Two days in Paris

Another busy couple of days, so tired, sore feet, looking forward to the countryside but still enjoying Paris. We did end up finding a boulangerie (bakery) and have fallen in love with fresh French croissants, they are sooooooo good. It's incredible how much better they can be than those we had from the supermarket, which weren't all that bad. I've got my regular order downpat now, cinq croissants et deux baguettes, breakfast and lunch taken care of!

Yesterday we had our tickets for the Eiffel Tower booked so spent the morning riding the hop on, hop off bus around to the tower. We got there in plenty of time and had our baguettes sitting underneath. We also got to enjoy the cat and mouse games of the police and street sellers. The queues here were huge as well, people without tickets had a two hour wait. We thankfully were able to go straight through at our allotted time. The lift was very crowded though and only goes to the second level through the pillar. Here you have to exit and take another lift to the summit, there was a long queue for this but at least you have the view to enjoy while you wait.

The lift to the top was even more packed, barely room to breathe. The platform on top isn't that spacious and felt crowded. I didn't realise how stressed and anxious it was making me until I started losing it with Tan & the kids. I calmed down when we got back down but it wasn't as pleasant as it could have been.

One thing that really surprised me about the Eiffel Tower, that we all noticed on the first day, is that it is brown. Yes brown! I thought it would be black or maybe grey like the harbour bridge but it is painted baby poo brown. Apparently it's been painted various colours over the years but really only slightly redder or more yellow. Maybe it's all the black & white photos that make you think black?

From the Eiffel Tower we walked down to Les Invalides to visit the Rodin Museum. We really only wanted to see the Thinker, thankfully we got express entry again. Our pass also included the Army Museum and Napoleons Tomb at Invalides so we decided to have a quick peek at the tomb. The sarcophagus is unbelievably oversized and apparently only contains his ashes anyway.

We then had caught a bus back to the Eiffel Tower so we could finish the other bus tour. We did try flagging one down where we were but they wouldn't stop. Dinner was a Grec Pita from the kebab shop next to our apartment building. It was the best kebab any of us has ever had, they roll the bread like a frites cone, and put chips on the kebab. Em and I enjoyed watching them making crepes while we waited.

We wanted to walk somewhere so Em could see the tower sparkle after missing it from Notre Dame. You can see a fair bit of it from Pont Neuf, one of the bridges near us. We walked there along the banks of the Seine, which smells like a toilet from all the people peeing there. Very romantic!

The view was Ok but as we weren't sure if the lights came on at 9pm and it wasn't seeming dark enough, we decided to use our tour tickets to ride the bus around to Trocadero and watch from there. We missed the last bus though and ended up back on the metro. It was quite a festive atmosphere once we got there, lots of people with picnics. Somehow we ended up sitting next to some other Aussies from SA.

The lights didn't seem quite as spectacular close up but it was another night enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of Paris.

Today we planned a quieter day, trying to stick to one part of the city. We managed to fit in the Paris Story, an audio visual presentation of the history of the city. It focused on the architecture and town planning with Paris personified as a great lady so was quite interesting.

Next was a parfumerie and museum which again was interesting. The boys hated the idea and were going to be like Mr Bean and crawl around to avoid the fumes. They actually quite enjoyed it and Ollie doused himself trying all the different samples!

The main attraction in this area is the Paris Opera, inspiration for the novel (and subsequent musical) about the Phantom of the Opera. Our pass included a guided tour which was led by a French lady who 'just wanted to show this to us' as we went along the tour. She had quite a good sense of humour, although following her English was hard work. The theatre itself is absolutely amazing with, like all buildings in Paris, an interesting history.

Last stop of the day was the Grevin Museum, a French version of Madame Tussauds. We didn't know many of the French dummies but there were enough other celebrities and historical figures to keep us interested. We got to see another side of Sam as he play acted with nearly every figure. He must really enjoy drama at school!

An earlier night tonight in preparation for our last full day tomorrow and Em's birthday.

Paris Day 5