly they showed us a giant room with a complete model of Hogwarts, which was used for most of the distant establishing shots in all the movies. They did do a lot of exterior filming at various castles and such throughout England but most of the time the distant exterior shots were of this model! Now we are rewatching the movies and every time we see it we turn to each other and say “It’s only a model” in a Monty Python voice (ala the Holy Grail).

On the way out we stopped in the gift shop (of course!) to buy some souvenirs and then got some chocolate soft serve in the cafe before our driver pickup time. The soft serve was remarkably good.

For their souvenirs both kids chose a wand — Blaine went for the Gryffindor wand modeled after the sword of Gryffindor and Sarah decided on the Ravenclaw wand designed to resemble the diadem of Ravenclaw.

We got back to the hotel and started packing for our departure the following morning when a text came in informing me that our flight had been cancelled! No explanation. Luckily Andrew is an expert traveler and was not phased at all — he got us booked on a different flight leaving Sunday and got an extra hotel room booked at the new hotel. Andrew was moving hotels on Saturday to be closer to his offices since he was going to stay in London an extra week for work. We had a delicious dinner that night and thought about what to do on our bonus day in London.

On Saturday we packed up and went for a nice breakfast. Then the kids and I took a walk near our hotel while Andrew took the luggage over to our new hotel to check in. We happened upon the annual Belgium military parade at the Whitehall Cenotaph and watched for awhile. Apparently the King and Queen of Belgium were there!

Then we walked down to get a better view of Big Ben before taking the tube to Paddington to meet up with Andrew.

From Paddington we took the train out to see Windsor Castle. They do not allow photos inside so here’s an exterior shot:

We also went into St. George’s Chapel and saw the royal burial sites including the most recent, Queen Elizabeth II, as well as Henry VIII and many others. The most bizarre was a man named John Schorne who was a rector credited with miracles including find a well in a drought and casting the devil into a boot (he is usually pictured holding a boot for this reason).

Then it was back to Paddington and to the last hotel of our trip, the Cafe Royal.

We realized this hotel had a pool and the kids were pretty done with touring so we went out to a sports shop and got swimsuits for Andrew and the kids for the following morning. Then we went out for our final dinner in London, on Carnaby Street.

On the walk back we got to see the outside of Andrew’s offices.

The next morning we enjoyed a fancy breakfast at our fancy hotel. Apparently a lot of famous people have been through the Cafe Royal and it seemed like there were pictures of Oscar Wilde and David Bowie everywhere.

Then we spent a relaxing morning at the hotel pool before packing up and heading to Heathrow for our 4pm flight back to JFK.

It was a fabulous trip and that is a testament to all of Andrew’s careful planning! Gone are the days when you can travel on the fly, almost everything required advanced timed tickets and many of the nights we had our dinner plans reserved in advance as well. Hotels, transportation, museums, babysitters, dinner reservations, everything went smoothly except for a few things out of our control. We are so lucky to have such an experienced traveler to put together these amazing trips. The kids did really well, and showed a lot more patience and energy compared to our trip to India a year earlier. It’s fun to travel at their pace and see things we’ve been to before with a different focus. And to see some new things we’ve never seen before!

We drove to Bruges and arrived at the Grand Hotel Casselbergh in time for dinner.

We went to a nearby pub for some Belgian beer and moules frites (with mayo of course).

The next day we had the best hotel breakfast with Belgian waffles, and then headed out to explore. Blaine really wanted to climb the 366 steps to the top of the Belfry so we booked some tickets and then took a quick peak at the Stadthaus and the Basilica while we waited. Sarah did not feel like a climb so she and Andrew went in to see the Stadthaus museum.

Blaine and I made it to the top just in time for the 11am bells! It was LOUD! But very cool to see all the workings of the bells.

After the Belfry we walked over to the canal for a boat trip.

Then we went for lunch at Mr. Waffle and Sandwich!

After lunch we did a bit of a walking tour and saw the old hospital and stopped in to the Church of Our Lady to see a famous Michelango Madonna and Child statue.

Sarah and I stopped into a shoe store to get her a new pair of more supportive sneakers — she’d been complaining that her feet hurt during the first half of our trip. Here she is in her new Nike Airs!

Lastly we went by the Chocostory museum, which seemed like a bit of a scam to be honest. Parts of it were interesting — we learned about the different kinds of coffee beans and also the history of chocolate consumption. And there were free samples at the end!

For dinner we went to a brasserie and Andrew and I shared a 5 course tasting of the classic dishes of Belgium — mussels, rabbit, beef, pork and vol-au-vent.

