Nous Aimons Paris!

Paris was everything we hoped it would be and more! After last year’s very successful London trip we thought it would be fun to meet up with Webb and Jeff in Paris instead of them making the long haul to Tanzania. It was so great.

First of all, we were on the same flight to Amsterdam as the Grahams. That’s nine people with luggage that needed transportation. Luckily, our friend/taxi driver, Lucas, owns a daladala (Tanzania’s version of public transportation). 

Thanks to some great advice from Blakely, we rented a 3 bedroom apartment in Le Marais. The location was ideal and the set-up was perfect for the seven of us. Grocery stores, cafes, and metro lines all with in walking distance. And our weather all week was amazing.  

Day 1: (sort of a half day after overnight flights for all of us) Place des Vosges and to the Pompidou Centre

We were off to a great start when our airport driver pulled onto our street and Matt saw Jeff through the window of a local pâtisserie. We quickly stopped and ran it to greet them when our ‘host’ from the apartment also walked in. Perfect timing.  We dropped off our bags and started our Parisian experience with lunch at the corner café. After settling into the apartment we went on our first outing to Place des Vosges and to the Pompidou Centre. All within walking distance. 

Webb gave each of the kids a fabulous journal that she had put together that had all kinds of information, pictures, quizzes, with extra space to record their trip. They got quite a lot of use. 

  

After a little shopping in the bookstore (highly recommend!!) we took the outside escalator up to the top on the Georges Pompidou Centre. There we enjoyed the views and decided that Montmartre and Sacré-Cœur should be our plan for the next day.

Look at Sacré-Cœur Basilica! It just beckons you.

Day 2: Montmartre, Sacré-Cœur, and Jardin des Tuileries

Climbing the 331 steps up to Montmartre (yes, the kids really did count). 

We watched the artists, had lunch, visited Sacré-Cœur, and had the kids portraits drawn (thanks, Grammy Webb!!!). I even remembered how to say the sign of the cross ‘en français’.

Portraits

Next we went to Jardin des Tuileries via Place de la Concorde and played with pigeons. 

From Tuileries looking up the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe

Outside Le Louvre (we did not go in)

Day 3: Notre Dame and Champs-Élysées

Notre Dame

Then it was girls’ shopping along the Champs-Élysées to Arc de Triomphe

Then after a day where we clocked 11 miles of walking we decided to treat ourselves to a bike ride back down the Champs-Élysées

Apparently the boys had a similar idea after their recon mission to the Eiffel Tower

Day 4:  Eiffel Tower, Musée D’Orsay, Jardin des Plantes, and the Natural History Museum

Batobus, boat taxi to the Eiffel Tower and Jardin des Plantes.

The girls were teaching Grammy “Cups” (sans any actual cups)

The Eiffel Tower

“Due to a national stricke _[sic] – Eiffel Tower closed until 6:30 pm”. Oops. We knew this was a possibility, so we just rescheduled the trip for that night. Turned out to be one of the best things that happened to us. 

So in the meantime we went to Musée D’Orsay which is in the old train station. Beautiful.

Clock in the D’Orsay which had a really cool view of Sacré-Cœur through it

Then it was on to Jardin des Plantes and the Natural History Museum

I loved this ‘bee hotel’ to encourage some 900 species of French bees to reproduce. 

Natural History Museum – was fun to watch the kids identify all the African mammals that they had

Then it was back to the Eiffel Tower. We decided that the younger generations would climb the 670 steps to the second platform (beyond that you need to take an elevator). The first platform has a clear floor to see below. We were able to see Webb and Jeff below waiting in line for the elevator.

 

Second Platform

Then all the way to the top (280 meters/980 feet) for a champagne toast to the sunset over Paris!

There’s a reason it’s called the City of Lights – it just got more stunning the darker it got and then the lights started twinkling – it was like watching a fireworks display. This happened at the top of every hour. We got to see it twice – once standing underneath and once while we were eating our dinner. So magical.

Twinkling Lights of the Eiffel Tower from Lisa Coyle on Vimeo.

Then we stumbled upon a little Italian place for a very late dinner of salad and pizza. The very friendly owner came out and chatted with us and brought us Limoncello shots. The kids were already breaking all kinds of rules with eating dinner at 10:30, so why not let ‘em try if they wanted (Ash really just dipped her finger in and licked it. Unfortunately, I think she liked it.)

It’s a night we’ll remember forever. 

Day 5: Versailles

We decided not to go in to the Palace and instead just wandered around the beautiful gardens to Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet. The day before, Matt’s sister came and joined us for a couple of our last adventures. She stayed with a friend so we met her out in Versailles and then again the next day at Luxembourg Gardens.

 

Casual lunch on the steps to enjoy the view

Racing daddy

The Queen’s Hamlet was so quaint. I can understand why she’d want to spend time here. 

Dinner at an American restaurant back close to the apartment. We signed the dollar bill and they hung it on the wall. It was funny to watch everyone else eating their burgers and fries with a knife and fork. T was, coincidentally, appropriately dressed.

Day 6 (last full day): Luxembourg Gardens

The Bastille

Luxembourg Gardens for some boat sailing

Meat in a cone should really catch on in the rest of the world. Brilliant. 

Urban landscaping

Matt and I had a date night our last night in Paris. Walking the narrow backstreets of the neighborhood to a small bistro after a bottle of wine followed by crepes ordered through a window made fresh to order. It’s the stuff dreams are made of. 

And we’re done.

Another amazing adventure for us. There are so many more things we wish we had time to do, so we’ll just have to go back. Fueled by chocolate croissants and gelato we walked between 6 and 12 miles a day (and that doesn’t even include the number of stairs we climbed up the Eiffel Tower and to Montmartre).  Really impressive for a group spanning 8 decades. I also have to add that the French people were so friendly and welcoming to us. After hearing stories about how they can be rude to tourists, especially non-French speaking Americans, we were relieved to find that to completely not be the case.

We arrived home after a day of uneventful travel and went to bed at 1:00 am, and I was the mean mom and made the kids go to school the next day.  We came home to much greener grass (yay rain!) and two dozen eggs with one little tiny egg tucked in there. I wonder why?? I’m hoping it’s a ‘fairy egg’ (no yolk) that I sometimes hear about coming from backyard chickens. That would beat a double yolker for sure.