How lucky were we to be in Paris the week that
the Eiffel Tower turned 130!! She is looking fabulous
for her age.
For a brief moment I told everyone that Rome was my
new favorite city, but as soon as I entered Paris, I
went back to loving Paris the most!!
We took an Uber (and some of our group took the train)
to hotel - The Paris Marriott Champs Elysees Hotel.
Hubby and I had stayed there before and we loved
the fun and central location.
We saved our most elegant place for last. You go up
this grand staircase to the lobby.
And what a lobby it is! Our rooms were just up a couple of
floors at that end, looking down onto the lobby.
We were greeted in the lobby with trays for everyone
with cold water, wet wipes and candy. Great first
impressions.
Hubby and I have been to Paris many, many times,
so we knew things we wanted the kids to experience.
One of those experiences is this crepe and waffle
stand right where Champs Elysees meets the Tuileries.
I have never had a Nutella Chantilly Waffle quite like
theirs. The Crepes are good too, but their waffles are
out of this world.
It was a 14 minute walk from our hotel to the Tuileries,
then through the Tuileries to the Louvre.
From there we boarded our Hop on Hop Off Bato Boat
to go and see Notre Dame.
It was worth being on the boat because we got up close
to the reconstruction. On street level you can't see much
except the bell towers end. It was so nice to see the
cranes working and hear the pounding of hammers.
When we had a meeting to plan our trip on Sunday night,
I said Hubby and I had never taken the time to wait in line
for the roof top tour, so those were advance tickets I
wanted to purchase. The very next day the fire happened.
Poor grandson in black got strep throat and was
pretty miserable, but he didn't want to miss anything,
so he trudged along.
Sainte Chappelle, right around the corner,
was busier than usual, but there were no lines.
It really is hard to imagine how beautiful the stained
glass windows are.
When we finished there, we crossed the street to
the flower markets. The hydrangeas were in their glory.
In that same area they were having a Bread Fest, and these
darling little bakers were learning about making bread.
By this time the family with the sick boy walked
back to the hotel and these two with their baby
in tow went off to see so much more of Paris.
We had to stop at Edwarts for sipping Chocolate -
thick as melted pure chocolate and oh so wonderful.
We had a wonderful chocolate tasting there too,
so we had to bring a box home with us.
Next stop was for pastries at Angelina's. I like Edwart's
sipping chocolate better, so we saved Angelina's for
the next day.
Having just seen Phantom of the Opera in London,
it was fun to show them the Opera House.
Then we headed to Galeries Lafayette stunning and
enormous centerpiece - the stained glass dome.
As we tried to get a look at it we noticed this giant
trampoline like thing stretched across the upper
part of the dome, and also up to the right you can
see a glass bridge.
There was no cost and only a five minute line, so
they went out on it for a few minutes while I
watched baby girl, and then I switched with Mama
and took a turn. You could bounce or jump or
just lie back and look at the gorgeous century old dome.
I was so sad that the rest of the family missed this fun.
The Paris Sky Trampoline was a temporary exhibit to
celebrate the arrival of summer. It ended June 9th.
Then we were off to to the Gourmet Food Halls.
We took an Uber over to meet up with the rest of the
family at the Eiffel Tower just before dusk, so they
could see the view and then watch the lights sparkle.
There were new glass fences around the base of the
tower, but just off to the right, having to wade
through the hawkers, you entered a security gate
and went in. There was no cost to enter, just to go
up. My oldest son took his family in March as
they just had a baby a week ago, and he thought
there was a charge to go in under the Tower.
We have gone up many times, so we sat out
with the stroller, while baby went up with
everyone else. As they got down, the tower
began its on the hour sparkle. It sparkles for about
5 minutes.
Then right after the sparkle, music began and a light
show started that last almost half an hour. We were
sure surprised by this, but found out it was to celebrate
her 130th birthday. We were lucky to get to see this.
The next morning we headed out on electric scooters
for breakfast at Angelina's.
Hot chocolate and croissants,
and pastries - Yum!
You can do take out or sit down service.
Can you guess where Ms. Angelina got her name?
Then we were off to Versailles. Ms. Angelina was
certainly in her element here.
I had purchased skip the line tickets beforehand, but
today there were no lines. We arrived around noon
by Uber. It was cheaper than the train for our group
and much faster, plus we got to see a lot of Paris.
Of course, The Hall of Mirrors is one of the
highlights,
but it also became one of the scariest/funniest moments
on the trip. As baby got held up for a photo, a group of
tourists swarmed mom and dad, and literally scooped
her right out of dad's arms so they could get a picture
with her. They swarmed her for several minutes. Dad
had served a mission for our church in Korea, so he
was able to talk with some of them. They were so, so, so
excited to see a baby!! At the time it was a little scary
how aggressive they were, but you can see dad kept
his arm on the lady who had the baby.
Marie Antoinette's Hamlet ended up being the favorite
part for everyone. This one kept asking his dad if they
could make their back yard like this. I told him I had
thought the same thing since I had first seen it.
He told us he could live here!!
Our pregnant mama kept up so well on the two week trip,
but by this last day she was worn out and couldn't
make it out to the gardens. She and baby girl were real troopers.
Our final item on our itinerary
was the Paris Temple for the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints.
As I mentioned in the Rome edition of our trip,
we had promised the kids that we would go to Europe
when the Rome Temple was completed. The Paris Temple
had been completed around a year before, so we
wanted to go there too. It is in Les Chesney, just a
short Uber ride from the Palace of Versailles.
We did have a hard time getting an Uber or taxi to
go there as they wanted a longer ride back to Paris.
We simply walked a little further up the rode from
the Palace and then Uber drivers didn't refuse us.
The Paris Temple complex is not as grand as the Rome one,
but they did have this beautiful courtyard and a lovely
visitor's center with a model of the temple, exterior and
interior. As you can see behind the trees, the Paris
Temple is built right next to apartments.
We ended our stay in Paris with a wonderful dinner
at our favorite, Pizza Pino, just across the street from
our Marriott Hotel on Champs Elysees. The pastas
are their real specialties, and they could easily accommodate
all 13 of us.
The kids all rode the electric scooters back to the Eiffel Tower
to watch the show once again, while I relaxed in the room
with a carton of Haagen Dazs ice cream.
Our flight left the next morning around 10:00, so
we got to the airport nice and early. Our experience in
the Paris airport in the past has been that two hours
to get through is pushing it, so with as many as we had,
we got there about 3 hours before and had no lines and
no panic. The kids treated me with this beautiful box
of Laduree macarons for Mother's Day that they
purchased at the airport. Notice the gold leafed one
in the center.
A week later we had a family dinner and everyone
had to make something from Europe. My oldest daughter
and my oldest granddaughter made this gorgeous
collection of macarons - Paris, Rome, London and you
can even get a peek on the left side of a Disney one.
They were all delicious but my favorites were the ones
stacked with raspberries and strawberries.
I would ask the kids every night what their favorite
activities were, it was always so hard to choose.
We had a marvelous trip and I proved I could be a
group travel agent (although I said I never wanted to
do that for a living!)
Phew! That took me longer to document than
the trip itself. I have my kids wanting to plan
another trip to Europe right away! Haha,
not for a while, but we have decided to use
our resources to create memories and this
certainly created some fabulous memories.
Now I need to make them each a book.
Thanks for coming along to Europe with us.
