An Eiffel Tower Snow Day

Aslan is on the move in Paris, as evidenced by 60-degree temperatures over the weekend.  Ella and I even spotted a couple of daffodils blooming outside the church building on Sunday.  It felt like the last opportune moment to share my snowy Paris pictures.  

The sidewalks were slick and slushy when we ventured out in all the layers we could find.  The boys couldn't even wait to get off the sidewalks before starting a snowball fight.

There are all kinds of physical reminders that give a sense of place and really ground you to where you live, but I wasn't very consciously aware of them until we began to prepare to move to England.  In the light of moving, I was very aware of the intense heat on my skin in  Alabama, even in October.  The endless green hills and dry rock walls placed me firmly in North Yorkshire.  The mossy cypress trees, thick-bladed grass crawling with little lizards when we visited family in Florida are no longer hidden in my subconscious but stand out vividly.  When I look up and see the Eiffel Tower, one of the most iconic landmarks in the world, I say inwardly every time, "I'm in Paris."  And I don't think I'll get tired of taking pictures of this recognizable tower from wherever I catch a glimpse of it in the city.  I marveled a little bit at seeing my family playing in the snow underneath it.  It was definitely a surreal moment to freeze in time.

Ella wanted her "Lucy" moment at this snow-covered lamppost.  

I was playing around with Lightroom presets while watching a movie with the kids, and I liked the old-fashioned postcard look of the above picture.

Whoever created this Snow Yoda could have stuck around and charged money for pictures, because there was a line of people having their picture made beside it.  One of my favorite things that always makes me laugh is when there are words that just can't be translated from English.  I heard a mom chattering away to her young daughter in an unidentifiable to me language explaining who this was.  All I heard were sounds my brain can't make sense of and then, "Yoda."  Similarly, I laughed Sunday with the kids as we passed an advertisement for Burger King written completely in French but then, "Bacon-lover."  Maybe that's just the official name of the sandwich, but it also seems like some phrases probably don't translate the same.

We had the slickest walk back to the metro and our apartment.  We were so frozen by this point, and the best part of the day for me was this sweet moment:

And then the teamwork involved getting our groceries home with no bags along the icy pavement.