8/17/15

Places to Go (Vacation) - PARIS (Days 1 & 2) - Dragging Our Kids Through Europe, Part II

011-storyboard

As I mentioned on Friday, here are some photos from our Paris trip.

I had hoped everyone would sleep on the overnight flight, but the plane's air conditioning malfunctioned, causing the back of the cabin to become crazy cold. I watched a passenger in front of us put on a jacket, a stocking hat, and finally (around 2 am) gloves, the fuzzy kind. The stewardess kept apologizing, but it made for a long night.

012-storyboard
013-storyboard
014-storyboard

Anyways, when we arrived at our rental apartment, on Rue Montmartre, in the Grand Boulevards neighborhood (click here for the link, I'm completely enamored with airbnb after this trip), we existed in some odd middle-land between exhilaration and exhaustion. So Dan grocery shopped while I tried to convince the kids to nap. After about four hours of failed attempts at sleep, we wandered out and see the city. First stop - the Eiffel Tower (of course), about a 2.5 mile walk.

015-storyboard
016-storyboard
017-storyboard
018-storyboard
019-storyboard
020-storyboard
021-storyboard

At first, everything amazed us - the old old buildings, the signs in a different language, the bakeries, the cafes with their black and yellow wicker chairs, etc. So much wonder. I've visited Paris twice before, but this time felt totally different, seeing everything through the kids eyes.

022-storyboard

I assumed that once we reached the Eiffel Tower the girls would want to climb to the top (T's afraid of heights), but exhaustion finally set in, so we admired the view from the sidelines and then began the long(ish) walk back home. We hadn't realized that in Paris, dark doesn't set in until 10:30, so we all felt a little bummed that we didn't see the Tower light up for the night.

Oh, well, I assure you, on our first night, we slept. And slept. And slept.

023-storyboard

On Day 2, we began the morning by walking to the Louvre, stopping along the way in various super cheesy souvenir shops so the girls could buy their friends a rainbow of mini-Eiffel Towers. T, on the other hand, purchased a super generic pocket watch, which he then proceeded to check every five minutes.

024-storyboard
025-storyboard
026-storyboard
027-storyboard
028-storyboard
029-storyboard
030-storyboard
031-storyboard

We spent the morning wandering around the Louvre's grounds, hence spotting the carnival that would become the bain of my existence on Day 3 (actually, it was sort of cute for awhile).

032-storyboard
033-storyboard
034-storyboard
035-storyboard
036-storyboard
037-storyboard
038-storyboard
039-storyboard
040-storyboard

In the afternoon, we booked a family friendly private tour of the Louvre through Context Tours and I cannot say enough good things about Isabel, our guide. The Louvre was huge, crowded, and somewhat intimidating, but she managed to make the tour special both for the kids and us - exploring a medieval underground castle (the original Louvre), checking out the Botticelli fresco, watching Mona Lisa's eyes following us throughout the room, and seeing the crown jewels - we learned a lot and had a fantastic time.

041-storyboard
042-storyboard

Our first cafe crepes in Paris. Yum.

043-storyboard

I love that Paris's public bikes come with baskets.

044-storyboard
045-storyboard

Of course, we NEEDED to stop at the bakery on the way home.

046-storyboard

Some much needed downtime before we began our walk to Sacre Coeur.

047-storyboard
048-storyboard
049-storyboard
050-storyboard
051-storyboard

Once we reached the top, the view terrified T. Luckily a super cheesy light-up Eiffel Tower made everything better (I learned this trip that almost all my children's woes can be solved with ice cream and/or crap souvenirs).

052-storyboard
053-storyboard
054-storyboard

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!! I'll post more photos from Paris on Wednesday, I hope you all had a great weekend! I've had a lot of work lately (which is awesome, but exhausting), so I'm not quite back in the swing of things post-Europe. The kids still have THREE WEEKS LEFT before school starts and I'm ready for summer to wind down.

1 comment:

  1. It may seem daunting at first, but finding the best travel package for your trip to Paris should be a breeze. I have shared some interesting things that you may want to know if you are going to Paris. Every year thousands of Brits like to cross the channel and visit Paris, the capital city of France, and a lot of people that I have spoken to have enjoyed more than one visit in the past. https://www.goatripsindia.com/special-goa-best-honeymoon-packages

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...