France Trip, Part V - Paris, Again

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Two high speed trains. One metro. One tram ride. A few boat rides. And a camel. Okay, so there was no camel, but the rest is true.

Because you need reservations to travel any of the high speed trains, with or without a eurail pass, we were limited in what we could get from Lyon to Paris on only a few days notice. Next trip we will plan our times well in advance. So our train left Lyon at 8am. That meant getting up and showered at 6 and, gulp, waking all three sleeping children to dress them, walk across the Rhone River to the T-1 tram stop to take us to Gare Lyon Part Dieux. They were great sports about it and when we got on our train to Paris we ate the breakfast we had packed: more chocolate chip bread sticks, espressos, yogurt drink and nutella on bananas.

It was a very nice ride through the countryside and we arrived in Paris at 10am. Jonathan called his friend Jose, who had been a post-doc at MIT when he did his PhD work there. He lives 15 min. from Gare de Lyon and came to meet us. We walked to his apartment and dropped our luggage off there and then to a beautiful walk to the Seine. The walk followed the path that a former elevated train took through the Parisian streets. The elevated structure was not torn down when the trains went underground, instead it was made into an elevated garden. It had water fountains and small water ways and tons of beautiful flowers. It was a great walk. When we got to the Seine Jose suggested that we take a boat ride up the Seine on Batobus Paris which would allow us to get on and off through the day at all of the big touristy spots. It turned out to be a gorgeous day in Paris weather wise and the boat trip was perfect especially with Jose as our local tour guide. We ended up stopping near the Louvre and walking to find some lunch since it was almost 2pm at this point. We ended up at a brasserie, La Taverne Saint Germain. It was a fantastic French bistro lunch. Jonathan and Jose had mussels and frites and I had seafood soup. Emma and Abigail both asked if next time they could split an order of mussels and frites instead of the kids meal (which were actually really good). We had a nice bottle of wine and then after lunch great coffee while the kids had dessert.

We walked back down the river and caught the boat up to the end of the line at the Eiffel Tower. Emma still refused to look at it, hoping to save the grand experience for her birthday celebration in September. I think she snuck a look however. We sailed back downstream and got off past Notre Dame to pick up a few souvenirs. The girls are collecting country flag patches for their backpacks, so we picked up one for France. Emma got a small poster of the Eiffel Tower and Abigail got a post card. Lastly we picked up a cheap Eiffel Tower key chain; we are going to decorate our Belgian Christmas tree with little key chains from all of the places we visit. Unfortunately this last stop pushed us a little close to the time when we should have been heading to the train and once again we found us running through the streets of Paris. Something about that city makes us have to hurry! We all ran to the train station where Jonathan and Jose left the girls and I so they could run to his apartment and fetch the luggage.

We caught the train from Gare de Lyon to Gare de Nord with five minutes to spare. We checked our tickets and saw that we were on the 26th car! We started walking, Jose still with us carrying one suitcase, me carrying Eliza on my back and Abigail in my arms, and then we started running. We finally got to the 25th car (the longest train ever??) and I tried to get on and the conductor said, no, next car, go you can make it, run! So, I ran and promptly tripped and fell over her briefcase and took allof the skin off my knees, shins and front of my feet (shouldn’t have worn flip flops perhaps). OUCH! Hopped on the train and settled in for a really great ride to Brussels. It sped by as I read Romona and Her Mother to the big girls and Eliza decorated herself with little stickers, much to the delight of our Belgian neighbors in the next seats.

We got into Brussels at 8:15 and stopped at the grocery store and picked up drinkable yogurt and waffles for the kids to much on for a late night snack on the way to Leuven. Unfortunately we caught the slow train to Leuven so instead of getting in around 9 we didn’t get in until 9:30, getting us home via the bus at 10pm. The kids were, again, fantastic. All tucked in by 10:15 and we are having a nice cold Belgian beer to celebrate our return. All in all it was a fantastic trip. Can’t wait for the next one!

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Photos

Emma & Abigail in front of the Eiffel Tower
Emma, in her quest to have the full Eiffel Tower experience when we go on her birthday, wouldn't look at it on the boat ride, but did agree to pose for a photo op in front of it (looking at photos of it is okay, I guess).

Family on the Seine
After our amazing lunch Eliza fell asleep in the backpack and Abigail on Jonathan's shoulders. Still we managed a family shot since we had a friend to take a photo.In the background on the right is the Louvre.

Comments

[June]

Amazing Journey
This has been great reading your adventures. The children are terrific troopers and Emma looks wonderful even with a missing tooth.