July 26, 2007

First try for the Eiffel Tower

On Wednesday we decided to go to the Eiffel Tower. We were planning on taking the elevators to the very top, but then we saw the lines. We guessed it would be about a 2 hour wait! So we took some pictures and let the kids play at a nearby playground instead.

As we were leaving the Eiffel Tower area, Brooke saw a carrousel, and Brooke loves carrousels. We bought tickets and let both Brooke and Tyler ride. They let parents stand next to their children for free, so Tiffany got to ride too.

Tyler didn't want to ride on a horse, so he was happy to find a lion, his favorite animal. He was a little bummed when a little French girl got on the lion with him. However, once the ride got going, he had a great time.

Tyler on the carrousel

Brooke chose a pink horse to ride on. This was no surprise, as pink is her favorite color.

Brooke on her pink horse

After the carrousel, we decided to ride on a "bateau-mouche", one of the tour boats that rides up and down the Seine. The kids had been begging to ride on a boat, so it was a good time to do it. It was very nice to relax and see the Paris sights from the boat. The weather was beautiful, so it was very enjoyable. We did get a little sunburned though.

Bateau mouche

This is a view of the Eiffel tower from the boat.

Eiffel tower

Here is Notre Dame from our boat. It was interesting to see our apartment building from the river.

Notre Dame

After our bateau-mouche tour, we climbed up to the Trocadero, on the opposite side of the river from the Eiffel Tower. We ate chocolate crepes and relaxed in the park.

Kids at the Trocadero

On Thursday, we went shopping to get some sunscreen for us all and a hat for Caleb. We felt bad that he got a little bit of a sunburn on his cheeks during our boat ride.

Our "Paris with Kids" tour book recommended some nearby children's stores, so we wandered around looking for them. The first store was fairly inexpensive but didn't have a hat his size. The next store, Jacadi, is a famous French children's clothing store chain. It was much more expensive, but fortunately their hats were 50% off so we found a little blue hat with a pocket and a strap to hold it on his head. The last store we went to, Tartine et Chocolat, was extemely expensive. We found very cute Paris socks for Brooke, but decided they weren't worth $27 and a very cute outfit for Caleb, but decided it wasn't worth $75. It was a fun store though.

Next, we bought bread and snacks from a grocery store and had a picnic at the Parc André Citroën. The park is where the Citroën automobile factory used to be. It was torn down and a park put in its place in the 1990s. Our tour book recommended it, partly due to the playground. We searched all over the park, but never found a playground. There were however, beautiful gardens, fun fountains and lots of grass. There was also a hot air balloon that offers tethered rides to see Paris from above.

Parc Andre Citroen

The kids enjoyed feeding the ducks the last of our baguette and then taking an RER train home.

Posted by sjbowden at July 26, 2007 10:12 PM