Paris!

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Friday morning it was time to head to Paris. We headed to the train station in London and began our journey to Paris. It was exciting because we were going through a tunnel that connected the British isle with continental Europe. The train ride went pretty quickly, and after disembarking the train and waiting for what seemed like forever for a taxi that could hold the five of us, we arrived at our hotel. Without pausing to unpack, we checked in and put our bags in the room. We took the opportunity to grab lunch near the hotel and then walked around the surrounding area, peeking in shops and grabbing some early souvenirs. That evening we watched a movie before it was time to go to our first tour: illuminations of Paris, which was a night tour that showed us the sights of the city when they were all lit up. The tour was a lot of fun, and it was a great way of seeing everything on the first day that we arrived. It unfortunately was raining, which obstructed our view a bit at times, but really didn’t get in the way too much since the bus was covered and we were able to sit inside on the upper level.

The next morning, we started our loop on the double-decker, hop-on hop-off bus tour that we had booked for the weekend. We got off early in the cycle to check out the Louvre. When we arrived, we were shocked at how long the line was to simply enter the inside area to purchase tickets. However, since mom was still in a wheelchair due to her sprained ankle, we were able to avoid the queue and head straight inside. We ate a nice lunch in the lower level of the museum, before going to the ticket desk and realizing that we would be free since children, EU students, disabled persons and one companion receive free entry. We headed straight to the highlight of the museum, the Mona Lisa. We easily found it based on the huge crowd standing in front of the rather small painting. There was a rope that cut people off, but mom and I were able to pass in front of it with the wheelchair so we were able to get a great picture of the painting and even take a selfie with her. We walked around some more before heading back out to the bus. We were on the main route, which took us to the Eiffel Tower, and we got off to take some pictures and we even got some Eiffel Tower figurines right from the foot of the tower. It was absolutely striking how large the monument was, and how we were able to see it from so many different parts of the city. After we had sufficiently viewed the tower, we headed into a small café to get some hot chocolate and warm up since it was quite cold outside and we had braved the weather on the open top of the bus. That night we went back to the hotel and watched another movie before heading out to have a late dinner.



Sunday morning, we started out by having mass at Notre Dame. The cathedra was absolutely stunning, and the organ music was exceptional. It was a beautiful mass, apart from it being in French and us understanding very little of the content. After the mass and a small snack, we boarded one of the other lines on the bus tour which departed from near the cathedral. Although it was very cold, we braved the weather again on the top of the bus. It wasn’t quite as bad as the previous day, however, due to the presence of the sun. We finished that loop and hopped off to get lunch and get some more souvenirs before boarding another route which departed from the same point. At this point, however, the sun was starting to go down and it was getting much colder. Unfortunately, the bottom of the bus was full and we were unable to retreat to the warmth. At the same time, the traffic was intensifying so we were sitting out in the cold for an extended period of time. That did not stop us from enjoying the sights of the city, however, and we all agreed that we really enjoyed our time in the city, but it would definitely be better to go back in the warmer weather.

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