Forget Paris!

Ever since we found out we would be spending the summer in Europe, Daphne has been asking to go to the Eiffel Tower for her birthday. I think she first saw it on a Strawberry Shortcake episode, where Strawberry meets Crepe Suzette, a little girl who lives in Paris. Since then, she has talked a lot about the Eiffel Tower. So, when our friends Steve and Liz told us they were heading to Paris the weekend before Daphne's birthday, we decided to tag along.

Because Matt had to work that day, we got on the road later than we hoped and hit some traffic, which put us into Paris at about midnight. If it had been any earlier, any earlier at all, I would have switched hotels right then and there. Let us suffice to say that we were not comfortable there. I'll spare you the details! I will tell you however, that when we arrived, Matt took Isaac and some of the bags up while I waited in the car with the girls. He came back down and said, "Just take the stairs. Don't take the elevator- it was the scariest thing that's ever happened to me." And when I laughed in response, he looked me in the eye and said, "I'm serious." And he was. Only two people could fit in the elevator- it closed with a little tiny gate. From our room, we could hear it running all night long...it sounded like a herd of elephants running up the stairs.

So bright and early the next morning, we made arrangements for a new hotel, packed up our things, headed to the new hotel and walked to the Eiffel Tower. First things First, you know!

Here we are on our way:
We walked all the way there and hopped right in line. (We weren't the only ones who wanted to see the Eiffel tower that day!) We brought our huge double jogging stroller, which could not remain at the bottom unattended, so poor Matt had to fold it up and carry it through all the narrow metal aisles. It is difficult to describe, but it was a huge pain for him... Having this extra burden and three children we were an easy target for the French. What do I mean by that, you ask? Well, basically I mean that French people don't care about lines. Apparently (at least those we encountered) had no respect for whose turn it was or whether we had children with us. While we were trying to gather our things up to buy our tickets, a whole French Family tried to push Matt aside so they could go in front of us. I'm not sure if they just skip "turn -taking" in French preschool or what, but it gets really old, really fast! Somehow we made it to the second floor. Once you get to the second floor, you have to wait in another long, windy line to get to the very top floor. During that wait, another French guy came and was *literally* pushing Isaac so he could go in front of us. I started saying, "Don't push my son! Why are you pushing him? " Repeated a few times. He didn't care. He just kept pushing him and went right on by. We'd only been in France for about 10 hours and already I was tired of the rudeness.


I will give the French some credit where credit is due: they all adored Victoria. I know, she is quite the cutie, so what can you expect? But at least they weren't rude to her. Unless you count taking pictures of her as rude. Which I might. I'm sure her cute little face is plastered all over the internet from random French people and several Asian tourists as well. They really loved Tori. I'm not sure if it is the blonde curls or what, but there was one group of tourists in particular who just wanted to hold her so bad. Fortunately, she clung to my hip which spared me the akwardness of saying no. But, while we were in line to get on the elevator to the 2nd floor, I was holding her finger and letting her walk around a bit. I looked up at Matt for a second and all the sudden, one of the Asian women was picking her up and having someone take a picture of them together. I was horrified and laughing nervously at all the grinning tourists who thought it was completely adorable to pick up a stranger's baby and hold an impromptu photo shoot of the two of you.

All these pictures are from the second level:

It was super windy that morning- even though it was relatively warm that day. The higher we got, the windier it became. Look at Daphne's face here:

even the second floor views were pretty remarkable:

And then to the top! Here's a panoramic shot that Matt got:

Tori had fallen asleep in line, but the wind woke her when we got to the "tippy top" as Daphne called it! She thought the view was pretty great, too!

Then, we got to wait in line to go back down (after our stroller was almost confiscated for being unattended) and when we finally got to the bottom, there were police everywhere! We couldn't figure out what was going on and then we realized everyone was staring up- at this guy who was getting ready to jump!

We decided to get out of dodge before things got much more dramatic. A friend of Steve and Matt's gave them a walking tour of some of the best sights in France, and we set out to hit as many as we could in one day. We found lots of fun things along the way, like George Washington. Apparently, even the French think he's awesome.

So our first stop after the Eiffel Tower was the Arc de Triomphe, which you can see in the background here:Here are the girls in the stroller, Isaac and me, and our friends Steve and Liz with their kids in the stroller.

Just after the Arc De Triomphe, we headed down the Champs de Elysees, which is the most famous boulevard in France. The Tour de France ends here, as well as any parade of merit. We took a long and leisurely stroll all the way down this lovely lane.

Here are Matt and a very cheerful Victoria along the Champ Elysees- when you look at this, you can hardly blame the tourists for thinking she is as photographable as the Eiffel Tower:

Then we found this guy- we're not sure who he is, but we think Isaac looks pretty cute posing like him:

After a long walk, we arrived at the Place de La Concorde, which is where Marie Antoinette was beheaded during the French Revolution:

And then, onto the La Madeleine

We had some lunch and found a playground, which was a nice break from the walking...

And then, onto the Louvre... here we are out front... We all felt bad (Daphne especially) for this guy who forgot his pants:

Matt and Isaac in front of the Louvre:

And the whole family!

More of the Louvre:

We decided that there was absolutely no way that the children could handle a museum like the Louvre, so although we would have loved to see the Mona Lisa, we skipped going inside. Apparently, if you took one minute to look at each piece of art in the Louvre, it would take you over two months to get through the entire museum! We spared the children that much art and walked on to more sights. You may have notived all the walking by this point... our feet were getting pretty achy. All Tori wanted was to walk and all Daphne wanted was to ride in the stroller.... it was a little tiring.

And finally, we made it to the Notre Dame:

One of the things we thought was interesting is that these kings across the top, who are the kings of Judah, were mistaken for the Kings of France during the Revolution. An angry mob stormed the cathedral demanding that the statues be beheaded! So, they were- and then they were Re-headed after things settled down a bit.

Just outside the Notre Dame were some very interesting characters who enjoyed feeding birds. Some of them enjoyed this a little too much. One guy was letting the birds eat from his mouth. These two people were a little more normal than the others...

Another spontaneous one- super cute and the kids loved this. It was a little creepy and germy, but we washed them up really well afterward- if you are worried!

By the time we were at the Notre Dame, we were pretty much done with our sights for the day, but were also VERY far from our hotel. We tried to find a cruise we could hop on, but ended up walking all the way back to our hotel. At least we found Thomas Jefferson along the way:

And the building housing Napoleon's Tomb: All in All we walked almost 14 kilometers, which is almost 9 miles!!!! Our poor feet barely made it back to our hotel! But, we did make it back and were very thankful to have a nice clean room with plenty of room for all of us! It was a long, fun day and we had lots more to do on day two!