Prague

For Easter, we flew to Prague for the weekend. One of the great things about living in Paris is the ease of trips such as these. We can leave Paris on Friday afternoon, spend Saturday and Sunday somewhere, then return on Sunday night.

One of the draws with Prague for Easter is its Easter markets. In multiple places around town but particularly in the Old Town Square there are markets selling painted eggs, various handcrafted goods, and food. They are very similar to the Christmas markets you find throughout Europe but with the eggs instead of Christmas decorations.

The temperatures hovered around freezing all weekend but we managed to stay warm and see quite a bit of the city. We went up to the castle overlooking the town, watched the intricate display of the astronomical clock, and explored throughout the old town. I also made the climb to the top of the clock tower for a great view over the city.

Prague has a different feel from the places we've visited in western Europe and we loved it.

Amazing architecture near the Old Town Square

The clock tower

The astronomical clock

A typical Easter market booth

The Easter market in Old Town Square

View of the city from the Castle

View from the clock tower

London

In April we went to London for the weekend to visit Derek, Megin, Jake, and Logan who had been in town for the week as Derek was attending a conference. It would be the first time the cousins had seen each other since we left for Paris last August.

We took the Eurostar over on Friday evening and met up with them at Westminster Abbey on Saturday morning. After sharing hugs and catching up a bit, we went inside the ancient abbey. Unlike most tourist attractions, they've totally figured out how to keep kids engaged. Each kid gets a clipboard, activity sheet, and pencil. The activity sheet directs them on a tour of the abbey, the same tour that we adults want to take to see all of its sights. The key, though, is the incentive. If the kids finish the activity sheet, they get a chocolate coin at the exit. That kept their attention and helped all of us really enjoy our visit.

After Westminster Abbey, we jumped on a train to the outskirts of London and the Harry Potter Studio Tour. The studios are where all eight movies were filmed and where the young actors largely spent their childhoods -- where they worked, studied, and grew up.

The studio visit was something that the kids were anxiously awaiting -- we bought the tickets months in advance -- and it lived up to its billing. We began with a visit to the Hogwart's Great Hall, finished with the scale model of Hogwart's, and in between saw a variety of sets, props, and displays showing the details of how the films were made. Even as someone who hasn't seen the movies (I've been waiting first to read the books), I really enjoyed the visit. For Paige, who has seen every movie and read each book between two and five times, it was magical.

On Sunday, our plan was to check out of our hotel, drop our bags off at the train station, then meet up with Derek & Megin & the boys at the Tower of London. What we didn't sufficiently plan for was the London Marathon. We knew it was happening -- it was a week after the bombings at the Boston Marathon and all eyes were on London -- but since it was above ground and we'd be traveling by the underground Tube, we didn't anticipate it would affect us.

The first problem we ran into was getting our bags checked in at the train station. While Erin and the kids waited outside, I ran into the St. Pancras station to check the bags and encountered a huge line. Instead of waiting in that, I decided to run across the street to the Kings Cross station and try there. It too had a long line so I went back outside to regroup with Erin and figure out what we wanted to do. We decided that I would go in and wait in the lines and send ahead Erin and the kids to meet Derek & Megin since we were already late.

That normally wouldn't have been that bad of a plan. Unfortunately, the routing from the Tube station at King's Cross/St. Pancras to Tower Hill wasn't at all clear and once you got to Tower Hill you had to cross the marathon route to get to the Tower. In the end, I reached Derek first, over an hour late, and then Erin & the kids showed up another 15-20 minutes later. It was a bit stressful -- not knowing where in the city they might be and not having phones to connect -- and I wish we wouldn't have separated. But fortunately it all worked out more or less okay.

We always enjoy visiting the Tower and hearing its stories from the Beefeater guards but the kids didn't have the attention span. They did enjoy seeing the Crown Jewels and then sitting down for a nice lunch at the cafeteria. We then bid Derek's family farewell for a few months and headed back to pick up our baggage and catch the Eurostar back to Paris.

Hoping to depart King's Cross station for Hogwart's

Cousin reunion

Learning about Westminster Abbey

Enjoying a butter beer

Paige in the Great Hall of Hogwart's

Clay and Jake learning to use their magic wands

Souvenirs for all

French Open

As the French Open approached, we wanted to go but figured it was sold out and that it would be difficult to get tickets. Fortunately, the French Open has an official site where people that can't make it are able to resell their tickets at face value. This works very well but you have to act fast as there must be tons of people watching for tickets to come on sale and quickly jumping on them. Earlier this week I started periodically monitoring the site, looking for tickets to either the men's or women's semifinals. They occasionally came up for sale but I couldn't get to them fast enough before somebody else got them. And then, when I was finally first to claim a pair, my credit card company rejected the purchase (probably because I was making a purchase while in Dubai through a Swiss company that is headquartered in London for an event in Paris). But I had success a couple hours later and bought two tickets to the Philippe Chatrier court at Roland-Garros on Thursday June 6th for the Mixed Doubles final and the two Women's Singles semifinals.

The first match we saw was the Mixed Doubles final, with Lucie Hradecka (Czech Republic) and Frantisek Cermak (Czech Republic) beating Kristina Mladenovic (France) and Daniel Nestor (Canada). After that match, we left the court and went out to explore the Roland-Garros grounds while we waited for the first women's semifinals match.

It was sunny and hot so I spotted a side court that didn't have any activity on it and just a few people standing in a shady area. Erin and I went in there to get out of the direct sun. Just a few minutes later, Serena Williams and her entourage stepped onto the court for a practice round. What a treat it was to be so close and just among a few people watching the #1 ranked woman -- and one of the best of all-time -- warming up. It was fun too to see the amount of effort required by her hitting partner to keep up with her.

