A week in Paris Part One

Cora's dearest wish this year was to see the Eiffel tower for her 12th birthday. Normally such  a request would have been laughable, but as we are living in Spain, and could take a relatively cheap hopper flight to Paris, I thought, "Why not?" so this Monday me and the kids headed to Paris. Rob, Angela and their kids were able to join us and so we set off with our large group. Unfortunately due to restrictions on Brian's travels, he was unable to join us and went on his own adventure to Portugal with the BYU students. We had about 4.5 days in Paris, and I am pretty convinced that we could have done 2 more weeks without making it to everything we hoped for. However, we did our best to hit the highlights.
Day 1:Saint Chappelle, crepes and just looking around
We got checked into our Airbnb, ate some crepes and headed out. Much of our first day was looking at shops, cruising by the Notre Dame Cathedral and seeing Saint Chappelle.




Day 2:Versailles
Getting out to the palace, standing in a long line, and then finally making it in took half the day! I got a bit of an education on what etiquette means in France, and the types of rules they had for each room. For example, your bedroom was not a private space! Many people would come in and help you dress and prepare everyday, and a certain type of visitor was expected to be entertained in your bedroom. Luckily, there was one room of each apartment where no one else could enter, and was thus a type of sanctuary. We topped of the day with some delicious chinese food and then more rooftop gazing.

Rosie, Elena, Cora and Clara in front of Versailles

Giant Fireplace in Versailles

Photo recreation!

Hall of Mirrors

Tired boy who doesn't want to see anymore palace.

The kids really wanted to row a boat out in the gardens, so we did!

Day 3: Cora's Birthday!
We began with another round of crepes at the delicious crepery by the metro station, then headed to the catacombs.

The lines were atrocious, but we all wanted to see the bones and tunnels, so we took turns standing in line. The kids played with an empty plastic bottle for hours, and rotated between "500" bottle tag, catch, and freestyle wrestling. Sam was covered in mud and bruises by the end, but everyone stayed happy.

 The catacombs were pretty interesting, and different from the last time that Brian and I toured them 17 years ago. After asking about them I found out that every 2 years they change the course of direction for the tours, and rotate among the 200km of subterranean tunnels. So maybe I will have to check them out next time we are in paris, and see what has changed.

A quick lunch, and some delicious desserts, and then we carried on!




Next we swung by the Arc de Triumph, and then spent a miserable hour waiting for restrooms. After that we had a mad dash to the Eiffel Tower to try and hit our ticket time. We had a beautiful, misty day to look at from on high, and then worked our way down the tower.



 It was Rob and Angelas last dayso there was no rest for the weary. Me, Angela, and the older half of the kids pressed on to the Louvre. Rob offered to take the younger set back to the apartment for pizza and a well deserved rest. By the time we finished up at the Louvre and made it home all the pastry shops were shut, and so we ended up singing to the birthday girl over a bar of chocolate and 4 werther's "candles"