Ooo La La Paris 99

In my last post I shared with you scrapbook

pages that I made in 2002

of my trip to England in 1999 to see my sister 

and her family.

This post is from that same scrapbook.

While I was visiting my sister

Jan surprised me with a WONDERFUL

trip for just the two of us to

PARIS!

It was a bus tour.

I never thought I'd enjoy one but

I would HIGHLY recommend it as you 

don't have to worry about watching the road...

you can just look out the windows and start

snapping pictures of the

beautiful scenery..

We caught our bus northeast of London

just as the children were heading

to school. It was fun seeing

them dressed neatly in their

uniforms ...each school 

with it's own colors.

We drove to Dover and boarded

the ferry which was huge.

The trip took about 90 minutes

to reach Calais France.

We all loaded back on the bus

and off we went on our journey

to Paris.

My first glimpse of the 

Eiffel Tower

took my breath away.

This was like seeing the Grand Canyon...

pictures just don't do it justice.

You FEEL it...not just see it.

Our tour guide was a sweet

Englishman who looked like

David Niven.

He wore a beige trench coat...

wore a fedora...

had a thin mustache and carried 

an umbrella. He was fluent in French

and a lot of other languages.

He was SO much fun and was full of interesting

information and tidbits that we would have 

missed had we been driving ourselves.

He made sure we didn't miss a thing.

We arrived at our hotel in the afternoon

and they let us get settled in our rooms

before we all headed out walking

to a quaint little restaurant district 

near the hotel.

We could wander off where ever we 

wanted to go ...exploring shops and/or finding

places to eat for our first supper in

Paris.

Jan and I picked an Italian restaurant

of all things!

We had wine.

Later once everyone was back at the hotel

and rested the bus picked us up for a 

tour of

Paris at night!

The Eiffel Tower was all lit up 

and had the countdown to the

millennium. 

If you think the Eiffel Tower is 

beautiful during the day...

you should see it at night!

The next day we drove all around the city

seeing different areas and landmarks.

Then we were dropped off near

the Sacre Coeur.

We wandered around and I took tons 

of photo's.

We then walked the steps to the top

and wandered around to the top of

Montmartre.

This is the place where many 

of the artists of the day

hung out such as

Monet, Picasso, van Gogh

Dali.

Behind the Sacre Coeur there are many little

cafe's and restaurants with tents and heaters

and tables and chairs

so Jan and I along with tourists from

 around the world...had supper.

It was WONDERFUL!

There were waiters and waitresses with 

white aprons scurrying around with 

round trays carried by one hand.

The tables were covered with

red checkered tablecloths.

And like the old days...there

were artists with easels set up

in the narrow street and around the restaurants

and they were painting portraits of

paying tourists or scenery which

they had for sale. 

French music played in the background.

I soaked it all in.

Below my sister poses at our 

outdoor table.

I'm afraid I got my days mixed up...

the day after we arrived we

actually went on a boat ride down the 

river Seine. 

Unfortunately for me that first 

morning after arriving in Paris

I had reached over to pull a table in our room

over a bit and I put my back out! 

I mean I REALLY put my back out...

I couldn't sit or stand up straight!

It was terrible.

Anyway I worked through it and off 

we went down the river.

I'm smiling below as we boarded the boat

but believe me...I was in PAIN!

Here are a few photo's taken from the boat.

Paris has the most gorgeous bridges. 

One evening we were taken to 

a French restaurant on the Left Bank.

We were taken down into the cellar

where there were the most beautiful 

old brick walls and arches and the tables 

were all set up with red and white 

checked cloths.

Each table had 3 bottles of wine.

One red...one white and one 1/2 bottle of Rose.

The two of us nearly finished all 3 bottles!!!

Neither Jan or I drink much wine or other spirits

but hey...when you're in Paris...!!!

Another day we traveled to 

Versailles.

We started off at the Palace

which was very beautiful 

and had the most gorgeous fountains.

But by far the the village

of Versailles was my favorite

part of this day. 

Jan and I walked around the narrow 

streets and looked at all the shops.

We had lunch at an outdoor cafe

and then went to the outdoor 

market.

The colors were BEAUTIFUL and it

was wonderful hearing the French

voices calling out their wares.

In the picture above this old

gypsy lady was playing 

French songs on her 

accordion and a little girl 

started dancing.

You can see the woman's face

smiling at the little girl. 

The fruit and vegetables were

bright and colorful and everything

smelled SO good.

Jan and I stopped at  

la pattisserie

and bought some beautiful 

chocolates to take home.

See the little chocolate flower pots

in the middle picture on the left?

Those found their way to Canada. 

The picture below is my sister

in the alley of trees 

at the Palais Royal.

Our last morning in Paris was spent

at the Eiffel Tower.

This was the highlight of my trip.

We took the elevator up and my 

sister described it as being

like the 'Tower Of Babel' 

as it was packed and everyone seemed

to be speaking a different language!

If any of you have ever been on the 

Eiffel Tower 

you know what I mean when I say 

the view is spectacular.

