Our First Day in France!

We all woke up super early so that we could catch our train to Paris and meet up with dad. I had packed up our bags the night before and put the kids to bed in their clothes so that all we would have to do was wake up and go. Malorie drove us to the train station so we wouldn't have to sleepwalk there. I thought we were off to a great start, but shortly after our train pulled out of the station we realized that Joey had forgotten to bring his glasses! His eyes are so bad that he has never ever never forgotten them before, but since they have been broken on this trip so frequently (we keep re-gluing them) he hasn't been wearing them all of the time since they don't stay on his face very well. This was super disappointing, as dad was bringing new frames for him, but without his lenses he wouldn't be able to see anything in France clearly. Then in Zurich when we had to transfer trains, we accidentally left one of our bags behind - our tech bag with all of our chargers and adapters in it, and also my portable battery pack and the Kindle! Oh no! We realized our mistake while still in Zurich, but by the time we got back to the platform the train had already left. I was feeling frazzled, the kids were all bummed out, and things were not off to a good start.

We did manage to find our train to France and get on board in time though, so that was a good thing. We still had a full exciting day planned in Paris, and I didn't want to let our rough start spoil the whole day. Once we were all settled on the train, I told everyone to sit around the table and hold hands. We said a prayer thanking God that we were all together, that we were all safe, and that we were going to be reunited with dad soon. We talked about being grateful for the things that were most important to us, and about how the things we had lost in the bag were not that important. We talked about how even when bad things happen, it doesn't need to spoil your whole day - you can have a bad moment instead of a bad day, and move on. There was still the whole day ahead of us, and it was up to us to make it a great one. So we all agreed that we were ready to have a good day, and then opened up our bag of bakery goods that we had brought along for breakfast.

Croissant Smile!

Croissant Face!

When we got off the four hour train ride to Paris, Joe was waiting for us at the end of the platform! We all ran up to meet him and had a great big group hug. It was about 11 am and we were eager to explore Paris. First step: figure out where to buy Metro tickets. We knew tickets were cheaper purchased in packs of ten, but couldn't figure out where to buy them. We couldn't find a manned ticket counter, and even if we had, we couldn't speak French. The first two machines we tried didn't seem to sell them in ten-packs. There were too many options, and none of them seemed right. Finally we found a machine that worked, bought a nice big stack of them, and we were on our way!

Here's what the machines that work look like, in case you are going to Paris looking for ten packs of metro tickets. :)

First we headed for the Notre Dame Cathedral. As it was Sunday, I was hoping to make it there in time for mass. Unfortunately we did not make it. So we decided to get some food instead, and ended up buying some delicious fare from a stand on the sidewalk - crepes with Nutella, croque monsieur sandwiches, and hot dogs with toasted cheese - yum! It was really neat to watch them make the crepes in front of us. 

We also managed to find a tourist information booth nearby that sold advance skip-the-line tickets to the Louvre, which we planned to visit the next day. We also wanted to buy tickets for Musée d'Orsay, but were surprised to find that they were unavailable that day as there was a special event and tickets were being sold only at the doors and at a reduced price. We decided to head right over there, as it was already approaching 1:00 and the museum was only open until 6pm and now that we had learned it was a discounted admission day we were worried about the line to get in. However, these fears were unfounded as there was no line outside at all, and the line inside was only a few minutes long. There were signs outside with a picture of a suitcase saying that no luggage could be stored in the museum, so we were a bit worried about that as we were all tired of carrying around our backpacks (which were quite heavy, despite our goal to pack light). Happily, they agreed to store all of our backpacks as they didn't seem to be "luggage" exactly, so that was a win for packing light! Then we were free to explore the museum! We definitely didn't get to see the whole thing, as there was so much to see, and the kids weren't interested in staying there all day, and Joe was beginning to crash as well, as he had only slept an hour or two and was suffering from jet lag. But we did see some great works of art. We especially loved seeing all of the paintings by Monet and Van Gogh, and the kids recognized several famous paintings.

This picture is not great, but it's the best I have. Mary with one of Monet's paintings of water lilies. Mary decided that Monet was her favorite artist in this museum, and loved looking at all of his paintings. 

Joey was excited to find this one of Whistler's mother - he recognized it from a video he had seen online. 

