Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.

My mom has come and gone and it was a nice visit with her last week.  She got here last Friday and then on Saturday morning we left for Paris...only 2 days with LOTS of walking but we got to see quite a bit and had a good time.

Saturday:  I think we first went to the Notre Dame.  Inside was really impressive.  The stained glass is so detailed and it was very pretty.  We walked and walked and walked and then towards the end of the afternoon we were finally heading towards the Eiffel Tower to see it before dark so that we could see it both in the day and at night.  It felt like the longest walk ever!!  We just kept going and going and going..you could see it in the distance but it really never felt like you got any closer.  It reminded me of the Washington Monument in DC..you can see it from almost everywhere in the city but it's like you never get there. 

So finally we arrive at the Eiffel Tower and the lines to go up were so so so long...my mom said she would never go up that high anyways so we just walked around down below and then went a bit away from it so we could see the whole tower in our pictures.  There were people everywhere and lots of annoying men selling warm champagne and beer and shooting little toys in the air.  Also, lots of military walking around with their hands on their guns ready in case anything happened.  Once it started to get dark the lights on the tower began to come on.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  I love the Eiffel Tower and at night it is definitely something to see.  The sky was a really pretty dark blue and against the lights it just looked awesome.  Once we were done there we started to walk back towards our hotel to find something to eat for dinner.  We were walking behind a group of guys who at some point all turned around and started walking back towards the tower for some reason so I looked back also...turns out the Eiffel Tower was sparkling!  It was so pretty and I am definitely glad I noticed the other guys otherwise we would have totally missed it.

Sunday:  We over slept!!!! We wanted to get up around 7 or 8 so we could shower and go to the Louvre early and have plenty of time.  Turns out we didn't get a wake up call or set an alarm and so at 11:30 the front desk called asking if we were checking out since 11:30 was check out time.  He let us have a check out of 12 and we had to rush to get out.  We walked to the Louvre and ended up having plenty of time to see what we wanted.  You would need several days to see everything in there.  It was really really crowded also.  It was cool to see some of the most famous pieces of art but art is not really my thing.  I guess I just don't know how to appreciate it...some of it was very impressive though.  There is a lot of detail that goes into paintings and sculptures.  We also ate some really really yummy crepes of which my mom thought she was getting an egg in hers and when she found out she exclaimed "this is going to be disgusting" and then quickly changed her mind after the first bite.  I also got a reaaaaallllly good sandwich on a baguette!  It was so good to have a sandwich like that.  I also spent a lot of the time we were walking looking for post cards from Le Petit Prince which I read in high school in my french class.  It's a great book and it's where the title of my post is from.  It basically means that you can only see clearly with your heart, the essential is invisible to the eyes.  Finally towards the end of the day I found some post cards with some of the drawings from the book!!!  When we got back from Paris I went back to the house and they went off to their hotel.

Monday we spent walking around Rotterdam...the Euromast, the Erasmus Bridge, all of the shops in the city centre, we walked along the water..it was a nice day but more walking!  I had to come back to the house to do some stuff around here and then I got the kids after school and we met up again later that night for dinner.

Wednesday is my day off so we went to Amsterdam for the day.  The last time I went to Amsterdam it was during SAIL 2010 so it was really really crowded.  This time it was much nicer and I really do like Amsterdam a lot.  I still need to go back and go into some of the museums, I really want to see the Anne Frank house and of course do the Heineken Experience as well!  This was my last day with my mom since they had to leave early Thursday morning but it was a good week.  I still don't really miss home however which I think is a good thing...

On Saturday Marie Lou, who I went with to Brussels and Antwerp, and another au pair from outside of Amsterdam (Kira from Oregon!) came to Rotterdam for the day.  We walked around and went to the market which is awesome!!! I am definitely going back to buy my shampoo and stuff there because it is so much cheaper.  Plus there is lots of fresh fruit so I got some strawberries and raspberries; I haven't had either in so long!  We got lunch and then walked all over Rotterdam...then for dinner we decided we were all really craving sushi.  We walked for sooo long trying to find a sushi restaurant and then we just ended up back in the center going to one I had seen before.  It was very satisfying though.  When I got back to the house Caroline had all her friends over for her birthday party/sleepover.  It was quiet for a bit and then their movie ended and there was lots of barking, and yelling and running around.  I just watched a movie in bed and went to sleep by 10 I think!

Well anyways, now this post is getting quite long and I am bored of writing it...till next time!