I don't think the sun has come out once since we have been here. Janna said that yesterday morning was gorgeous, but once I got outside, it was cloudy and cool. Today was supposed to be sunny. But it wasn't. It was 34, cloudy and breezy. Yuk. But we didn't expect it to be warm. And for that reason, the lack of sun has not bothered me. Sure, a sunny walk down a Montmarte street would have been nice, but, oh well.
Janna forced everyone out of bed early today and we hated her for it. 8:00am. We were out the door by 8:45. Quinn was dragging from her vomit-fest the day before, but she had had more sleep than any of us. We took it slow as we walked to the Jules Joffrin Metro station. Our goal: Make two Metro hops and get to the Eiffel Tower before the lines got too long.
Total failure. We avoided no lines.
There are really no Metro stations that are right at the Eiffel Tower, so it is usually a bit of a walk no matter which one you choose to get there. We got off at Bir-Hakeim station and noticed that it was really windy by the Seine today. The (mostly) African street vendors canvass the entire area around the Eiffel and we hit them as early as three blocks away. They usually have a 3 foot square blanket laid on the ground with little Eiffel trinkets. The things they sell are usually a good value, although we did not buy any from these gentleman during this trip. They will sell you 5 little metal Eiffel Tower key chains for 1 Euro. I don't know how they survive, but there are a probably 200 of those vendors near or at the Tower (or more).
After dealing with our tickets that we didn't use last week (because of the bad weather), we stood in line.
And then we kept standing there.
It took us at least 45 minutes to get to our tickets to get on the elevator up on the Tower. And once up there, WHOA. COLD. Windy and cloudy and foggy and Yuk. It was bone chilling cold. That perfect combination of wind+temp+clouds+humidity. I have stood out on a lake in Northern Minnesota when it is 20 degrees cooler than that with a wind much stronger than today, and it is not as cold as it was today. It probably didn't help that our core body temperatures were approaching 88 Degrees from standing in line for so long. We briskly walked over to the balcony, looked out over Paris and turned right around and went into the "warming house" that some might call a gift shop. It was so crowded in that 12 by 12 foot space that I turned around after a minute and went back outside. Well, it was so stinkin cold outside, that I found out how much I actually enjoy small, crowded rooms - I went right back into the gift shop. I was suddenly very, keenly interested in what bag Gillian was going to get. The longer we could deliberate on that particular purchase, the longer it would be until we went back out into Jack London's "To Build a Fire".
We hardly stayed outside after the gift shop. Janna insisted that the girls would probably want a snack from INSIDE the cafe. Keep in mind, that the Eiffel cafe is about as French as french fries. For good reason, too. I bet 40-60% of the people I heard talking were speaking English or Spanish. The rest are speaking Chinese.
The food there was gross. But it was warmer inside the cafe that it was outside. After the kids ate their donut, we walked back out to the terrace and quickly snapped a photo. None of us could fake how miserable we were. That was enough for us. Down the 88,000 cold metal steps to the ground. (BTW, the tippy top of the Eiffel was closed due to bad weather. Even if we could have gone up there, it was too foggy to see anything)
Once on the ground, we headed East and South toward the Ecole Militaire Metro stop. It felt good to walk again. It felt 10 degrees warmer on the ground and moving at a brisk pace got our blood going.
We hit three trains again in order to pop out at Cite. This is the stop on the island where Notre Dame and Sainte Chappell are. True to form, we stood in the Sainte Chappell line for about 60 minutes. By this time, we were losing the girls. Quinn was still under the weather, and the rest of them had been awoken out of REM sleep so that we could stand in lines all day - I mean avoid lines all day. Thanks for nothin, Mom.
Sainte Chappell is amazing. It was built in the 1200s by King Louis. He built it inside his palace. You have to walk up these tiny circular stone stairs to get to the chapel. The actual chapel is sitting well above ground level, probably so they could get the stained glass windows up above the palace walls. The chapel itself is tiny. But it is insanely beautiful. The blue stained glass windows take your breath away. And each window tells a story or chronicles a book of the bible. I am glad we went.
Time for lunch. It was probably 1-2:00 by now. We hopped back on that Metro and, with a train change, got off at Mabillon station. This was really our first real visit to the Latin Quarter. A nice area and I wish to spend more time there in the future. I would say that the shops are very good, but maybe not as good as Marais. We ended up finding an Italian place right away (Leave it to Janna. She is incredible. She has the most amazing radar for good restaurants. She almost always refuses to eat at a place where no one else is eating, which is one of her secrets. But her intuition beyond that is something I can't explain.). This place was like Punch Pizza but better. We love Punch Pizza, and are not afraid to eat there once a week. But the fire baked pizzas here were even better.
We went shopping after that, got some stuff for Janna and her mom. We chanced upon a place called St Sulpice. It looked like a big, old church, but I am not sure what its history is. Kinda sad that there are so many historic relics in Paris that they kind of become old hat. If this St Sulpice building was anywhere in Minnesota, it would be the most famous building in the state, maybe even the Midwest. And, here, I am just walking buy it wondering if I should care about it or not...
We walked the Latin Quarter until the Sevres-Babylon Metro where we hopped on and headed North until Soferino station. Here we walked to the Musee d'Orsay. But we got there 10 minutes late. It closes at 6, but they accept final entry at 4:00. Bummer.
We crossed the Seine and then the Tuileries and shopped a bit on the Rue de Rivoli. Janna and the girls had some things to cross off their lists. After that we headed up to the Champs via that 1 train and got off at the George V stop. We waited in line for about 40 minutes at Laduree for dessert for later, then headed home.
On the way home we picked up some food at the local bucherie and vegetable market. For people that speak almost no French, I was pretty proud that we were able to acquire dinner (it probably helped that some kind soul took pity on us and told the butcher we wanted enough roasted potatoes for 6 personnes.) We had walked by this bucherie every day and had smelled the rotisserie chickens there. Though they were out of the rotisserie, what we got was still yummy. Our cheapest meal yet, topping the bill at around 13 euro. I am glad we finally got a chance to sample the food from that place. We ate lemon chicken, roasted potatoes, green beans, and fresh pineapple (that I had purchased from the Metro. Janna really questioned its wholesomeness, but it tasted delicious. Just ask Aubrey) for dinner. Oh, and Laduree desert.
With bags packed and the alarm set, we are ready to wake up tomorrow morning and go home. So much for the big plans to watch New Years fire works. We are in bed and tired. Au Revoir old year, Au Revoir Paris, life is good.
This has been a great trip. We are really grateful. I keep thinking how lucky I have been to be able to spend every waking minute of every day with my kids for the last 9 days. So cool. I can't wait to do it again some day. - Jeff
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