First Days: Our Apartment & The Eiffel Tower

5/05/2012 05:18:00 AM |

We're in Paris!! We've looked forward to our whole trip, but we've really been excited about this last part. I mean, Paris! We arrived on Tuesday, which was a holiday here, kinda like Labor Day in the U.S. But apparently there were some demonstrations and lots of roads were closed, so what should have been about a twenty minute taxi ride from the train station to our apartment, turned into about an hour ride! Our driver had to keep turning around because he couldn't get through certain roads. Finally he got close enough where we could just get out and walk! We were so happy to get here!

Our apartment isn't on the most picturesque street, but I still love where we are. It's really close to streets with lots of good cafes and patisseries (pastry shops, mmmm). And our apartment is actually the biggest place we've stayed so far. It's very open and modern feeling, quite different from our cute cottage in the Cotswolds. It's basically a town house, with the kitchen and living area downstairs, and the bedrooms upstairs. The bedrooms are hard to describe. Basically each bedroom has a ladder up a loft area for the bed, and the area below has a small table and "play area." The kids LOVE it! They've been making forts and having all kinds of fun with the set up. I took a few pictures, but I've also included a link to the apartment website, if you want more pictures.

No matter where we are, the kids love playing computer or ipod games!

The boys are reading Harry Potter 6 on a touchpad.

Another great perk of this apartment is that there's a small room that Kevin can use as an office. This is such a treat for him! To actually have a separate area to work, not just the corner of a bedroom!

Our first night here, we walked over to an italian restaurant for dinner. The day was beautiful, and we ate outside! Loved it!

Had to get some wine!

This was the view from where we were sitting. We arrived at about 7:15pm, and
by 8pm all these tables were filled.

After spending a relaxing day at home on Wednesday, we ventured out on Thursday to go, where else? The Eiffel Tower!

First ride on the metro! Our time in London on the tube really helped us figure out the metro!

We stopped by the street, Rue Cler, and picked up a baguette (we realized we'd
need two baguettes for next time!), some fruit, and cheese for dinner.

And here we are! I know, these probably look like everyone else's Eiffel Tower pictures, but I just couldn't believe we were actually there! We went in the evening, around six, so that we could stay until it got dark to see it all lit up. We were there a looonnng time, it felt like. It really didn't get dark until 10pm. Thankfully there was a great area for the kids to run around, and they spent, probably three hours chasing eachother and playing different games. We had decided not to go up in the tower, but to wait until next week when my mom comes (she'll be here this Sunday for a week - can't wait to see you GramAnne).

After our dinner, we had crepes (Kevin, Justin, and me) and ice cream (Daniel and Anna) for dessert.

While the kids were playing, Kevin and I just hung out and chatted. It was quite relaxing. And I enjoyed people watching! There were some other Americans near us, and I heard one of them say that her wallet had gotten stolen earlier in the week by some kids in the same area. Turns out, a couple hours later, we saw two kids walking through the crowd, carrying a sheet of paper, like they were selling something. I think they carry the paper to make you thing they're selling something. They walked by us talking, and you could totally see their eyes examining our stuff. We just grabbed our stuff tighter and said "Non, non." (no, no). I'm guessing those are the "gypsy kids" we've heard about. I'm glad we made it without getting anything stolen, but it's kinda sad. I mean I think the kids were probably only ten or eleven years old.