We arrived in Paris early Sunday morning. The line for passport control was crazy long. We were in line for well over an hour. After we made it through we headed over to pick up our rental car. Originally we had not planned on renting a car but when we heard about the train strike and Mark's mom decided to join us we went ahead and did it. Mark did a great job navigating Paris. We stopped by our Airbnb to drop off our luggage and then planned to go into the city. We really lucked out with our Airbnb. Our original reservation was for Wednesday - Saturday but when we contacted them Saturday night in Raleigh and asked if we could switch our reservation to Sunday through Thursday they had openings and were okay with it. When we met them at the apartment Mark quickly found out they spoke Portuguese and was happy to use his Portuguese. As we were trying to communicate with them they asked if we spoke Spanish assuming that was more likely and when Mark said Portuguese they were pleasantly surprised. One was from Portugal and the other was from France but her parents were from Portugal. It was really nice that Mark could communicate with them so well. The Airbnb was clean and just right for us. It was a short drive to a metro stop and it was nice to see a regular little city with people going about their regular lives outside of Paris. To stop by their grocery stores and pass flower, cheese, bread and meat shops to see them jogging in the park and walking their dogs. A few overall impressions of Paris: its really busy! I have been to a decent amount of European cities and was surprised at how much longer the lines seemed to be in Paris, for everything! It is also really spread out and expensive. When we went to Rome I felt like it was a much more walkable city. I could be wrong but that is how it felt. It is also dirtier than other cities. This is not to say we didn't like it or have a good trip just some observations. Rome is still my favorite European city that we have been too.
Pain au chocolat- fresh from the bakery down the street.
Jared and Lydia did great riding the Metro. It can be a little nerve-racking riding with kids who don't regularly ride the Metro but we all managed to get on and off our trains together and find all the right stops. The Metro was thankfully not affected by the rail strikes and the trains were every 3 minutes so even if we missed a train we did not have to wait long.
After settling in we hopped on the Metro to check out the city. When Mark asked Jared and Lydia what they wanted to do in Paris they both said they really wanted to climb the Eiffel Tower. We had actually sort of planned to climb the Arc De Triumphe instead as a friend had recommended it over the Eiffel Tower but decided since they really wanted to we would make it happen. I actually ended up really enjoying it and we were all glad we did it. We did a longer then planned walking tour of the city passing the Louvre and Orsay Museum and passed through lots of fun "French" neighborhoods. It was a pretty long walk and Jared and Lydia did great. Finally we made it to the Eiffel Tower our main destination of the day.
The Louvre
Orsay Museum
Such a cool tree!
The line to get into the tower courtyard was long and the line to buy tickets to go to the top of the tower was long and slow. It was really cold too. Moving around in cold weather is one thing but just standing in line is a totally different thing. We opted to climb to the top rather than take the "lift". If we were going then we were going to be able to say we walked it! There are 2 options for the Tower. You can take the stairs to the 2nd level and stop or go all the way to the top. As we waited in line Lydia decided she only wanted to go to the 2nd level. Jared knew right away that he wanted to go all the way up. We decided Mark would stay with Lydia and I would head up with Jared. There are 669 steps to the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower. After checking out the 2nd level Jared and I headed up. We actually didn't know that you rode on a separate lift to get to the top. We thought you had to climb stairs all the way there, all 1063 feet of it. Jared and I were pleasantly surprised when we got in line (after being irritated there was another line) and realized it was a line for an elevator! I don't have a fear of heights but as we were moving up I found myself thinking that this elevator was going up for a really long time! If we had known it was an elevator we probably would have convinced Lydia to go up too. The view was of course amazing and we are glad that we did it.
Lydia posing as the Eiffel Tower
The very top
After the Eiffel Tower we headed back to our Airbnb outside of Paris and stopped by a bakery for dinner. We also stopped by a grocery store to get some provisions. Its true what they say, the bread in France is amazing. Throughout our time there we all kept commenting on it, even Jared and Lydia tasted a difference. Once we settled in for the night Mark, Jared and Lydia fell right asleep. None of us had a great nights sleep on our flight. Lydia slept for about 2.5 hours and I think Mark was the same. Jared slept for about 3 so by the end of the day we were all exhausted. I sadly didn't fall asleep until almost 2:00 and Mark sadly woke up around 2:00 and didn't fall back asleep until 5:00. Just before 5:00 he came into our room and told me the exciting news that it had been announced at General Conference that a temple would be build in Richmond VA! This was really exciting and did not help me fall back asleep quickly. As we tried to catch up on some conference news we commented that this was quite the conference to miss, so many exciting announcements. Because we were all so tired we slept it the next morning and headed out the door later than anticipated but it worked out fine. Soon enough we would be in Paris and then we would go pick Sue up from the airport.
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