Paris in the the Spring

Back in early January we booked WAY ahead on Eurostar for our our long awaited first trip to Paris in early May. While Mark had been there twice before Sally never had. Sally's brother Tim, his wife Andrea and their 3 year old daughter Caitlin who had flown up from Tasmania to visit us in London, joined us for the trip to Paris. For more info on Tim and family and their visit to us see this earlier post.Tim, Andrea's and Caitlin's visit.

Caitlin was keen to help with the planning.

With memories of the long queues that greeted us at London St Pancras station when we went to Brugges in early March, Click here for our Brugges post. Mark & the kids along with Tim, Andrea & Caitlin allowed themselves plenty of time for this trip. Murphy's law meant that, of course, there were no queues this time and we made it through all the security and customs in about 15 minutes and waited another hour or so to board the train! Sally took a later train after work and joined us in Paris around 10:30 that night.

Mark initially thought of getting an apartment as we had in Rome, but a spring time Paris apartment for 7 people staying for different numbers of nights became prohibitively expensive. In the end he found a hotel at Porte De Lron which, while further out than we had originally planned, worked out very well. It was one tube line into the centre of Paris or jumping on the 83 bus at the terminus which was just a hundred meters or so up the road to go up the Boulevard St Michel.

We had various ideas for our three days in Paris, but after talking to one of the reception staff, Derya, we decided to take her advice. Again the weather gods seemed to be facing the other way as, although they threatened great amounts of rain, very little actually occurred.

While Tim and Andrea took Caitlin to the palace of Versailles, we decided to heed Derya's advice and headed up to Rue Mouffetard in the 5th arrondissement. We could not have found a better introduction to Paris. Rue Mouffetard is in one of Paris's oldest and liveliest neighbourhoods. The street itself was one continuous array of restaurants, shops, cafés, and a regular open market.

Chocolate crepes - yum!

Aisha likes cheese!

William buys strawberries.

Mark likes oysters!

Gelati for everyone!

Apart from crepes, oysters, cheese and wine we found a couple of reminders of Australia. One fromagerie had, for reasons not quite clear to us, a supply of that quintessential Australian delicacy - Vegemite - in its distinctive yellow and red jar! We also saw a standardised native Australian calistamon for sale. Neither are quite what you would expect to see in Paris.

Of course we had to go to see the Eiffel tower. Again, following Derya's suggestion, we went to what she described as 'the best place to see the tower '. Indeed it was! We realised it was also the spot from where Hitler viewed the tower in 1940.

There were many people there enjoying the same view. It seemed that 'glamour' style posing was the thing to do, with many sweet young things spending time arranging themselves before striking very coquettish poses. We thought it was a very good idea.

After wowing the surrounding crowds, we decided some more sensible poses were required. 

William had been learning to do cat's cradle shapes along with most of his class and was very pleased with himself when he made the Eiffel tower at the Eiffel tower!

Looking a bit like The Wiggles, we saw the Arch de Triumph, Champes Elysees and the traffic intersection where the Bastille used to be.

Tim appreciating French history.

Bastille baby Aisha at the Bastille.

William found a Mercedes showroom on the Champs Elysee. Both he and Caitlin's teddy Ga Ga were impressed and it was hard to get them out. Will then found a street 'vendor' with a couple of Ferraris to rent. We didn't rent them.

With a lot of walking, the issue of toilet stops is always in the forefront of parents' minds. Tim was less than pleased though with having to pay to wee, especially when Caitlin's needs coincided with a luxury WC which cost lots.

All is forgiven!

Not happy Tim!

Our French neighbour had recommended a restaurant in the Marais area to us which we were able to find and get a table at. The setting was very French and the food was great, especially the desserts. It was the night of the French elections and anticipation was high that Sarkozy would go - as he did.

Most of us tried snails and Aisha decided they were.....interesting.

mmmm.........

The desserts were more popular.

The waiter took note of our orders and then totted up the bill at the end on the paper table cloth.

Throughout the day we had seen polling booths with not too many people voting. At the train station that night we watched excited Parisians celebrating the change of president.  Some, with initials of the new president written on their faces, egged on a train driver who let out loud and long train horn blasts as he came into the station to the amusement of all!

The next day we found another cafe that claims to be the oldest in the world.  Old enough to have been enjoyed by Ben Franklin, Napoleon and Voltaire, it looked interesting for its history, clientele and its menu. We have booked a table for our return trip for Aisha's birthday on 14th July. The big question is ......will Mark have the calf's head ????

We had a good time just wandering around. As we had not long come back from Italy we purposely decided we would not race to museums or galleries. We knew there would be a next time when all that would be possible. Having said that, we did go to the museum of science and technology while filling in time until dinner and found a scale replica of the 1880s Statue of Liberty given to the Americans by the French.

The museum displays a wide range of original early vehicles, machines and scientific tools and devices. We arrived with just 40 minutes left before closing time but were able to see the replica of Foucault's pendulum, along with the original sphere he used. The pendulum was used in 1851 to demonstrate the rotation of the earth. The original pendulum did swing until 2010 when the cable holding it snapped and it was damaged in the fall.

The original.

After dinner we headed up to the Montmartre district for a wander and a climb to the top of the hill to look at the view over Paris.  We attended an evening service at the Sacre Coer church, climbed back down again and finally got back to our hotel very late!

The rest of the time, there was plenty to see just walking the streets.

A living wall of real plants.

Hotel de Sully - 17th C aristocratic mansion 

There was a park behind the Notre Dame which proved a godsend for tired kids.

We return to Paris in a couple of weeks for a long planned trip for Aisha's 13th birthday on Bastille Day. We had been unsure how the trip would go if Sally ended up having to have chemo. As chemo has now been ruled out, we look forward to the trip with a great sense of relief and as an opportunity to celebrate all we have got through in the last couple months.