We left Switzerland and went back to France for a few more days. This time, to the capital city of Paris. It was so very busy. So busy! Still, such a neat place. The energy is real!
We drove into town and checked into our hotel. Then we walked to the Eiffel Tower and road on another double decker carousel. Can you spy Ansel on the tiger?
We ate at the market there and I made the mistake of buying over-priced nougat, but it was delicious. Many people were taking photos around the Eiffel Tower and they had such serious looks on their faces. We saw this all over and realized that it was people taking photos for Instagram. Ha! Ian and I decided to join in and try our hand at Instagram worthy stuff. I'm pretty sure we failed.
We walked back to our hotel and rested up. The place we stayed at was a hotel designed for groups. We saw lots of families here and young adult groups. Our room was designed for 6 people, so it had one queen size bed and four bunk beds. It was tight but nice and not too expensive, which Paris can become very quickly.
The hotel actually had an old video game theme, which I saw photos of but didn't realize were prevalent in every aspect of the hotel: the halls, the keys, the lobby, and arcade games. The kids loved playing Pac-Man, King of Fighters (think Mortal Combat), Steel Talons and more. Each day, we spent time on these games, giving the kids a chance to take a rest from the sights and sounds of Paris. Come to find out, seeing the City of Light isn't that exciting for kids.
I stayed with the younger kids and walked around the city looking at the Siene River, Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle, along with restaurants and street vendors. We stopped at a water fountain that was out of commission (seems like saving water during a drought was a high priority for France), so we played a game. It was simply called, "Find the bottle caps!" The kids went wild and found so many.
When Jess and the boys finished, we met at Notre Dame. You could still smell the scent of the fire in the square. The public entity in charge of the project is working to have things restored by 2024 but it looks like there sure is a lot of work to do. What a job! Glad they are putting in such a great effort.
We then began walking along the Champs Elysees. We stopped at the Louvre. Earlier, during planning, we had asked the kiddos if they had an interest in going inside the museum and the answer was no, so we just went to see the glass pyramid.
We moved along, skipping through the Tuileres Garden and stopping for a drink.
And we walked along the Seine.
The next day we headed to Versailles. Another place that requires walking and looking and not touching things or running around wildly. Still, the littles were good sports for the most part.
I came to discover that the Hall of Mirrors won't impress a 7 year old or a 3 year old. Ha! Oliver and Jess did enjoy it however, which made it worth it!
And the place is amazing! I loved the rooms and couldn't stop taking photos. Even the halls were exciting. Look at those floors!
After getting some food from a very small, French cafe, we ventured out to the gardens. I would say that if you plan to eat at the Chateau during the busy season, bring your own food. Food options are few here and the lines get long. However, we did enjoy our pastries and eating French sweets always lifts the spirits.
We looked at the fountains, two of which were actually working. The drought had put a stop to most of the fountains being on, which I totally understand but was sad to miss.
The kids found a statue stone foundation and decided to become pieces of art. Oliver climbed up first before I reached this location with the younger kids, so when I came around the bend, he was standing in this position. I couldn't stop laughing.
The creativity flowed!
You could tell by the kids' poses that they had seen a lot of statues that day.
And Elsie was trying her best to interpret the stone statues along with the brotherly statues and came up with a this pose.
Versailles was beautiful! After a day of walking we were so tired that we headed straight home and totally forgot to stop at the Paris Temple. Yikes! Oh well, there's always next time.
We finished up our Paris stop with tickets to the top of the Eiffel Tower! I was so excited I could hardly manage it. Come to find out, I scheduled it for 10:30pm (which were the only tickets available) and with the late hour, the kids were tired. Turns out, even with the reservation, the lines to get on elevator one were long. After we had taken a ride up and saw amazing views (!!!) we needed to get onto elevator two to make it to the top, but those lines were even longer. The kids were ready to mutiny. Another line. More waiting. Jess and I gave in. We had made them go, go, go and they had done such a good job. So instead of going to the top, we decided to walk down the stairs from the halfway point. It was neat to be in the innards of the Eiffel Tower and fun to see the workmanship.
Paris, you were good to us and I really enjoyed our stay. However, we tried to do too much, walked too much, and planned for the older people of the group instead of the younger. Lesson learned!
Overall, I think we did a great job creating a trip for a family of six, with kids ages 3 to 14. We had a great time (check out the four previous travel posts). The kids and parents were patient with each other and with situations that we couldn't control. We ate good food, had snacks at the ready (most times), and got to see and experience so many awesome things! Would I do it again? In a heartbeat! Keep those passports current kids. Where shall we go next?
1 comment:
Seriously, such an awesome trip. You did a great job planning everything and helping us make incredible memories with the family (other than the Bataan death march up the Champs, haha - which was my idea and fault).
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