just another morning here

After a day in Paris, the kids are all in desperate need of a shower … although most of Joe’s grime is encrusted campsite muck, I think. Actually the title comes from the Phineas and Ferb theme song that the kids have been singing all week, something about all the different ways to spend your summer vacation, and obviously ‘giving a monkey a shower’ cunningly rhymes with ‘climbing up the eiffel tower’. I think Josiah can cross something else off the list in the song lyrics, as I’m sure it mentions annoying your sister!

Anyway, we spent yesterday in Paris. The kids wanted to go up the Eiffel Tower, and I wanted to get their portraits done at Montmartre. Steve wanted to take it easy and find nice cafes to sit in while admiring the Parisian view. I am happy to say we managed all of it, in various ways.

Started off walking through Trocadero and over the Seine to the Eiffel Tower. I was marginally annoyed at this point, because I had a number of geocaches to do in Paris but the batteries in my GPSr suddenly died and I didn’t have any spares, so I had to abandon the idea. No-one else seemed that bothered though! We were at the tower by 10am but already the queues were horrendous, and we decided we couldn’t face them, so ambled around and amused ourselves taking daft photos instead. Joe was a bit disappointed though.

Disappeared down onto the metro again, and popped up at the Etoile to show the children the Arc de Triomphe. They were suitably unimpressed. Steve came up with the great business proposition of having a ‘speed around the Etoile’ car ride for tourists, probably not one of his better ideas but I think he was just wishing he could be driving around it rather than simply looking at it!

Back on the metro to Le Jardin des Tuileries which was where I’d planned to have lunch. Great plan, the kids loved the play area and we even managed to find a bench partly in the shade (for the sun hating members of the family) and partly in the sun (for me) for us to sit on. Had ice creams there as well, and sat by the pond eating them and feeding the last bits of cornet to the ducks. Showed the kids La Place de la Concorde but again they weren’t terribly impressed.

From there we headed up to Montmartre. Stopped at the Moulin Rouge, again looks of disdain from the kids (‘but it’s just a red windmill’), and then ambled up the hill to the Place de Tertre. I have always wanted to actually stop and have a portrait done here, I know it’s probably overpriced and nothing too amazing in terms of art, but the whole experience just appealed to me. We looked around for a while, then Abbie spotted an artist that she liked, so once he had a gap we approached him and I haggled a little bit over prices. The kids then all sat for half an hour each, while Steve went off and bought the most expensive drinks ever in a cafe just across the way – a cafe with a vantage point across to the artist so that he could watch the process too. Whoever wasn’t being drawn and I wandered between the cafe and the artist for the time it took – almost 2 hours so we didn’t begrudge the artist his money in the end. The children all really enjoyed themselves, even Josiah, which was surprising. We think we are quite pleased with the result, although we haven’t dared get it out and look at it again! Will have to get it framed anyway, if nothing else it’s an original and unique souvenir of the holiday – and only as pricey as most of the stuff that the kids wanted to buy in all the souvenir shops!

By the time that had finished it was late afternoon. We popped up to the Sacre Coeur but only the outside, not enough of us were interested in going inside. One of these days Steve and I will have to go back to Paris without children, I suspect it would be a totally different experience. I am completely in love with Paris – don’t think it’s only because I have fond memories of time spent there as a child, I just think it’s beautiful anyway. Where was I? Oh yes. We sat and watched the most awful dancers I have ever seen on the steps outside the Sacre Coeur, at least there was a good view to admire.

Then decided to head back down to the area around the Eiffel Tower for dinner, hoping that the queues might have died down a bit. No such luck there, so we went off in search of a cafe. Relatively budget dinner, but nice enough. Joe ate as much as Steve and I – including a steak! While we were there, towards the end of the meal, we realised that we’d missed the 8.30pm train so had a couple of hours to kill before the 10.30pm one. So there was nothing for it but to queue up and brave the stairs. It was getting dark by this point so fairly pretty as well Josiah was suitably happy to have finally done what he came to Paris to do, and the rest of us enjoyed it as well. My legs turned to jelly after all the stairs though (so unfit!).

Afterwards it was a fairly brisk walk to get across Paris on the metro to the main train station. Very pretty views of the tower as we left at 10pm it started sparkling – didn’t know it did that! Once at the station at Montparnasse we managed to get on the wrong train – not the direct one to Rambouillet and Chartres, but the one that stopped at every station on the way to Rambouillet. DOH. So, a very late night – it was quarter to midnight when we got back to the campsite – but a great day all round.

Having a VERY lazy day today, didn’t get up until lunchtime and I am waiting until everyone else is up, showered and dressed, which is not looking at all likely at the moment!