Harker Trails

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France Day 17: Wednesday

We didn’t do much that day. The boys went shopping with Mom to find swim suits and Clara stayed home with the littles. Later we tried a new cheese and had soup.

Emilies thoughts: The boys looks when they saw those swimsuits were hilarious. They were shell schocked.

Dillons thoughts: It was interesting they what looked like a normal super market in what looked like a mall. Clearly the French do not have comfort in mind when they designed those swim suits

Jaroms thoughts: ...........

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France Day 16: Tuesday

We went to Versailles again, but this time we explored the gardens. We took the trolley to the Grand Trianon and after that we didn’t have time for anything else, so we went home. The Grand Trianon is a very pretty place and the gardens are humongous. We had a very nice time.

Claras thoughts: The Grand Trianon has a lot of interesting history behind it and it’s very pretty. The only thing that I didn’t like was that the second trolley driver was a little fast.

Auroras thoughts: I thought it was fun. The trolley ride was the best part, but I liked the slow trolley ride better than the fast one.

Ellas thoughts:I liked the trolley ride best. I liked the really really fast driver!  The Trianon was pretty.

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France Day 15: Monday

We decided we needed a break and relaxed mostly the whole day. It was a very nice day outside. We mostly played games, a few of us played outside, and we just had fun with eachother.

Claras thoughts: It was about 48 degrees outside! I didn’t even have to wear a jacket. I had a lot of fun with Ayden and the littles.

Auroras thoughts:I really liked playing soccer with Clara and Ayden and Charlotte.

Dillons thoughts: Ahhh

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France Day 14: Sunday

We managed to get to church not 2hrs and 30 minutes late! Although we did get there about 30 minutes late. Church was great. When we got home we made dinner, ate dinner, and left for the Stake Christmas Devotional. The Devotional was great and I think the kids favorite part was that afterwards there were clementines, white bread, and a whole lot of chocolate. Mainly the chocolate. When we got home we ate the Mille Filles.

Claras thoughts: I really liked my Sunday School class. The teacher was very exuberant. Dinner was delicious and so were the Mille Filles

Matthieus thoughts: Who knew chocolate could be this good!

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France Day 13: Saturday

We were still wiped out from the day before and didn’t go anywhere. Emilie went to the Boulangerie and picked up some Mille Fuilles and she went on a walk with Ammon, Clara, Camille, Aurora, Ella, and Charlotte around the neighborhood. Other than that we mostly played games and relaxed. 

Dillons thoughts: Very nice.

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France Day 12: Friday

We visited Rouen and saw the old city. We saw a Cathedral and walked the medieval roads. There was a Christmas Market area and the kids and Emilie rode a train. At the end we stopped by a little shop and got Orangina and little treats. We got home really late and everyone was wiped out.

Camilles thoughts: It was great! I really liked the train ride.. I really liked Everything!

Claras thoughts: I liked the clock, it was very pretty.                                     

Emilies thoughts: The buildings looked really cool outside. I also think it’s really cool that Jarom noticed the sun sign on the steeple of a church, the same sign was very prominent in the movie Tangled.

More thoughts: The Christmas Market area was very festive and full of Christmas spirit. 

Ellas thoughts: I Loved the train!

Auroras thoughts: The train was a little fast, but I liked it.

Charlottes thoughts:I liked that it went really really fast!

Emilie, Dillon, Clara,Charlotte, and Grandma and Grandpa Neu also went to a Creperie.

Claras thoughts: The food was delicious! I just wish there was a little bit more.

Camilles thoughts: There was Ice Cream!

Dillons thoughts: Everything was delicious.

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France Day 11

Today we got everybody together and visited the Notre Dame Cathedrale. It was very large and very beautiful. It was a rainy day so it was a good option for us since it was inside.

Matthieu’s thoughts: I really liked the choir screen.

Clara explaining Matthieu’s thoughts: There was a really big wall type of thing that encircled the pulpit area. It had forty different scenes in total of Mary and Jesus’ life. It was called the Choir screen.

Ella’s thoughts: I liked the walkie-talkies. I also liked the statue that had Mary holding baby Jesus and being crowned.

Clara explaining Ella’s thoughts: I don’t know about the statue, but the walkie-talkies were audio things that explained about the history and meaning behind all of the statues and things inside the Cathedrale.

Charlotte’s thoughts:I liked the steeple.

Camille’s thoughts:I thought it was great. Just everything really.

