Paris - Day 3

Day three and now thanks to our shopping stop the day before, we were even better dressed for the cold! All with long johns, Icebreaker tops and warmer gloves on! We jumped on a bus that took us via Bastille...

... and Gare de L'Est...

... to Montmartre!

Can you see the blue skies? It was SUNNY! Ah, so lovely!

A little break to have a look in our guidebooks:

Don't know why I put myself through another torture session of bringing the kids somewhere up high... but we decided to go up into the Ovoid Dôme of the Sacré-Coeur, something I hadn't done before, so why not? It's the second highest point in Paris, after the Eiffel Tower.

We got very dizzy going up the winding 300 steps in narrow tower. I almost got a bit claustrophobic, as you couldn't really stop anywhere and couldn't go in your own speed; there was people both in front of you and behind you. Not a very nice experience, but the view was so worth it!

The view from up here is really even better than the one from the Eiffel Tower! Amazing!

A special photo for Valentines Day!

Time to go down again, but to get down we had to go up some places, across the roof:

We continued to Place du Tertre, to check out the painters.

Unfortunately the sunny weather didn't last, the rain came back with full force after lunch; so we decided to go and do an indoor activity.

We went to Cité des Sciences, and made a visit to Cité des Enfants.

Such a cool place, with so much to do and explore for the kids! A great afternoon!

We had aimed for a restaurant similar to one we used to frequent a lot while we stayed in Toulouse that month when Lucas was a baby, 'L'Entrecôte'. Unfortunately we were too early, and it wasn't going to open for another 1 1/2h so instead we went next door to Hippopotamus for our Valentines dinner. It was only just ok, but the kids got heart-shaped balloons when we left, so they were happy!

Happy Valentines Day!

Paris - Day 2

As the breakfast at the hotel was 13€ per person (I wonder what fancy breakfast they served for that price?!), we skipped that and instead took to something a little bit more both kid friendly, and price worthy... trusty old McDonalds! Linnea thought starting the day with pancakes was the best thing ever!

Day two, and still windy, cold and now also rainy! I think you can almost feel the chill in our bones just by looking at these pictures... :)

I had forgot to pack some, so we had to succumb and buy new umbrellas; expensive, ugly tourist brollies, that of course broke (2 out of 3) on the first day... Ah well. They kept us somewhat dry during our TWO (!) hour wait in the queue to mount the Tour Eiffel.

We were extremely unlucky though. Just as it was our turn to go into the elevators, and I mean just, there was just one group before us - the elevators stopped working due to the rain... and we could choose to either get reimbursed, or take the stairs... Aaargh!
Well, after waiting for two hours, we took the stairs! (Should've gone for the stairs tickets in the first place, a lot cheaper and no queue!)

Someone was not so happy... "This doesn't feel safe Mummy!! I don't like this!! It's so high!! Do we have to go up?! I don't like it!!"... Lets just say it took us a little while to get up.

Cold and frozen we finally got up to the 1st floor, and quickly decided that was actually enough for us. We would have had to take the stairs up to the 2nd floor as well, and nobody was really up for that by now. We had a quick look around the exhibits, and the views in the different directions - but it was really windy and cold, so it was a quick visit.

Here's Linnea on the glass floor, of course, while Lucas and I kept more to the side, begging her to come back..!

This was new to me - an ice rink, ON the 1st floor of the Eiffel Tower! Cool!

We left the Eiffel Tower and continued up to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysées. Still wet and cold it was time to find somewhere for lunch. We ended up in an Italian restaurant and had pasta for lunch. Felt like suitably hearty food on a cold day like this!

We walked all the way down to the Place de la Concorde before we jumped on another bus.

After having stopped in a Décathlon shop to get some more supplies for the cold (we needed warmer gloves, warmer boots and warm undergarments) it was time for a hot chocolate break:

We had the Paris Visite cards that allowed us unlimited use of both the metro, RER and buses around central Paris. Even though the metro many times is a lot faster, I really enjoy taking the buses, as you get to see so much more while you travel.
We took the buses all the way up to the Montmartre to see if we could get into a fondue restaurant I knew of, but unfortunately it was already booked out, so back we went to the 5ème again, for dinner. Here we are passing Moulin Rouge:

Dinner on the second evening was traditional mussels for me, and fish and chips for the kids. Mmm!