Emilio's First Post: Angels and Stuff

So my parents took me to two museums during our recent trip to Paris. One was the famous Louvre. The other was the Orsay! So, "It" actually took place in the first gallery at the Musèe d'Orsay.

After walking what felt like forever, due to the pain in my legs from walking all over Disneyland and then Northern France the days leading up to our arrival in Paris, I spotted two paintings, and in my ADHD mind, I knew just what to do... hehe! The first painting showed a happy woman, who looked a lot like Venus, actually. The woman had a cute, loving angel baby, exchanging happy eye contact with his "mom."

This baby... looked a lot like ME. Right? My curly hair came in later.

The baby angel was younger and, of course, uglier than me. I called this painting "Anne's Dream" or "What Anne Ordered."

The second one, now, showed the same woman, except she was frightened to death by the seven babies "assaulting" her, as the painting is called. I called THIS one "Anne's (Nightmare) Life" or "What Anne Actually Received."

It made us ALL - mom, sister, dad, me - laugh, especially my dad (Boss of Traveloquitos), a man who almost never laughs in museums. And that joke is still going strong today because we also made a short video. We have footage! After that, we enjoyed the rest of our visit to Orsay, including some of Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh's work. I will post more photos later. The next day we went to the Louvre and visited the rest of Paris. One word: B E A U T I F U L.

Aylin's First Post: Shopping at Christian Dior's

When we visited Paris, I went inside Christian Dior's "OG" store with my mother. On our way inside the store, a person was holding the door open. Inside, the store was mostly white, with some rooms the color cream.

First, we explored the ground floor. There were newer things that Dior released, in the theme of a jungle or Africa. There were purses, handbags, perfumes, and makeup products. The purses were made of a special fabric that was soft and thick, making them durable. The handbags were absolutely beautiful, and I wanted to get one, but they were expensive, so I just continued to explore around.

Next, there were perfumes. I saw the most recent perfumes, including one called Miss Dior, which came in various shades of pink. My mother and I asked a kind woman employee which Dior perfume was the original and when it was released. The original perfume Christian Dior made was around World War II, and he made it for his sister, Catherine Dior, because she was taken away by the Nazis. They took her to a concentration camp, where they tortured her. They didn't feed her, give her a bed, or water. Christian Dior had been looking for his sister for a year. He cried. Later on, she was released, but when she came back to her house, she would not get out of her room because she was traumatized. One day, Christian decided to make a perfume just for her to cheer her up. Realizing other women were upset and depressed after the war, he started making dresses, purses, perfumes, and other items to help make women happy again, which worked. Although he was well-known, he used his ability and talent to help people, making him one of the most well-known designers on Earth.

Finally, my mom and I went to check out the makeup room. That is where the perfumes were, as well. There were lip glosses, lipsticks, highlighters, bronzers, eyeliners, eyeshadows, and blushes. I had looked at the lip glosses, Dior Lip Addict, where the lip glosses were clear, but lightly colored. I had tried on one, recommended based on my skin and hair color by the kind woman from earlier, which was a dark red-brownish or mahogany-red, wine-ish color. I liked that one, so I asked how much it cost, and she said it was 44 euros, making it one of the cheapest products in the store. I decided to buy it.

One of the employees grabbed a new, packaged lip gloss, and also gave me a perfume sample. Then, they put both of the products inside a small paper bag, with the design of the store's original front door with the number 30 next to it. It made my purchase and the sample look pretty in the bag that was very beautiful and unique. This indeed was one of my favorites part of going to France, after going to Disneyland Paris.

The Disney Bullet We Thought We Dodged

Living Europe admittedly made us a little snobbish about ever going to Disney-anything or anywhere. We figured, "All Dinsney's trying to do is look like these beautiful, old medieval European towns and castles. Why spend hundreds of dollars, when you can see see the real deal for free?" With Aylin 14 and Emilio 12, we prematurely declared victory thinking we'd dodged the Disney bullet. But when we asked Aylin, "Where do you want to go this summer to celebrate your quinceañera?" and she said, "Paris and... Disney," there was nothing left to do but bite THAT bullet.

We'll get to Disney later. For now, we'll roll right into Aylin and Emilio's first blog posts. I asked them to write about their favorite aspects of the trip in no particular order, so...

We're Back

After a long hiatus, Traveloquitos is back with a little help from my kids Aylin and Emilio, who seem to be better at writing than I was at their age. I know it's a low bar, but it's something. Here they are circa 2015...

Circa Now...

Ten years ago in 2015 - discouraged that an overseas job wasn't in the cards for us - we decided to take a roadtrip through Europe as our consolation. Little did we know that just two years later the election of Trump would drive us right back to Europe, where we have remained since. To be clear, he didn't push us away, it was being surrounded by 70 million people who voted for him. Even so, the irony of fleeing an idiot's version of fascism to shelter in Italy - the birthplace of fascism - was not lost on us. Neither was the symbolism in escaping the tiny grip of a tiny-handed autocrat to be welcomed by the dispraportionately large hands of Leonardo da Vinci's statute at his namesake airport in Roma. Haven't looked back since. Como stai bello?