Paris days 3 & 4

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

Josh says:
Today we got up early to go to the Louvre (a big art museum). Luckily we didn't have to go through the first bag check as there was a huge line but inside was a even bigger line to get into the Louvre. Once we were in it it was quite quick to get to where we needed to go. We got an audio guide which was ok, it had good directions on it and a map. The only negative was that it didn't have every thing only a few things. All in all it was ok, I'm not into art at all. If you were into art you would of loved it. we saw all the famous paintings/statues like the Mona Lisa, The Final Feast and Venus (Aphrodite), which were all crowded.

After that we went to the Luxenborg Gardens, we didn't explore much of it as me and Leesh sailed a boat in the pond, we were Sweden as Australia just got taken before we got there. Our aim was to hit Australia we got so close but didn't, it turned out our boat liked Belgium. It was a lot of fun. Then we went to the Notre Dame (a church) we didn't end up climbing it so we went back home and chilled.

The next day we went Versailles to see the Chateau De Versailles (the kings of France lived there before the revolution) but before we did we saw a local food market. We saw a bit of the garden before it started to rain then hail and had some snow flacks in the air. The garden was huge we didn't see half of it. The palace was huge and they nice (its good to be rich).          

Snow (close enough) on Josh's backpack

Alicia says:
Today we got up early to make the most of the day. The first place we went to was the Louvre which is a big art and history museum. The Louvre had the... Mona Lisa.

After that we went to the Carousel Gardens where there was a playground, 6 little trampolines and a merry-go-round. After that we got a big hot chocolate before going to the Luxembourg Gardens. In the gardens Josh and me sailed a little sail boat. Finally we went back to where we were staying. We had left over pasta. The things that I liked the most about that day was going to the Luxembourg Gardens and the playground.  

The next day we went to a market which I got a punnet of blueberries. When we finished looking at the marked we went to the Palace. When we where in the gardens it started to hail then it started to lightly snow. My favourite part in the Palace was the bedroom's of the royalty.

After that we had tea at are place we where staying. The thing that I liked the most about that day was when it started to lightly snow.

Dad says:
On Monday we planned on going to the Louvre, we were warned about queues etc, but since we are not in the peek period and we weren't sure what time to go we took a chance. We went in the Carousel entrance as we read it was a lot quicker and there was no queue for the first bag check. The second queue was about a 20 minute wait and this was for everyone doing another bag scan. The third queue was for the tickets and this was just a 2 minute wait. So it would not have saved much time booking ahead. The problem also with booking ahead is that you choose a day, so there is no chance to change. The final queue we had was getting the audio guide and again was only about 5 minutes.

The main entrance

The Louvre was huge and we only planned to see a few of the sections due to our very busy day beforehand. The main parts we saw were the Egyptian section, the marble statues, the jewellery, the styles of accommodation of the rich and the Italian art works. This is where the Mona Lisa is found. It was one of the first purchases of the Louvre and was well worth it. It was quite a small painting in comparison to many of the larger works, but obviously had a very large crowd in front of it. I think the kids were a bit bored of it all after not too long and once again "everything is in French". If you are into your art you would have appreciated the Louvre a bit more, for us it was a bit over our heads.

Trying to show the sheer scale of it

The kids couldn't get over all the nakedness

The mass of viewers for the Mona Lisa

We spent the rest of the day walking around, seeing a few churches and a few gardens including the Luxembourg Gardens.

More churches, more stained glass

A chocolate shop. I got some macaroons, plain chocolate and peanut brittle

This was again a very nice spot with a large lake in front where you could hire boats to float around. Just don't walk on the grass or you'll be told off. We honestly looked and saw no signs so we thought we would just take a closer look at a pigeon house. Alicia is now paranoid about crossing grassy areas, you just have to mention being told off and she will run off and go around the long way. I think Josh now has a new weapon in his armery for Alicia.

Hiring a boat was a cheap and easy thing for the kids to run around a pond for 30 minutes chasing and pushing the boat back out. Each boat had a country flag (or a pirate ship) and we just missed out on getting Australia so we went for Sweden. They tried to crash into Australia, but kept missing.

Whilst here I met an Australian who wanted me to take her photo in front of the pond and she thought I was English. It's not just the Americans who think we are English!!

That afternoon we relaxed in the apartment and got a cheap meal that consisted of cooking ravioli with Napoleon sauce from the supermarket and we watched Rio 2. The ravioli was really nice so we decided to do it again the next night. Just with the foods, bread is cheap (and the baguettes are really nice), meat is expensive and fruit was slightly more than home. We also tried some French Camembert cheese that was stinky and not that nice. We tried it for a bit, but then ditched the rest. Luckily that was also cheap.

On our last full day in Paris we decided to go to the Versailles, which was a very very lavish royal estate. As mentioned before there was a rail strike for the Versailles train, however we could catch one close and walk for about 20 mins. On the way we went to a "farmers market" in the township of Versailles. Alicia bought some blue berries and I think Simone just enjoyed looking around at all the stalls.

The building in Versailles itself was massive and the gardens were also massive and pretty. It was however freezing cold and occasionally wet. Whilst deep out in the gardens we got caught by a very light hail and luckily it didn't wet us much and we were huddled under some trees. However since it was very cold, some snow flakes (or snow rain I think they call it) started to fall and it was then all of a sudden not so bad. Josh has since struck snow of his bucket list, though it was a bit of a stretch to call it snow. We did however decide to go into the Palace at this time. Not much to say other than extravagant. No wonder the French people decided to raid it during the revolution. After Versailles we saw a few more churches, got lost a bit and then went home for a relatively early finish. Josh is a bit over me just exploring and guessing the way round. Sometimes we are misplaced, but never really lost. Google maps struggles when offline to give a good placement (you need to download the areas beforehand) or doesn't work at all. Nether-less Mon and I like exploring the areas a bit and we have always felt safe.

Overall France and Paris was really nice, but my favourite remains Rome thus far.

Hidden figures

Bunny: 0
Crowie: 1

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