Paris days 1 & 2

For a larger selection of photos go to: https://goo.gl/photos/7sLVqK4vFrr8otQy7

 
Alicia says:
When we got to Paris we went to our accommodation. The bedrooms where in 2 different rooms. The kitchen was small but it was good for us. That day we went to the Notre Dane (church), we also went to a small park outside the Notre Dame. For tea we went to a star wars cafe we got 2 crepes. The next day we went up the Eiffel Tower and I got a dog called Paris (or Pari) it also came with a little French hat.

Next we when to an army museum for a long time. After that we went to the Arc de Triomphe. Finally we went back to the Eiffel Tower again to take at night photos. When we got there Simone (mum) took 2 photos before the lights on the Eiffel Tower started to flicker. Then we went back to where we were staying.    

Josh says:

Paris was cold and huge. The day we arrived we explored a bit of Paris and saw Notre Dane which is a big church with Gargoyles all over it. When we got there there was a service on so it was crowded with people. Then we explored a bit more and found a nerd street (It basically had all these nerd shops like models, comics and sci-fi) we ended getting tea at a Star Wars cafe and got 2 wheat crepes.

The next day we got up early and went to the Eiffel tower but it wasn't open yet, when it opened we walked up to the first then second floor. Not as bad of a walk as I thought, though the others took forever. Then we had to catch a lift to the top floor, it was very very windy up the top and I got very cold quickly. There weren't that many people up there as we were up there quickly. After taking about 100000000000 photos we went down to take more at the bottom.

Took more photos, then went to find the Army Museum (YAY). After getting lost we found it and had lunch before going in. The first bit was ok being late Medieval which I have no interest at all. The next part was the Revolution Era which was the best because I'm more into it and it had a lot more stuff like screens showing battles and how they evolved with the armies and commentary. It was awesome. Then we went to the WW1 and WW2 section which was pretty good it had weapons and cloths like the others, it had videos as well. I new most of it and it skipped some very significant events like how WW2 started. After about 4 hours in there we went to see Napoleons tomb. I didn't like it and it was almost closing time when we finished.

We had tea at a self serve restaurant which was very big. Then we went to Arc de Triomphe and climbed it and took more photos. On the way back to the Eiffel Tower we met a scammer (Dad: The story was that he was Canadian on holiday, however his girl friend dropped her purse from the Arc de Triomphe and they lost all their money and credit cards. He needed EU47 to get him his 4 kids and the girl friend back to their hotel near Euro Disney. He tried the Canadian embassy, but it was closed and was offering his watch as collateral. In hindsight it was good for the kids to hear the story. After we politely said no, they felt sorry for him, but we explained how and why they do it and then pointed to many holes in the story and alternatives he could have done if it were true). When we got to the Eiffel Tower it started to flash which looked cool.

Dad says:
Stairs, stairs and more stairs, first the metro and now the apartment. We got here with no problems though.

Paris is HUGE. We look on a map and see a location to walk to and figure it is not that far, but then you Google it to see the walking distance and it can be 5-6 km. We were fairly central, near the Pantheon, Louvre, Luxembourg Gardens and Notre Dame and so this occupied two days. We caught the metro to see the Eiffel Tower, Arch de Triumph and the Army Museum. Basically this broke up the days quite nicely. Our last full day we went to the Palace of Versailles.

Everywhere there are warnings about pick pocketers etc, but we felt very safe. Maybe with the military and their automatic machine guns around most monuments the pick pocketers were on holidays? What I didn't realise was that Paris is still in a state of emergency due to the Paris attacks.

One thing to also check is closures and strikes. We had planned ahead a bit, but the Louvre is closed every Tuesday as are a lot of other places. The Versailles is closed Mondays etc. Whilst we were here we the trains to the Versailles were on strike on the day we went, but we could get off another station and walk 20 minutes. The Versailles is on strike on Wednesday and looks like students and general protests are happing on Thursday. The strikes appear to be over the softening of labour hire/fire rules; lucky we are not in France then.

Notre Dame was massive and when were in there it, there was a church service under way.

My favourite part of Paris was the Eiffel Tower. The size, the view and just the fun we had in front of it. Alicia was delighted to get another, yes another toy dog (named Pari).

A new country and another bum dance

The Army Museum was massive, too big for one day if you wanted to cover it all. The biggest problem for us though is that most things were written in French with no English alternatives. This was the same with the Louvre. It annoyed the kids a bit and Alicia said a couple of times "I don't like Paris, everything is in French". The only exception is the video screen tables that showed how several battles through time (eg Waterloo) evolved and showed the manoeuvres of the armies (Josh had to watch them all).

 In Paris gold is painted (I assume) on a lot of items

Gold, gold, everywhere

Napolean Bonaparte's tomb next to Army Museum (Les Invalides)

Arc de Triomphe

Unknown soldier

Views going to the top of the Arc de Triomphe

Disco Eiffel Tower. Josh quoted "Now thats just showing off"

Another late night for us all, but the metro is quick and easy. Most trains would come around every 5-10 minutes at all times that we caught them. We just purchased individual tickets whenever we needed them and I would recommend this over a 2 to 5 day metro pass. As mentioned before we would only use them up to 2 times a day which for 4 adults cost EU15 for the day. Kids passes (Alicia only would count) you had to buy a book of 10, so it was just easier to get her an adult ticket.

Hidden figures

Bunny: 0
Crowie: 2