Last Day in Paris

Before I tell you about today, here’s dinner from last night. We went to a cute little Trattoria around the corner from the flat, and the food was delicious.

Everything was absolutely delicious and small enough portions that we had enough tummy room to have sweet treats when we got home. We cut the two eclairs (chocolate and lemon) into quarters, and each had a small bite. These were very delicious. We still have cream puffs and the chocolate Bobka for tonight. The girls are LOVING the French baguettes. What’s not to love!

Today (Friday) was yet another full day in Paris. When Nora chose Paris to visit, the two things she said she wanted to see was the Eiffel Tower and the Mona Lisa. She crossed both of them off her list today. First, we went to the Eiffel Tower.

Of course, the construction around it was crazy as this is where they’re going to have the beach volleyball competition. Between the tower and Trocadero Park on the other side of the river, there was nothing but fencing, scaffolding, etc., which made it difficult for me and Nora later in the day.

Then we headed down to the river for the 1-hour Seine River cruise. BTW. The opening ceremony is going to be very different this year. The athletes are actually going to be in boats going down the river versus walking into a stadium. That should be cool to see.

After the cruise we hopped in an Uber to grab lunch. We were in a bit of a hurry because Christina and Drew had 1:00pm tickets for the catacombs and it was already 11:45. As a result, I forgot to take pictures of the food, but it was an Italian restaurant, so we had the usual…pizza for me and Nora, carbonara for Christina and Drew. If you’re keeping score, that’s 3 out of 4 restaurants where we’ve had Italian. There is an Italian restaurant on every other corner and it’s the safest bet for the girls.

Here are some pictures Christina took of their visit to the catacombs.

Nora wasn’t the least bit interested in the catacombs and I couldn’t do the 250 stairs if I wanted to, so she and I went to the aquarium instead. It was only supposed to be a 15-minute walk from where we had lunch but because of the construction, it took over a half hour to get there. That was way more extra steps (and stairs) than either of us wanted to walk. But we finally found it and had a good time. It’s a relatively small aquarium but had some interesting fish. Here are some of our favorites.

We did know what the little blue fish was.

By the time we were finished at the aquarium, mom and Drew were done at the catacombs, so we met at the Louve, our last stop of the day. After a very frustrating 20 minutes trying to buy the tickets on my phone, we finally got them and were ready to explore this gigantic museum.

Like everyone else, we headed straight to the Denon wing and the Italian paintings to see the star of the show.

Once we got away from the Mona Lisa, the rest of the rooms weren’t horribly crowded. It was already after 4pm so much of the bus tours were long gone.

And just like at the Chateau yesterday, the ceilings are just as pretty as what’s on the walls.

After about 90 minutes we were tired and decided it was time to Sortie (French for exit) out of there and head home. Both Christina and I were very proud of Drew as she navigated us home on two different Metro lines without any help from us. Most 13-year-olds couldn’t have done that at home let alone Paris. Great job kiddo!!

It was another exhausting, 18000 step day. Tomorrow, we head to Caen, a little over 2 hours away by train. Then Sunday we have a private tour of the landing sites. That is what Christina has been waiting for. It will be great! I’m exhausted and heading to bed without proofreading this so please forgive the nonsense sentences and misspelled words. Night.