Paris!

Paris was Kaia's destination of choice. She is teaching herself French and wished to visit. During our planning, the first part of our trip was rushed because we were timing it around the 2024 Paris Olympics.  We wanted to be out of Paris before it started. We arrived the weekend before the opening ceremony (cutting it close, I know). There was a lot of excitement in the air. As expected, Paris was an absolute mad house but we were ready for it. It is the Olympics, after all. 

When we got off our EuroStar train from London, Gare du Nord Station was packed to the max. We could barely fit into our train. The intercom announcement kept warning passengers about pick-pockets. We had a hard time with our train tickets that we pre-purchased, half of our tickets didn't work. Parker and I kept our cool around the kids but it was tense.

           

Our hotel was on the Seine River a couple of blocks from the Eiffel Tower. The river was already completely barricaded off, as well as blocks around the Eiffel Tower. Police presence was heavy around the city. We rolled with the craziness and enjoyed our four days in the city. Kaia was trying out her French and so was Cruz. Parker's high school French kicked in and it helped get us around.

To get close to the Eiffel Tower, you had to scan a QR Code and register for tickets (they were free) to get in.  This actually worked out well, it was much less crowded than usual. Underneath the tower is usually open to the public, you only had to pay to go up the lift.  The kids loved going straight up the tower. What a great view of the city, you can see beyond Paris from the tower as well as all the major historical sights. You could see the main stage of the Olympics and many areas for different competitions. The middle of the Eiffel tower had restaurants and shops. We all decided to use the stairs to go down, racing the elevator was our favorite part.

It was great seeing the Olympic rings on the tower and seeing the set up for the big event. We caught up on some much needed rest so we didn’t pack too much sightseeing. The rest of our time in Paris was spent wandering around, trying different bakeries, café hopping, and people watching. We showed the kids where we stayed with Kris and John, on Rue de Renne. We walked through Luxembourg Gardens, which was only blocks away from the flat.  Parker and I have great memories of Paris, we had spent almost two months in the city of love. It was where we decided to end our trip because it was time to go home and start our family. It was special to go back with our kids.