This too is like the Grand Canyon...

you have to experience it. 

I'm afraid I lost my photo's 

of the Eiffel Tower in my move to Kansas.

Maybe one day I'll get back there again.

It was hard to leave Paris

but harder still to say goodbye 

to my Sister.

I haven't seen her since that trip in 1999.

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed 

that she comes to visit this fall. 

Well...now you've seen my first 

attempts at scrapbooking way

back in 2002.

It was a lot of work but well worth it.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Maura :)

Sad News and a re-post

Mom 2009

Mom and Dad 1997

I'm sorry I haven't posted much in the last 

couple of weeks.

My Step-Mom whom I have known nearly 

all my life took sick nearly two weeks ago

and sadly she passed away last Thursday evening.

My father passed away in 2000.

Needless to say this has been a tough time

for my family and myself

and so I haven't spent much time 

on my blog. 

In view of this 

I thought I would re-post 

this entry from a year ago.

I have a few more followers since

this was posted and so I thought 

I would take this opportunity

to post it again.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Maura :)

Being Found By My Sister

We meet for the first time.

My sister Janet and I Oct 91 (I'm on the right)

I was born in 1953, an only child. As I was growing up I often wondered what it would be like to have a brother or sister. I envied my friends who had siblings. Life was often lonely. My parents divorced when I was 7 and my father and I moved half way across the country to live with my Grandparents. At age 11 I was told I had a half brother but I never met him untl I was 17 and we never really got to know each other very well. I married and eventually had 5 children of my own. It was wonderful to see the kids all playing together and laughing but there were also times when they were bickering that I was glad I was an only child LOL! One day in Feb 1991 my brother recieved a letter from someone in England claiming to be a relative. They didn't mention me so I thought I'd write them and tell them about our side of the family. I'm a procrastinator and never got around to writing the letter. Then in our small town local newspaper in the letters to the editor...there it was...a letter looking for me! Another 2 weeks went by and I finally sent a letter off. About two weeks later when I was laying on my daughters bed as she was doing a poster project with her friend, my son came in carrying a letter he'd just gotten from the mailbox. It was this woman writing back. She mentioned England and family dating back to the 1600's but she still doesn't say how we're related. Finally a page and a half into the letter I read...''you asked how we are related, I don't know how to tell you this but I am your sister or half sister". I sat up and looked at my little daughter who was about 8 at the time and she and her friend were looking at me with thier mouths open. I couldn't believe what I was reading. I read it again and the tears started. I had a SISTER!!!! She was born in 1945. My father had been stationed in Surrey England before D Day and during that time he had met my future uncle and he had taken my dad home with him for a good home cooked meal. He met my mum and they 'dated' for a while. The story get's fuzzy here and it seems they went their separate ways and soon after that my dad found himself in France where he was wounded. I'm not sure how long he was in France before he went back to England or how long he was in the hospital but he ended up back in Surrey. One day he said he was walking down the road and a 2 ton troup truck honked and stopped beside him. It was my mum. It turns out my mum had had a baby girl while my dad was gone and under the advice of her mother had given the baby away for adoption. My mum told my dad it wasn't his. They ended up getting married in England and moving to my fathers homeland...Canada. The rest of my mum's immediate family moved to Canada too shortly after the war. My Sister was adopted by a loving older couple who couldn't have children. At the age of 5 her 'mum' was diagnosed with cancer and passed away shortly after that. Laws in England said that since there was no mother and her father was working that my sister would have to go to foster care. She was allowed to go home one weekend every two weeks. One day when she was older and finally living at home she decided to travel and wanted to get her passport so she went looking for her birth certificate. She didn't find it but she did find one in the attic for another child with her birthdate. It was then that she realized she was adopted....she never told he 'father'. Back then there was a stigma to being adopted and she was in a way...ashamed. Her friends tried to get her to find her family but she never tried. Her husband finally got her to search but she always hit a dead end. She could find the family all the way back to the 1600's and gathered lots of information but the family disappeared 'off the face of the earth' after WWII as she said. The family had attended the same village church for 400 years so she decided to send a letter to the parish magazine. She sent it in October. In December she came home to find a large envelope from a lady in Surrey...it contained pictures of our mother and grandparents along with other family photos. My sister couldn't believe it. She sat on the kitchen floor and cried as she looked at all the pictures. Sadly she also learned that her mother and grandmother had passed away a few years earlier. Finally in the letter she read that she had a brother and a sister. They knew where the brother was and had his address but they didn't know where I was. That's when she wrote the letter. It turns out that the lady who wrote her was our mothers best friend and her mother and aunt were good friends of our grandmother! She had known about mum having a baby and it being given up for adoption and when she read my sisters letter in the parish magazine she knew it must be this child. Thank heavens my sister wrote that letter!!! In October 1991 my sister and I met for the first time. It was the most emotional day of my life and one of the happiest...second only to having each of my children. When I finally saw her come around the corner at the airport and we got to hold each other...it's a feeling that is hard to describe. I think for the first time in our lives we felt...complete. We were 'home'.