Paris, day 1

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the weekend of wisdom, it was the weekend of foolishness... Oh boy, was this trip one to remember!

The day before we left for Paris I was woken up by, "Mom, Amelie just threw up in the foyer!" Indeed, Amelie was feverish and sick. She had a VERY pukey day and Rob and I were super stressed about who would be next and when it would hit. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6 am from Frankfurt which meant we got everyone up at 4 am, and hustled over there. (I packed large ziplock bags in case the virus hit.)

 

We made it to the gate without incident, and the kids lucked out that the airport has installed these free gaming stations in our terminal.

 

On to the airplane and still puke-free, though nobody had eaten yet so we were still on edge.

 

Air France provided a petit dejeuner of chocolate croissants and juice or water. The kids were thrilled! And no one got sick, so Rob and I were thrilled too!  Once we arrived in Paris, we took a train and then a metro to our hotel and checked in early- thankfully our rooms were ready, so we washed up and headed right out for some morning sightseeing.

 

We took the metro and walked everywhere this trip. Popping out of the metro near Les Invalides seemed to be the first moment the kids felt like they were IN PARIS! Built in the 1600s under Louis XIV, it is an impressive sight.

 

But where we were headed was the nearby Rodin Museum.  Auguste Rodin was a rockstar of iconic sculpture and many of his most famous works are displayed here. The building is also a former home of the artist. The Thinker, shown here, was the sculpture Rodin requested be used as his tombstone.

 

Amelie struck a pose with the Walking Man, which inspired this poem by Carl Sandburg: 

THE WALKING MAN OF RODIN
Legs hold a torso away from the earth.
And a regular high poem of legs is here.
Powers of bone and cord raise a belly and lungs
Out of ooze and over the loam where eyes look and ears hear
And arms have a chance to hammer and shoot and run motors.
You make us
Proud of our legs, old man.

And you left off the head here,

The skull found always crumbling neighbor of the ankles.

 

The Gates of Hell, inspired by Dante's Inferno.

Rodin worked on this throughout his career and it is considered "unfinished."  You can find smaller versions of some of his other sculptures within this monumental work like, the Thinker center, top of the doors, and the Three Shades at the very top. 

We ate lunch in the cafe in the garden behind the museum. We bought some sandwiches, Orangina, croissants, a pasta salad, and chocolate mousse to share.  It was all really tasty.

 

Then it was on to what was the main event for the kiddos.  

La Tour!

 

But wait, there is a playground right near the Eiffel Tower, and they always have time for a playground.

 

Then it was really time to focus on the Eiffel Tower!

 

I have to admit, my fifth time in Paris, it still impressed me.

 

Security has really tightened since I was last there three years ago, and we didn't book tickets ahead so we had to wait in line for just about an hour, but once up there we enjoyed the beautiful, cold, sunny day and all of the views.

 

Amelie would tell you this was her dream come true, and all of the kiddos gave La Tour a big hug. 

 

Sadly, we thought we would be able to ice skate on the first floor like Charlotte and I did last time, but that wasn't set up this year.  Instead they had a few tables set up like a ski resort, and we popped into a theater to watch a short movie about the history of the Tower.

 

By this point it was 5 pm, and we were all exhausted. We walked over to Rue Cler and bought some baguettes, and pastries from a beautiful boulangerie/patisserie.

 

Then we popped in a cheese shop and bought a little cheese to go with our baguettes.

 

We rode the metro back to the hotel and had a picnic in our rooms while watching French cartoons and getting everyone a hot shower. It's cold in January! Mercifully, no one ever threw up!