I started to wax philosophic over our travels, but caught myself in time. At any rate, this past weekend we returned to Paris - this was originally supposed to be a surprise, but with both children in school, I decided that I should let Michelle know well in advance, so that while she was surprised when she first found out, by the time this past weekend rolled around, the surprise had long ago dissipated.
So on Thursday night, we gathered our things, and got on the Eurostar to Paris. It was quite a different experience from heading over on the coach. We arrived in Paris about two and a half hours later, found our apartment (only one block over from the one we had previously stayed in), and called it a night.
There wasn't really an agenda for our visit, so on Friday, after an early awakening by the kids, I headed out and picked up some croissants and pains au chocolat. We then headed over to the Musee d'Orsay, where we spent a few hours looking at works by Monet, Manet, Renoir, and Rodin. After that, we wandered back towards Notre Dame, and popped in to Berthillon for what I have heard is the best ice cream in Paris, and it was pretty tasty. We ended the night with a little feast in our apartment, with a bottle of wine (for Mich and myself, not the kids), some roast chicken, and French cheese.
Saturday we went to the Eiffel Tower and went all the way to the top this time, basically because Dalton wanted to. I can now tell you that there is no significant difference between the second floor and the top - you can see just about everything the same. We then went back to the Jardins du Luxembourg and saw a marionette show before going to Au Beaujolais for our dinner, where Maggie succeeded in making a Frenchman fall in love with her.
Sunday was short - we made it to Saint-Chapelle before leaving, but then it was time to catch our train home. Pictures below.
Showing posts with label Eiffel Tower. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eiffel Tower. Show all posts
Monday, February 16, 2009
Monday, September 3, 2007
The Eiffel Tower Picture
So, here's the picture of the Eiffel Tower that Michelle is so proud of. I imagine that once we make it back home it will go into our 8x10 picture collection in the trifolding picture screen. I was trying to get the video in here, but I couldn't get it to rotate.
Friday, August 31, 2007
L'Open Tour and the other Tour
L'Open Tour is one of the bus ride providers in Paris, and as I have been such a strong advocate of riding the bus to see the sights in London, I thought it would be worthwhile to do the same in Paris. I have to say that the verdict is still out on that - the experience is a little different, and so I'm not certain that I would do the bus in Paris. Nonetheless, the L'Open Tour is what we did on the third day.
We started by heading out to Place St. Michel and finding the nearest stop, and then getting on the bus. Perhaps part of my problem with the buses in Paris was that Michelle and I seemed to be having difficulty finding any bus that would play the English commentary without ten zillion tons of static. The time or two that we did, it was Dalton who fussed so much about wanting to listen to it that in the end, he was the one listening to the headphones, while Mich and I just sat and watched the city go by. So we rode around by the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, Place de la Concorde, and several other Parisian landmarks before stopping for lunch near La Madeleine. We went down the street and found a little shop that had sandwiches and the like, and bought Dalton a pizza, while the rest of us had baguette sandwiches.
After lunch, we went back up and got on another L'Open Tour bus. The L'Open Tour has four lines, but quite honestly, it could probably consolidate down to two, or maybe one. We got on the line which goes by the Basilique Sacre-Coeur, and ending up riding around twice, since both the kids fell asleep and we didn't want to wake them. I will say that of everything I saw in Paris, the areas we rode through on that bus were the least exciting - and the most "tourist trap" like. The Basilica is neat, but for me, there were other things which I would see first - probably the best thing about it is the views over the rest of the city.
Having been to the Sacre-Coeur, we finally headed over to the "other Tour", as I call it above - the Tour Eiffel (that's Eiffel Tower for all you non-French speakers), but not before stopping off at McDonald's for Dalton and Maggie. The Eiffel Tower was the highlight of our visit for Dalton. I'm not sure about Maggie ...she keeps saying she liked it all. The lines to get to the top were long - and it was six o'clock at night when we got there. However, you can also take the stairs to the second floor, and so that's what we did, walking up 700 steps to the second level. We did stop and rest on the first floor, which is a mere 200 - some odd steps.
At night, the Tower is lit for the first ten minutes of each hour - so when it was close to nine, we started to head back down. Dalton, Maggie and I managed to get out in time to see the lights for about twenty seconds or so. Unfortunately, Michelle got stuck behind a slow person on the stairs though, so she missed the lights. So, after poking around a bit, we decided to hang out and watch the lights come on again. We took a video, and depending on how it looks on here, I may just try to post it. In case any reader ever goes to Paris, you can now safely skip seeing the lights, as you can just refer to this blog.
I wasn't particularly expecting to be impressed by the Tower, but I was, against my inclinations. If you do make it to Paris, I would recommend going - just go later at night, take a bottle of wine, and lay back on the Champ de Mars and watch the lights.
We started by heading out to Place St. Michel and finding the nearest stop, and then getting on the bus. Perhaps part of my problem with the buses in Paris was that Michelle and I seemed to be having difficulty finding any bus that would play the English commentary without ten zillion tons of static. The time or two that we did, it was Dalton who fussed so much about wanting to listen to it that in the end, he was the one listening to the headphones, while Mich and I just sat and watched the city go by. So we rode around by the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, Place de la Concorde, and several other Parisian landmarks before stopping for lunch near La Madeleine. We went down the street and found a little shop that had sandwiches and the like, and bought Dalton a pizza, while the rest of us had baguette sandwiches.
After lunch, we went back up and got on another L'Open Tour bus. The L'Open Tour has four lines, but quite honestly, it could probably consolidate down to two, or maybe one. We got on the line which goes by the Basilique Sacre-Coeur, and ending up riding around twice, since both the kids fell asleep and we didn't want to wake them. I will say that of everything I saw in Paris, the areas we rode through on that bus were the least exciting - and the most "tourist trap" like. The Basilica is neat, but for me, there were other things which I would see first - probably the best thing about it is the views over the rest of the city.
Having been to the Sacre-Coeur, we finally headed over to the "other Tour", as I call it above - the Tour Eiffel (that's Eiffel Tower for all you non-French speakers), but not before stopping off at McDonald's for Dalton and Maggie. The Eiffel Tower was the highlight of our visit for Dalton. I'm not sure about Maggie ...she keeps saying she liked it all. The lines to get to the top were long - and it was six o'clock at night when we got there. However, you can also take the stairs to the second floor, and so that's what we did, walking up 700 steps to the second level. We did stop and rest on the first floor, which is a mere 200 - some odd steps.
At night, the Tower is lit for the first ten minutes of each hour - so when it was close to nine, we started to head back down. Dalton, Maggie and I managed to get out in time to see the lights for about twenty seconds or so. Unfortunately, Michelle got stuck behind a slow person on the stairs though, so she missed the lights. So, after poking around a bit, we decided to hang out and watch the lights come on again. We took a video, and depending on how it looks on here, I may just try to post it. In case any reader ever goes to Paris, you can now safely skip seeing the lights, as you can just refer to this blog.
I wasn't particularly expecting to be impressed by the Tower, but I was, against my inclinations. If you do make it to Paris, I would recommend going - just go later at night, take a bottle of wine, and lay back on the Champ de Mars and watch the lights.
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