Paris

Jason and I had decided that we would spend a weekend in Paris without the kids.  We figured Paris wasn't the best city for children and it would be nice to expereince Paris as adults....relaxing in cafes, leisurely dinners, stroll along the champs-elysees.  It was not to be though.  Sofia came home from school one day and asked if we were ever going to go to Paris becuase she really wanted to see the Eiffel Tower.  Jason and I looked at each other and gave a very noncommital answer.  We hoped that it would be a passing request and she would forget about it.  She did not.  a couple weeks later she came home with a book she had made titled, "My Holiday Destination - Paris".  She was excited about what she had made and showed me inside the book....information on the eiffel Tower, Arc De Triomphe, weather in Paris, distance from Prague etc...all information she had compiled herself!  With this book we knew our romantic weekend was over.  We could not go to Paris without Sofia knowing that she had such a desire to see the city.  So we changed our plans and booked the Marriot just outside of Paris near DisneyLand.  When we booked the hotel we checked our calendars first to make sure we had nothing scheduled.  After booking the hotel we realized that we had Burns night to attend!  So rather than leave on Saturday as planned we left on Sunday morning after a restful :) 4 hours of sleep! 

We managed the drive even though we were tired and the kids behaved great which helped.  The drive to Paris is very easy and all highway so we got there in nine hours even with a couple bathroom breaks.  The hotel was very nice but our room was very cold.  We had all the heat turned up but it wasn't warming the space up.  We figured it would take a while since it was a two bedroom townhouse so we turned the heat up and went to bed.  When we got up in the morning it was still cold so we called the front desk.  We had noticed there was a space in the patio doors so when the serviceman came to look at the heat we showed him.  He agreed it needed to be fixed but in the mean time we stuck a towel in the crack and he gave us two space heaters to keep the place warm.  It did the trick and the rooms warmed up nicely.  He had the patio doors open for a little bit when he was working on them which apparently attracted the local swan.  After he had closed the door and close the drapes as well to block any draft I kept hearing something knocking.  I finally walked over to the door to see what it was and there was the swan knocking on the glass.  The kids thought it was hilarious and kept putting their hands to the glass.  We didn't want the glass to break and did want the swan to leave so we eventually closed the drapes again and the swan finally decided we weren't going to feed him and left.

Since it was such a long drive on Sunday we decided to just stay at the hotel on Monday and relax.  We went in the pool and then the kids went to the kids club where they made chinese lanterns and colored and played on the climbing structure.  The woman running the club, Mimi, was great and the kids loved her.  We had heard there was good shopping close by so we headed over to check out the outlets and the mall.  Ali was the only one who ended up with anything.  She really wanted new sneakers so she got a new pair of Pumas.  She was very cute in the store and ran down the aisle showing us how fast she could go in the sneakers.  After the outlets we headed to the grocery store and stocked up on cheese and snacks and headed home.


We decided on Tuesday we would take the train into Paris for the day.  The city is so big that you could spend weeks exploring so we just picked out the must see items and headed to those.  The first stop on our trip was the Arc De Triomphe.  Sofia was very excited to see it.  It was cold though so after standing outside seeing it for a bit I decided we should pop into a cafe on the Champs-Elysees for coffee/hot chocolate and croissants.  We warmed up and I took a couple pictures of the kids in the cafe so that when they are older they can say "i sat in a cafe on the Champs-Elysees" and have a picture of it.  Who knows maybe they will sit in the same cafe in 20 years!  After warming up we walked a little bit on the Champs-Elysees and then decided we should go to the top of the Arc De Triomphe.  

On Top of the Arc De Triomphe with the Eiffel Tower in the background



I was relieved when the man asked us if we would prefer the elevator with the children rather than walk up the 284 stairs.  We readily accepted the offer.  The elevator took us up to the gift shop and then we had to finish the short climb to the top.  It was not a great day for viewing Paris as it was foggy but it was still fun to be up on top.  We could see all the roads coming off the round about that goes around the Arc de Triomphe as well as the Eiffel Tower. 

Watching the traffic on the round about was very funny.  It is such a mad house and there are no lanes on the road so it is a complete free for all.  We were all excited for our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower (Jason had already seen it on a previous trip to Paris but it was a first for the girls and me).  After spending time looking around the city from on there we decided to head to the Eiffel Tower. 

We headed back to the metro and over to the Eiffel Tower.  The activity lady at our hotel had told us which stop to get off to have an unobstructed view of the Tower and I'm glad she gave us that information.  It was great seeing it in full with nothing blocking our way and it gave Jason a different view of the Tower as well since when he last came to Paris he approached the Eiffel Tower from the opposite side.  We slowly made our way over to the Tower while snapping loads of pictures and we stood in line to buy our tickets.  We could only go to the second floor since they were doing some kind of renovation work on the top.  This turned out to be fine though since it was a foggy day I don't think we would have seen much from the very top.  I can't imagine coming to the Eiffel Tower in the summer when the crowds are so big.  It took us 20 minutes to get the elevator down from the second floor and I think we were probably there during the slowest time of the year!

Surprisingly after only seeing two sights it was time for lunch so we walked from the Eiffel Tower to a restaurant on the way to our next destination.  We found a small creperie and stopped for lunch.  The girls and I opted for the banana and chocolate crepe while Jason went for a little more substantial, ham, egg and cheese crepe.  After lunch we walked down Rue Cler and checked out some of the shops.  We could not pass up the cheese shop so we stopped in and bought more cheese.  It is hard to resist buying cheese when there are so many excellent options to choose from! 

Jason and I knew we would only have one more stop left to see since the girls were getting tired as were we.  We decided to head up to Montmartre to Sacre Coeur rather than Notre Dame.  It was suppose to have a great view of Paris as well as an artist community and it would make our return train ride faster and easier so we opted to go there.  Of course once we got there we had to take a potty break which also meant coffee/snack break so we sat in a cafe at the bottom of the hill looking up at Sacre Coeur.  After finishing our snack we took the funicular up the hill and turned to see the view of Paris but unfortunately the fog was there so we couldn't see much.  We headed into the church and then walked around the neighborhood a bit to see if there were any paintings we were interested in but given the time of year and the cold there were not many artist around.  Oh well, maybe on the next trip to Paris we will come when it is a bit warmer!

After a full day in Paris we headed back to the train to go to our hotel.  We didn't really see that much of Paris but it took an entire day to see what we did.  We didn't get back to our hotel until around 6PM.  We made dinner of bread and cheese and relaxed for the rest of the night.