The host for our apartment had to deal with some family issues so we met with another person. She didn’t speak any English and my high school French is pretty rusty. Regardless, we were able to figure out most things with hand gestures and the little French I could remember. At one point, she said something and the only words I could pick out were quelle heure and vendredi so I guessed she wanted to know what time we were leaving on Friday. The apartment is pretty good. No air conditioning though and it was super hot. Paris does not put ice in their drinks so most drinks were lukewarm which was pretty surprising, its amazing what you take for granted at home sometimes.
The sites in Paris are amazing. We probably saw less than 10% of what there is to see. Though in the span of two days, we likely climbed about 1700 steps between the Eiffel Tower, the bell tower at the Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe and just random steps around Paris. Every time we saw stairs, we all groaned “more stairs” and reluctantly climbed more stairs.
The major sites we visited were:
The Louvre – We put together a scavenger hunt for the kids. It helped keep them more interested and they were able to find the oldest exhibit at the Louvre, Ain Ghazal. It is 9000 years old. The Mona Lisa was no so remarkable from by perspective.
Notre Dame Cathedral – Climbed the bell towers, went to mass which was interesting, and walked through the Cathedral. The Cathedral has a few relics from Christ’s crucifixion (crown of thorns, a piece of the cross, one of the nails). However, they are only out for viewing on the first Friday of the month and the Fridays during lent. We could only just barely view them through a red case. Number of steps 385.
Eiffel Tower - We came here for Jaxon to see the Eiffel Tower and it did not disappoint. Well it did not disappoint for some of us. Jaxon was less impressed. He thought it would be more exciting. We came back later at night to see it light up at night. That was no so impressive. At about 10:00, while it was still a bit light out, lights on the tower turned on and then twinkled for about 5 minutes. I was sure that there would be more to see so convinced Tom to stay a bit longer, at least until to was dark outside. So about an hour, what did we see? Exactly the same thing we saw an hour earlier, twinkling lights. Except now it was darker out. I got that famous Tom look of bitterness for an hour wasted. Not the first one or the last one for this trip. Number of step 669.
Arc de Triomphe - More steps … 285 … The most interesting thing about the Arc de Triomphe is that there are similar ones all over the world. It is a memorial to honour those who fought for France during the Napoleonic wars. It also includes the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WWI. Great views from the top.
Funniest thing that happened
Nathan got sprayed in the public toilet. Each time a public toilet is used, it goes through a wash cycle. Unfortunately, we did not know this the first time Nathan used the public toilet and he went in right after another person used it. Nathan said that he heard some words in French and then English which said “Washing Sequence will begin in 5 seconds”. He didn’t have time to get out and was sprayed and washed along with the toilet and floor. Read Nathan’s story here.
Best things
Climbing the Bell Tower at Notre Dame (Kim, Jaxon)
Kissing wife on the Eiffel Tower (Tom)
Going to the top of Eiffel Tower (Quinn, Nathan)
Worst things
The heat and no air conditioning in the apartment. (Tom)
No ice in drinks (Tom again)
Waiting for light show at the Eiffel Tower again (Tom again …)
Stinky (Quinn)
Loud at night (Jaxon)
Climbing lots of stairs (Nathan)
The price of everything (Kim)
Most surprising
The number of people standing in line to enter the Louvre. The line to enter through the front was 30 minutes if you have a museum pass and about 2.5 hours if you had to buy a ticket. A little bit a research will uncover that there is a side entrance to the Louvre. There was no line. We literally walked right in. Tom’s not laughing about my endless researching and planning anymore!!