We loved our hotel in Bruges — it was only for 2 nights so we were all going to be in one room, but it turned out the one room had a big loft upstairs with twin beds for the kids so it was fine.

On Tuesday the 9th we left Belgium and drove back to France to drop the car in Lille and catch our train to London. We left time to check out Lille, walked around a bit, got some frites for a snack, and went to see the Cathedral. It’s relatively modern and was only completed in 1999 — the facade is not terribly impressive from the outside but it’s pretty on the inside.

The Cathedral was built to house a statue of Mary and Jesus which supposedly has miraculous properties?

Then it was off to the train station for some lunch, followed by another unexpected meal on the train!

After Versailles we drove up to Normandy for the second stop on our trip. Our main goal was to see the D-Day beaches but also to have some quieter and more relaxing days. We stayed in a beautiful beach town called Honfleur, famous for its seafood and for being popular with impressionist painters. It somehow escaped destruction during all the wars and had buildings from the 16th-18th centuries along the harbor.

We had rented a more modern townhouse on vrbo, which was right across the street from the Honfleur Tennis Club so we could watch the players on the red clay from our balcony.

After settling in to our rental we headed out for dinner at a seafood place for some tasty oysters and mussels. Sadly we did not sample these huge crabs though the kids enjoyed watching them in the tank.

Sarah photobomb!

We loved walking around the narrow cobblestone streets in Honfleur and discovering the tiny passageways between buildings.

On Wednesday July 3 we took it easy and went for breakfast in the morning followed by a leisurely walk around the town. We stopped in to the church (Eglise Ste-Catherine) which was destroyed at one point and then rebuilt by the community of ship builders which is evident from the ceiling, which looks like the hull of a ship. It’s France’s largest wooden church and was built in the 15th century.

Blaine really wanted to light a candle so I helped him light one to my Mom-Mom, his great-grandmother, who would have liked it. The church also coincidentally has a relic from St. Theresa of the Little Flower which was the name of her nursing home she was living in when she died.

Outside the church there was a small farmers market going on so we picked up some vegetables, cheese, and eggs.

Back to the house for a simple lunch and some down time.

After lunch we went to the nearby Parc Zoologique to see some butterflies and birds. The kids were mostly interested in feeding the koi.

Then we walked over to the waterfront park with a “Jardin des Personalites” with busts of all the famous people who are from Honfleur, or even who just spent some time in Honfleur. 😀

The next day was July 4 and we’d planned to drive to see the various sites commemorating D-Day. Our first stop was at Utah Beach, which was an American landing site added late by Eisenhower. The museum is the most modern and had some great exhibits so we learned a lot. Utah was the most successful landing with only 197 casualties due to the success of the paratroopers and the advance bombings.

We started by seeing the memorials and beach, and then we went in to take in the museum.

We also got some espresso and water from the cafe “Le Roosevelt” named after Teddy Roosevelt’s son, Ted Jr, who was one of the generals leading the attack. We learned that the currents sent some of the boats off course so when they landed it was not according to plan but Roosevelt said, “We’ll start the war from right here!”

After Utah we decided to make a stop at Pont du Hoc, which is where the allies climbed the cliffs at night and took a strategic defensive position from the Germans in preparation for D-Day. It was a pretty spot but ended up being more walking than we’d anticipated, plus some of the sites were closed due to the cliffs eroding. In hindsight we probably would have skipped this stop!

Our third stop was Omaha, which was the American landing beach with the highest number of casualties (2400). We had some lunch right by the beach and then went on to see the American cemetery.

It was a long and tiring day so Andrew cooked some dinner back at our house that night. The next day we’d planned on more driving to see Mont St Michel and the Bayeux Tapestry, but we decided neither held that much interest for the kids and Andrew and I had seen them both before! So we decided to stay local and drive around the local beach towns, instead.

First we went to a nearby museum in the home of Erik Satie, a pianist and composer. The museum was wild, one large art installation.

Then we drove over to a larger beach town, Trouville, for lunch by the beach. It was fun to see the French tourists out for a beach day!

On the drive back we stopped to see another beach at Villerville.

In the meantime, we were waiting for word from our vrbo hosts on the status of our hot water in our rental! Backstory — the second night of our stay we started hearing a very loud noise periodically, and by the next day it was going every 5 minutes. They came and checked something but it hadn’t seemed to help and by the next day the hot water heater was broken! Turns out it was something major, so they moved us over to another, larger, property on the other side of town. It was an entire B&B and we had it all to ourselves. With the critical hot water we needed to do our laundry. 🙂

That night we had another delicious meal out and got some different views of the harbor.