The adjoining court had the #1 ranked man -- Novak Djokovic -- also warming up so I squeezed through the crowds there to catch a little of his practice too.

We then went back to the Philippe Chatrier court to watch the women's semifinal between #2 ranked Maria Sharapova (Russia) and #3 ranked Victoria Azarenka (Belarus). Unlike the Mixed Doubles final, the court was packed for this match-up. The two women were evenly matched with Sharapova eventually winning 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 to move on to the finals on Saturday.

After the second set in the Sharapova-Azarenka match, the thunderclouds that had begun to roll in towards the start of it finally opened up and it poured big, warm raindrops. The court emptied, a tarp was put out, and a 30 minute rain delay ensued. Unfortunately, I had to get back to pick up the kids after school so was only able to see three games of the final set before leaving. Prior to the rain delay, I had been hoping to catch the entire match plus some of the other women's semifinal. Oh well, I was still very happy with what I was able to see.

Erin stayed and watched the other semifinal between #1 ranked Serena Williams (US) and #5 ranked Sara Errani (Italy). This match was a blow-out as Williams beat Errani 6-0, 6-1 to move on to the finals where she ended up beating Sharapova to win the 2013 Women's Singles Championship.

We both felt so fortunate to be able to go to the French Open. It is another reason to return to Paris in the springtime.

Mixed Doubles final

The famous clay courts of Roland-Garros

A quiet side court...

...until Serena Williams showed up

Serena Williams warming up

Novak Djokovic practicing

Djokovic after his warm-up

Former pro player and current ESPN announcer Brad Gilbert

Maria Sharapova serving to Victoria Azarenka

Serena Williams facing Sara Errani

Erin & I (in circle) from the French TV broadcast

Getting out

I travel a lot for business. In the first 15 weeks of 2013, I made 8 trips outside of the country. That is heavier than normal -- my trips tend to come in bunches -- and it was made much easier traveling from Paris. To be able to get to London, Rome, Amsterdam and even Cairo in a few hours, while staying more or less in the same time zone, makes such a huge difference. It is also nice to be able to travel by train some of the time. The whole experience is so much more relaxing and I can be a lot more productive on the train compared to flying.

We’ve also traveled quite a bit as a family. In our nine months in France we've been to Austria/Switzerland/Lake Annecy (France), Italy, Strasbourg, Munich, London (x2), Chamonix (x2), Prague, Portugal, Brugge, the Netherlands, and Ile de Re (France). All of those trips required a trip by train and/or plane.

Traveling from Paris you can usually get a direct flight or train to your destination. That's one of the reasons why we chose Paris in the first place for our year abroad. But occasionally, particularly with a long business trip that can be expensive flying direct, we have layovers or need to change trains. If long, this can be one of the most painful parts of traveling. But I've also been taking advantage of this time lately.

In March, I had a business trip that took me to Cameroon in Africa. Although there was a six hour direct flight from Paris, it was a lot cheaper to connect via Istanbul, doubling my travel time. On the return trip I had a three hour layover in Istanbul and decided that that was enough time to get into the city. I figured it might take 30 minutes each way (assuming not too heavy traffic) and I'd then have about an hour in the city. Given that I'd never been to Istanbul and it has for quite a while been at the top of my wish list, I figured that even a very short visit was better than nothing -- and much better than just hanging out in the airport.

So, I figured out whether I needed a visa (I did), was able to get the visa, then headed towards "Exit" instead of "Connecting flights". Once outside I went to a taxi queue and asked a driver whether he'd give me a two hour tour of Istanbul. He agreed and we were on our way.

The taxi driver took me to the ancient part of the city (the heart of the former Constantinople) and we toured the Blue Mosque and the Basilica Cistern. He then took me across the Golden Horn into Galata where he wanted to pick up some baklava. We were running short of time so I hoped for a quick stop and was quite surprised/nervous when he came back with two plates of baklava and invited me to sit down.

I kept a "go with the flow" attitude and enjoyed about eight pieces of the wonderful dessert. The driver then went to get a box for me to take home to my family and we were finally back on the road to the airport. It ended up being an unforgettable little excursion and I made it back to my next flight with time to spare.

I'm so glad I "snuck" out of the airport in Istanbul and had that experience. It was a good lesson in finding opportunities and taking chances.

In the last few weeks I've had a couple of opportunities to take advantage of 45 minute gaps between trains. While neither came close to the Istanbul experience, they both became unexpected little pleasures in the midst of multi-hour trips.

The first was last month when traveling back from Brugge with the family. We stopped in Lille and had to change trains there. Instead of just hanging out in the station we decided to get out and explore the city a little. While we obviously didn't have time to do much, we were able to see a couple of nice squares and get a little bit of a feel for the town.

Then, a few weeks ago, I traveled to Nice by train for a conference. On the way there, I had a little time at Paris Gare de Lyon before my train to Nice. Since Gare de Lyon sits in the opposite side of town from where we live and I hadn't been in the area before, I decided again to go explore for 30 minutes instead of waiting in the station.

What I discovered is the Promenade plantée, a two kilometer long walking path along the top of a viaduct. The path is planted as a garden and was lush with springtime greenery. It felt miles away from the busy streets of Paris below.

I'd read about the viaduct a couple of times but hadn't researched it enough to know exactly where it was located. So it was a nice surprise to happen upon it and take a little stroll before jumping on my train.

Istanbul

My Istanbul driver

View of unique architecture from the Promenade plantée