There was a great view of Paris and the River Seine through this giant clock window. 

Having a little rest inside the museum

When Katie saw this one she exclaimed, "It's for nursing!"

Joe = Van Gogh

After a couple of hours we decided it was time to leave. Joe was super exhausted, and so was Katie - she hasn't been sleeping well at all on this trip, I think because she has several new teeth coming in. We decided to head over to check into our Airbnb apartment. By the time we got there, Katie had fallen asleep so we left her with Joe in the apartment to nap, while the older kids and I decided to walk around to find a playground and some dinner to bring back in a couple of hours. We found a great playground, and went to a grocery store and bought fresh baguettes, French cheese, salami, ham, and fruit for dinner.

Having a rest on the metro platform on the way to our Airbnb apartment

The playground had a lovely flower garden to walk through, and Mary wanted a picture with this plant.

We went back to the apartment at about 6:00 and were surprised to find both Katie and Joe still sound asleep! But we only had a couple of days in Paris and didn't want to sleep them away, so we woke them up, ate our dinner, and headed out to see the Catacombs of Paris. This was something the kids had picked out to see, and they were really looking forward to it. We had left with just enough time to see it before closing...or so we thought. We were riding the metro when suddenly an announcement was made (in French, so we didn't understand any of it) and everyone started to get off the train. We weren't sure what was going on or what to do, and nobody around seemed to speak English. Finally someone said "evacuation" so we ended up getting off the train with everyone else. The platform was super crowded as it was rush hour. The train we had been on drove away empty and we waited for the next train. One came a short while later, but there was another announcement and they made everyone get off of that train too! It was now extra super duper crowded, and sadly, too late to make it to the catacombs. The kids were disappointed, and we didn't have anything else planned for the day. So we looked at what was still open in Paris, and asked the kids if they wanted to visit the Eiffel Tower at night instead of the next day, and they answered with a resounding YES!

It had been a grey, overcast day, and it was drizzling a little so we were hopeful the lines wouldn't be too long to go up the tower. As we approached the Eiffel Tower, it started glittering with lights! So pretty! As the night went on we learned that it sparkled with lights like that every hour on the hour. By the time we made it to the base of the tower, we desperately needed to find a restroom, so we bypassed the ticket lines and headed for the facilities at the far end of the tower base. After we were all comfortable again, we found there was a second ticket line at the opposite end of the tower where there was almost no line at all! So we got in line there and were thrilled to find ourselves zipping up in the elevator after only a ten minute wait! So great! We had originally planned on climbing the stairs to save money, but unfortunately the stairs are not open for climbing at night, so we paid a premium price to ride the elevator all the way to the top. It was worth it though - it would have been so difficult for the kids to make that climb at the end of a long day and in the colder and wetter conditions we had. Fortunately though, the rain stopped by the time we got out of the elevator and the views of the city all lit up at night were AMAZING! Unfortunately both of our phones ran out of battery and we didn't get very many pictures, but I think the kids will definitely remember this experience!

The first elevator only takes you up to the second level of the tower, and then you have to get in line for a separate elevator to ride all the way to the top. This line wasn't very long either, but the elevator was packed full and everyone was quiet as we started zooming up to the tippy top. It was a pretty fast elevator, with windows all around so that you could see out. It must have been a little unsettling for Joey, because as we went higher and higher he suddenly cried out, "I don't want to go all the way up to heaven!" which made everyone inside chuckle. The views from the top at night were spectacular, and I'm so glad we decided to see the Eiffel Tower at night. The only downside was that we hadn't planned on staying out so late in the cold, so we hadn't worn our warmest clothing and it was a bit chilly up there. Also it was approaching 10pm and there was quite a long line to wait in to take the elevator down again, which was especially hard for Lily. She was practically sleeping on her feet as we walked back to the metro station to get back to our apartment. There were lots of people selling cheap Eiffel Tower souvenirs outside the tower, so the kids all bought some Eiffel Tower key chains and we bought one little Eiffel Tower that lit up with rainbow colored LED lights for us all to share. When we finally made it back to the apartment we all agreed that the day had turned out to be a good one after all. :)

Walking through the metro station late at night.
It was at this point that I was especially glad to have Joe around to help with the kids. :)