On Saturday we hit this mini golf course, which was beautiful, and the kids went on the ropes course.

We walked through town to a fancy lunch at a place called L’Endroit, where I had delicious homard bleu.

Sarah was feeling a bit ill unfortunately so Andrew and the kids relaxed at our B&B and I checked out the Eugene Boudin museum solo. It had a nice little collection of impressionist paintings of the region, and was fun to see paintings of the beaches and Honfleur sites we’d been seeing the last few days. When I got back Andrew and Blaine went out to see the Maritime Museum and the carousel. We finished up all our laundry and packed up for our drive to Belgium.

The next morning we left for Belgium. En route we stopped for lunch and to see the beach and museum in Dunkirk, another important WWII site of the evacuation of troops in 1940.

We left for Paris late in the evening of Friday June 28 and attempted to get some sleep on the plane! I think even Blaine managed to get a little. When we arrived in Paris it was after lunch time so we checked into our hotel and then went down to the corner boulangerie for a bite to eat. This was Sarah’s first actual French baguette and her life will never be the same.

Our one plan for Saturday was to see the Eiffel Tower so we took the metro from our neighborhood (11th Arrondissement near Place de la Republique). Blaine was happy to see there would be American ketchup in Paris…

The metro took us somewhat close to the Tower but we still had to cross the Seine, and we got to see this flame which is a duplicate of the one at the Statue of Liberty.

It was neat to see the preparations for the Olympics from the top of the Tower.

We took a cab back to the hotel for some rest and then went out to dinner nearby at an Alsatian restaurant– yum!

We had no idea that the Pride celebration was going on that day and the parade ended at Place de la Republique! So we got to see all the festivities going to and from dinner.

On Sunday morning we started the day with the yummy hotel breakfast — I particularly enjoyed that our hotel had a self-serve espresso machine at all hours of the day, and a water dispenser for cold, hot and sparkling filtered water. Then we went to the Church of Saint-Sulpice to hear some organ music on the Great Organ, which wikipedia calls one of the most significant organs in the world.

Then we went to the Rodin Museum, which had an excellent audio guide for kids.

Bonus van Gogh painting of Pere Tanguy!

There was an exhibition in the gardens of some more modern works and we also stopped for a snack in the beautiful garden cafe.

After Rodin we headed over to Les Invalides to see the military exhibits and Napoleon’s tomb.

We had a nice lunch in the cafe and saw another exhibit on dueling!

To end the day we went over to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed the 284 steps to the top.

At some point I took this pic of a street sign with video game mosaics — we were seeing them all over the city and I never figured out why!

Wikipedia tells me it’s a French street artist named Invader.

We went back to our hotel and stopped for some ice cream and wine at a popular spot called Folderol. It was a great concept serving only wine (with wines for sale) and homemade ice creams. Though it was mostly a crowd of hip-looking young adults; I think our kids were the only kids there.

Back to our hotel for some rest and then dinner nearby, followed by a chocolate eclair we’d purchased earlier in the day.

On Monday we had planned on a trip to the Orangerie to see the Monet water lilies followed by lunch in the Tuileries and an afternoon at the Louvre. But the Olympic preparations meant that some of the metro stops and streets were already closed in that area so we decided to change our morning plans. We went to Sainte Chapelle to try to see the stained glass but found a huge line and we didn’t have timed tickets. So we ended up going next door to the Conciergerie, a museum we had never heard of. Luckily it ended up being the perfect activity for our kids, they enjoyed it so much, more than they would have enjoyed our alternatives.

The Conciergerie is a medieval royal palace that was also used as a prison, and the main draw is that it was the place of Marie Antoinette’s final imprisonment before her beheading. It had a very modern audio guide on tablets that the kids loved!

After that we went for lunch and then on to the Louvre!

Why is that lady holding a scorpion?

And why is that lady smiling? 🙂

We’d reached the part of the day when Blaine and Sarah were searching every room for a bench.

So a quick detour through the Egypt section and then we bid the Louvre au revoir.

We went for ice cream and also got supplies for a macaron face-off between Laduree and Pierre Herme. (Laduree won!)

That night we had a wonderful sitter at the hotel so Andrew and I could go out to an excellent Michelin-star dinner at FIEF (stands for Fait ici en France). It was amazing!! I took a pic of this dish which was a play on pad thai using some kind of fish as the noodles. So delicious.

On Tuesday we picked up our rental car and drove out to see Versailles.

The Hall of Mirrors

The Queen’s bedroom

The Gardens — with a stop for a simple lunch in one of the garden cafes.

And then on to Normandy!