Kyle has been persistent … wanting to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. But each time we walked by the lines were about an hour long. So we decided to go the economy manual route for $4Euro per adult. It is 668 steps to the second tier.
Today has been a low picture taking day. I left my battery charger in London…so guess who has a low battery!? Great.
We started the day sleeping in to about 9am…it is easy to do because we stay up so late. We walked a few steps to a cafe to have breakfast. A french breakfast for Bryce, an english breakfast for Connor and Tom, a cafe creme for me, and for Kyle a ham sandwich (hey it was on the menu – but they brought him an omlette instead). It was a great start to the day, just sipping on coffee and watching people hurry past.
Next we took the #82 bus to Luxembourg Gardens. We found a playground that had a $2,60 admission fee per kid. It was a lot of fun for the boys – there were playground equipment that we would never have in the US. A flying-fox style gym was their favorite. See photo above.
When we left the park, around 1pm, clusters of people were enjoying their lunches in the park. It felt amazing walking amongst them in the gardens, hearing their excited lunch-time chatter and taking in the views.
Next we went over to Notre Dame. Walked along outside of it and headed to Ile St. Louis to get ice cream at the famous Berthillon ice-cream shop. Then we returned along the river back toward Notre Dame. Eventually passing the queue of people lined up to go in. We saw possibly a diversion – a man wearing a weird mask was coming up between people acting silly. He could have been part of a pick pocket team.
Again hopping the bus back down to Orsay Museum. This was a so-so experience. Kids were hungry and not too appreciative of the art. Even so, they did find paintings they recognized (monet and van gogh).
The back to the apartment for dinner (picking up food at the local grocery and bakery). After relaxing and debating what to do next, we decided to go up the Eiffel Tower (per Kyle’s insistence). Then to the RER to check out train schedules for the morning.
Off to Versailles tomorrow. We hope to rent bikes and tour the gardens that way. Wish us luck. Hopefully I have enough battery power to get in some pictures.
