Paris

It is April and we are in Europe so where else would I take my eight year old daughter on a trip. We went to Paris this week, left early on Monday and came back on Thursday. I planned ahead and actually bought the tickets and booked the hotel last year, then back in February I reserved boat and Eiffel tower tickets. M was very excited about the trip, was constantly looking forward to it and looked up all kinds of things about Paris that we could see while there. She had her bag packed days ahead of when we were leaving and kept reminding me of when we needed to go. I had never been to France before so it was new for me as well. Also, M was studying some French words with V, oui, non, bonjour, merci, ... to help prepare. So on Monday morning we walked to the train station, took the train to the airport in Hamburg, then flew to Charles de Gaulle airport outside of Paris (which I had transited through once before), found the train stop in the airport, got tickets to Paris (they had instructions in English for buying tickets from the machines) found the platform and train and hopped on. To get into the platform area they had turn styles that you fed the ticket into and grabbed again like the metro system in DC. Paris is a big city, we traveled into it for quite a while. We made two transfers onto different lines, following the metro map, and then emerged almost in front of our hotel with the Eiffel tower in view just across the river.





In many ways Paris "felt" more like a city in the US compared to Germany (people jaywalked, there were more minorities around, cars went over pedestrian crossings between pedestrians, streets were messier). It was almost like being in Washington DC with the tourist sights and museums along the National Mall and Potomac (here Champs-Elysees and Seine) with large marble buildings around.

After seeing the Seine and the way the walkways, steps and roads were arranged around it I recognized scenes in movies I had seen that were along it (and thus in Paris) but I had not realized before how characteristic it was. M also said, it was just like in Ratatouille.

We checked in and dropped our stuff of at the hotel and then a little later went for supper at a French restaurant with a view of the Eiffel tower. Then it was getting dark and walking back we saw them light up the tower like a Christmas tree, with blinking lights and search lights on top.

The next morning (Tuesday) all the museums were closed so we walked up to the Arc de Triomphe, then got a croissant breakfast at a cafe, and headed to the Eiffel tower. I had tickets to go up in the tower at noon. (Also, a friend of M's in the US sent her a cutout drawing of herself to take pictures of in Europe and send back. It's part of a school project [see the Flat Stanley Project]. M is planning to surprise her with pictures of Paris.)





... will add more ...