Bluet and Dad go to the Eiffel Tower at night

The whole time we were in Paris, Bluet wanted two things - to go see the Eiffel Tower at night, and to buy a lighting up Eiffel Tower like the one her friend Olivia has. So the last night in Paris, after we'd returned from Versailles and eaten sushi, Bluet and I headed out on the Metro, bound for the tower. We arrived just after the twinkling lights had done their hourly twinkling, so we spent the next hour around and under the tower, until the next display, which Bluet loved, probably because the Eiffel Tower looks like a lighting up, sparkling Eiffel Tower. And then after an hour of looking at the 'most beautiful tallest building', we headed back to our Montmatre apartment for the last time.

Since we've been back, Bluet has been extremely happy with her lighting up Eiffel Tower, even hiding it so Veronika couldn't see it by herself until Bluet was able to show it to her herself. Our house is also accumulating an ever increasing number of drawings of the Eiffel Tower.


 


Here is Bluet's picture from underneath the tower, and from not that far away.



One of Bluet's many drawings

Paris/Reims/Versailles

So we spent 2 nights in Paris, checked out the Louvre and Notre Dame, then headed to Reims for the next two nights, Versailles for one night, where it was wet and miserable, from which no amount of gold can distract kids from muddy puddles, as you can see (before returning to Paris for the last night, when Bluet (finally) got to see the Eiffel Tower at night, her dearest desire for the whole trip (see next post)


Bluet's picture of the Mona Lisa



Ilona at Notre Dame


Reims (where we finally found oysters)



Kids in France drink hot chocolate for breakfast every day. (Orangina and water for other meals)





Versailles in the rain

Train to Paris

The first step in getting to Paris is to get on the train. As it takes 4 hours, we took advantage of our iPads to entertain the big kids (which surprisingly mostly brought peace and harmony), and plastic cups to entertain Wilder. Then when we arrived, we headed to the same apartment we stayed last year, in Montmartre, where Nana and Wayne were waiting to meet us.

Not the Eiffel Tower

It wasn't all Eiffel Tower, all the time. We also had time to take one of those open top bus tours around Paris, where, amongst other things, we saw the Eiffel Tower. There was also plenty of time for the kids to pretend to be street urchins, pizza, a walk up the hill to Sacre Coeur, trips on the metro galore, and a memorable lunch of crepes on a very steep street.

Paris! : Eiffel Tower

So here we are, last Saturday, exploring Paris. The highlight for most of the kids was the Eiffel Tower (which Bluet said was the most beautiful tall building). The highlight for Ilona was her new shoes. Bluet was fascinated by all the souvenir sales people peddling their wares around the tower, and we ended up bringing 5 Eiffel Towers home with us. She has also been spotted pretending to buy and sell these Paris souvenirs. As you can see, we walked all the way around




Here is Bluet's picture of the tower



And her tower souvenir



Ilona's shoes: