Flight number 32 was an early one, and it was brought to you by Vueling Airlines, a large Spanish airline.
As early as it was, everyone was pretty jacked we were on our way to Paris. Halfway through our one hour, forty minute flight, we were passing over the Alps, which looked pretty tiny compared to the Himalayas.
As we landed, we pointed the Eiffel Tower out to the girls, which just fuelled the excitement.
What a nice, relaxed airport experience. We flew into Orly airport, as it was much smaller and way closer to our hotel near Notre Dame. Compared to the unruly nature of the taxi touts at Leonardo DaVinci Airport, here, we calmly strode up to the very organized taxi line, hopped in and we were off.
I remember the transfer from Charles DeGualle Aiport being very long, but this drive only took us twenty five minutes. We had arrived very early, so we ditched our bags and went in search of food for an early lunch. Oddly, there are a plethora of Turkish restaurants around Gare Lyon, the large train station next to our hotel. We ended up having chicken shish and Kofte for lunch!
I love Paris. The whole city is laid out like it was designed from scratch. All of the architecture in the inner city seems to mesh well together. Just fantastic. The first large thoroughfare we walked on, Abby turned to me and said "is this the Main Street?"... Lol... Her excitement is definitely giving her a bit of verbal diarrhea.
After lunch, we walked up to the Place de la Bastille, then back down the other side of the Bassin de l'Arsenal towards Isle Saint-Louis.
The two islands in the middle of the Seine are at the heart of current and historical Pairs. Isle Saint-Louis is the more quaint island.
The middle of street that runs down the island is a narrow strip lined with all kinds of pricey, nice looking shops. Of course, the girls had to get a treat at the first Patisserie we passed!
We could barely get down the street. There are shops upon shops basically built with females in mind - especially young females. Robin could be heard hopping down the lane "look at this one Daddy! Whoa... Dog shaped sponges and shark shaped cheese knives!". "Daddy, look at this weird clock... Check out this Eiffel Tower shaped cheese grater!!!". Thank god she's running out of money!
Eventually, we did get off the island. On the bridge over to the other island, we stopped and listened to a quartet that was pretty damn good. Abby was absolutely giddy that we actually saw a guy playing the accordion.
Notre Dame sits at one end of Ile de la Cite. It's always been my favourite building in Paris - the gothic construction and story around where it sits and how it was built is fascinating. To think that the Colosseum was built in 8 years, and this was built over 200 years with unskilled, volunteer labour supervised by experts - it's a bit mind boggling. It would be equivalent to having some neighbours get together and build a sky scraper nowadays.
We could barely get Robin out of the square... She was pretty amused with the pigeons and the guy that would put birdseed all over her. I can't be sure, but I think I saw Beth make a note to check historical records for avian flu as she watched with a half smile...
The gothic design of the huge Catholic Church was revolutionary in its day - it was designed to allow for a very high ceiling with tons of opportunity for windows. The beautiful stained glass windows are one of the big features of the church.
We got tickets to the little treasury, which turned out to be not worth it (then I read that exact same statement in the Rick Steves guided walk on Notre Dame...d'oh!). One section of the little museum led to enclosed smaller chapel used for private or just smaller ceremonies in the church. We were studying some things on the wall when we heard a loud "bang". Robin was in to the seating area and had made her way to the raised wooden seat where the priest would sit. She looked at us with a guilty smile and said "what, I just wanted to be King for once". I swear we've tried to tell them as much as we can about religion....
Some of the stained glass pieces are just incredible.
The girls were interested to hear the story of St. Denis, who was martyred by being beheaded, then took his head, washed it in a nearby fountain, and walked up to Montmarte where he finally died.
We stepped back outside and found the "Paris Center" marker that denotes the exact Center of Paris....d'uh!
Some of the nicest views of the church are from the side. The story of the architect, who in the 1800's added some significant changes to the church is pretty hilarious - he added four copper statues on the roof at each side. One of the statues is the actual Architect, who is staring up at the tower he added in appreciation... What an ego! Abby said "well, if I was him, I'd put a statue of me on the roof too,"
The girls saw a rotating wheel thing in the park behind Notre Dame, so they insisted on some fun time. I could barely look without getting dizzy.
Following the Rick Steves guided walk of the area, we "discovered" the haunting Nazi war memorial called Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation. The clean limestone, outdoor monument that was down near the river level, had a narrow passageway that led to an inner chamber commemorating the 200,000 Jews and others who had been killed by the Nazis in concentration camps. Each of the little lit gems on the walls here represented the 200,000 victims.
The bridge just behind Notre Dame is one of several bridges in Paris that have been covered with locks celebrating love, family and good luck. There's been talk of removing the locks, as the weight on the bridge is becoming too much (some panels of another bridge, Pont des Artes fell off under the weight of the locks, so they removed all the locks).
The kids found their favourite - a giant cable bike lock....sigh....I love and miss my bikes....
Looking down at the Seine, we saw many large tourist boats with huge glass observation windows. Abby asked "is that the boat we're taking through the Chunnel to London?"... Oh man, we laughed. We think some of the hormones might be running interference in her brain these days...
We followed the walk to check out the bouquinistes, the very recognizable booksellers that line the length of the Seine on both sides. When closed, the boxes are shut and locked - when they want to open up they simply pop the box open and bam, they're ready to go.
It was interesting to read that these vendors have sometimes had their license for years - there's an 8 year waiting list to get your very own four boxes, leased for just 100 Euros a year. In order to keep their license, they must open four days every week, rain or shine.
While Abby, Beth and I were browsing through one of the stores, we heard Robin explode with a belly laugh pointing at this book.... Figures....
Of course, the bouquinistes also sell locks for the bridge, so we had to get one. We strolled back to the bridge, which has great views of Notra Dame from the back, showing off its flying buttresses.
We locked our padlock to the bridge, and distributed the three keys to the three girls, all vowing to wear the key around their neck for the rest of their lives....
While we strolled up the left bank, it started to spit so we ditched Rick Steves and looked for a cafe for a drink. Rick was right though, the left bank does have the best views of the gothic church.
Abby finally got her Nutella crepe... Not sure if that was a bucket list item, or just an oft requested item, but there you go!
The rain started falling pretty heavily. We decided to split up. Beth would head back down Rue du Rivoli and back to the hotel to chill, while the girls and I walked over to a theater in the Marais district to finally see the Maze Runner movie they'd been dying to see. Before Beth left, we passed the Paris City Hall, called Hotel de Ville. It's quite a stunning building with a huge square out front with lots of activity, even in the rain.
As Beth departed, we saw our first protest (Paris is known for being pretty open to frequent protests and demonstrations....mostly from farmers). I couldn't figure out what it was about, but it was pretty orderly.
We passed the Saint Jacques Tower before heading into the Marais area. The Marais is great - little winding streets full of cool shops and very busy restaurants.
The girls were excitedly whispering and I overheard some actor name I'd never heard of before... I said "wait a minute.... Is the only reason we're going to this because you guy's think this actor is 'hot'". Abby went all quiet and her face got really red....lol.
Near the movie, there was a young white guy with a mic and a dub step machine that was rapping away in the rain and he was really good. We would have stayed for a while, but we were getting wet. We found the entrance of the huge underground mall that seemed to stretch really far and wide under the city..
The movie was fun, but the girls were really hungry when we got out. We walked a couple of blocks and made our way down into the Metro system. The place was a maze, but really well signed. By the time we got back at around 8:15, Beth was more than ready for dinner. It was a great first day in Paris, with unseasonably warm and sunny weather projected for the next few days the rest of our time here should be a blast.
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