Last Stop...Paris!

We took the Eurostar high speed train through the Chunnel from London to Paris.  It was a fun new adventure and although we had no idea what to expect (Aunt Harriet didn't even get to practice) we managed just fine and had a great train ride.  It went by really fast.  I played some games with the kids and then took a long nap so I woke up ready to take on Paris!

Grace was so excited to be in Paris, the picture above is her as we were loading up the taxi and below in our hotel.

After dropping off our luggage in the hotel we went right out for some food and a walk around.  We were so surprised to see macarons at McD's!  We have a little bakery in town that sells macarons and they are such a delicacy, you have to pay almost $2 for one of them....so weird to see them served at McD's!  Of course we bought some later during our trip.  I think we bought about 2 dozen from there and a dozen from a real macaron shop.  The real macaron shop macarons were better of course but the McD's ones were really good too.

Our hotel was right across the street from the Louvre and Jarden de Tuileries (a huge garden with flowers, fountains, statues, chairs, people...) and you could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance.  Our view from our actual hotel was obstructed by a giant ferris wheel, part of a fair set up in the park.

We wondered around for a while and were excited to see a lock bridge.  There quite a few places around Paris (and Italy too) where couples go and put a lock on a bridge and throw away the key to symbolize their unbreakable love.  Terribly romantic, right?  Hannah and Grace decided to be pretty silly....surprise, surprise.

In the picture above, look in the middle at the fountain, then past the fountain you can see an obelisk exactly like the one we saw in London called Cleopatra's Needle (a gift from Egypt) and past that you can see the Arc de Triomphe.  They are all in a line with the Louvre which is pretty neat.  Further on into the more modern part of Paris there is the Grand Arch and it also lines up with all of these.

The entrance to the Louvre is below ground and above it is this glass pyramid.  It makes for a very cool atrium look inside but looks a little weird up against such an old, historic, huge museum.  I guess it has been pretty controversial.  Some people love it, others hate it.

Our first full day in Paris, we were up and out pretty early because we expected a hot day ahead of us.  We walked from our hotel through the park and all the way to the Arc de Triomphe.  As we got closer we found a place to get on the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus tour so we "hopped on" and set off to tour Paris.

We saw the Eiffel Tower from the bus and it was huge and very impressive.  We opted not to climb it though because we were told the line was about 4 hours long...no thanks.

We got off the bus near Notre Dame and got some lunch and then the boys went over and walked around Notre Dame while the girls walked around that area of the city looking for a market we had seen from the bus. We found the market but they were closing up as we got there.  Behind the market was a fromagerie (cheese shop) so we went in there and a couple of other french food stores.  It was very interesting.  Then I set off to find the bookstore I had been looking for...Shakespeare and Company.  This was a very unique (and popular) bookstore and you had to wait in line to get in.  It was so small and cramped inside that they had to limit how many could be in at once.  You couldn't take pictures inside so I don't have any but it was a very cool bookstore.  I loved it.

We got a crepe on our way back to meet up with everyone...yum!

We rode the bus a little longer and then eventually got off and walked back to the hotel.  Above is a torch that is identical to the torch on the Statue of Liberty.  It is unintentionally marking the entrance to the tunnel where Princess Diana was killed so has become a sort of memorial to her where people bring flowers and stuff.

We went out for a fancy french dinner.  I only have a picture of Uncle Billy's dinner but the rest of our meals were equally french and delicious.  We had a very funny waiter who enjoyed giving us a french experience.  Right after dinner, Ollie and the kids and I set off to navigate the Metro to get us to the Seine and a boat tour.  We wanted to go at night to see the city all lit up.

The Eiffel tower was especially beautiful all lit up with goldish yellow lights.  Every hour on the hour it "sparkles" with white lights over the yellow ones for about 5 minutes.

Our boat tour was awesome for the first 20 minutes.  There was so much activity along the shores of the river, people walking and eating and dancing and the lights of the city were beautiful.  Then it started pouring down rain and we had to rush downstairs into the inside of the boat where it was dry but the view wasn't nearly as good.  It was fun anyway and we got the added adventure of running through freezing rain to get back to the Metro and back to our hotel.  :0)

I think 22,000 steps in a day is a record for me!  It was a long, full day in Paris and we loved every minute!