Dillon’s thoughts: Pretty sweet. I loved standing outside in the rain.:) 

Clara’s thoughts: I also really liked the choir screen. I also really liked the Nativity they had set up. 

All in All we had a great time.

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France Day 10

We slept in a little late and Elias was really sick so we didn’t go anywhere. Later Mom took Jarom, Ayden, and Aurora out for dinner and the rest watched movies. 

Claras thoughts: I also fed the girls and attempted to put them to bed. Note the word Attempted.

Auroras thoughts: It was really great. We went to a shop and I got to try a new drink and eat Ice Cream!

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France Day 9

Our plan was to go to the Giverny museum, but it was closed so we went to the Vernon museum with Grandma and Grandpa. It was full of beautiful art and because it used to be a hospital, tools and hospital pictures and paintings.

Matthieus thoughts: I really liked the minotaur head.

Claras thoughts: of course you did. I thought it was funny -and a little annoying-when the museum employees started following us around.

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France Day 8

We stayed home, played games, and mostly hung out. Emilie and Clara went to the Boulangerie- bakery and got some delicious eclaires, pain, tartes a l’abricot, and pommes cannelle. We ate the delicious eclaires and pommes cannelle, had hot chocolate, and watched the Christmas Devotional. 

Claras thoughts: All in all a lot of fun.

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France Day 3

Still jetlagged!  Clara asserts she was never jetlagged, and is quite offended about all this discussion about being jetlagged.  But other than her, everyone else had a hard time waking up in the morning, such that no immediate site seeing, again.  Emilie got groceries.  And we were able to finally get out in the evening, seeing one of the few sites open late: the Louvre.  We had to carpool with Grandma and Grandpa, with Emilie staying home with Ayden and Sam.  (Ayden was not feeling well, attributed to lack of sleep.)  The Louvre is nice, quite amazing, of course, but much of the evening was spent trying to find a water fountain.  Dustin remembers there being water fountains.  And we did find one, that was turned off.  Dustin thinks this represents the beginning of dystopian futures where water is controlled by corporations.  Emilie says Dustin thinks too much and should stop typing.

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I am not offended.

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France Day 7

Dad went back to Minnesota and we went to our new church in Mantes la jolie. We also had a very nice dinner that night.

Claras thoughts: The ward was really nice and most of them spoke English. The Young Womens president spoke really good english. Also they had no Young Women of their own. The only Young women were me and an Australian girl named Taylor. 

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France Day 6

Emilie and Dustin went to the temple with Grandma and Grandpa Neu. They took a very long time because on the way back they went through the neighborhood where Grandpa grew up in Paris. They got back late at night and Clara was ticked off because of that. 

Emilie’s thoughts: I ran into somebody I knew in Malakoff twenty years ago. The temple was and is always a great place to be.

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Ammon sees dead people

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The funniest part of this is the photo bomb that I did not even see until just now.

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France Day 4

We finally got our second car back!  Somehow Dustin forgot to report about the first adventure we had: while driving out of Paris, he made his first gas stop, and filled up the vehicle.  He was able to drive another 20 klicks before the car started to misbehave.  It turns out that diesel cars don’t like gasoline.  Who knew?  3 days later we are finally able to pick up our second car, as we need 2 cars to travel any distance, as the Kangoos are 7 seaters.  But it did take some time to get the car, which killed the morning and any chance of driving to distant locales.  Dustin and the boys went and saw the catacombs, which is something the girls had no interest in doing.  And then met the girls at Versailles.  It was a very fast tour through the chateau, with just enough time for Camille to comment that living like a princess wouldn’t be so bad.  She also thought the naked statues with complete genitalia were gross.  The highlight of the trip for Ella and Aurora was jumping in the puddles on the cobblestone street when heading for the cars.

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France Day 3

Still jetlagged!  Clara asserts she was never jetlagged, and is quite offended about all this discussion about being jetlagged.  But other than her, everyone else had a hard time waking up in the morning, such that no immediate site seeing, again.  Emilie got groceries.  And we were able to finally get out in the evening, seeing one of the few sites open late: the Louvre.  We had to carpool with Grandma and Grandpa, with Emilie staying home with Ayden and Sam.  (Ayden was not feeling well, attributed to lack of sleep.)  The Louvre is nice, quite amazing, of course, but much of the evening was spent trying to find a water fountain.  Dustin remembers there being water fountains.  And we did find one, that was turned off.  Dustin thinks this represents the beginning of dystopian futures where water is controlled by corporations.  Emilie says Dustin thinks too much and should stop typing.