On Sunday a visitor came to town! We were so excited to see my mom (GramAnne, as the kids call her). We had all been looking forward to seeing her! She got in early Sunday morning, so, after she had time to rest at her hotel, we met up, ate some lunch, and showed her our apartment.
Sunday evening, we tried to take a boat ride on the Seine, but we missed it (frustrating, because the times posted were wrong. Frustrating, but, oh well). But we ended up having a picnic dinner in a park close to
the Seine.
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| Notice Notre Dame in the background! |
It was pretty interesting to be in that area, because there were lots of people walking by in the street carrying flags and occasionally calling or singing out something in French. Sunday was a big election for the French president, and the results has just been announced. A new president was elected, and so there was lots of excitement in the air about it. I'm not up on my politics at all, so if you want to know more, I'm sure you can google it! But it was a neat learning opportunity for the kids. They were asking lots of questions about what was going on. Thankfully Kevin knows more than me!
Our picnic area was right next to the Shakespeare and Company bookstore (carries English books, and you can read more about the store here), so we stopped by to have a look.
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| There was this cozy nook in the kids' section. The board behind them has notes that people have left about the store or giving bits of advice on life. |
We got there at 9:30, which is when the tower opens, but of course there was quite a long line. The best thing to do is to buy tickets online ahead of time, but they were having trouble with their online system, so not many were being sold that way, which meant we had to wait to buy our tickets there. And, we knew that only one elevator (out of three) was working. We were prepared to wait a long time, maybe two hours!
Checking out the souvenir shops:
Having a snack of croissants, pretzels, and waffles:
Feeding the leftover bread to the birds (and then chasing them - poor birds):
Taking lots of pictures:
Watching these people on stilts walk around handing out cards telling us
that only one elevator was working:
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| These digital signs would have the announcement in French, then in English. |
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| East pillar, the only pillar that was open |
After about three and half hours, we finally made it to the elevator! And that was after Daniel actually said he was getting tired of the Eiffel Tower! So sad what long lines can do to a person.
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| This double decker elevator was pretty cool! And the guy sitting on the outside below, is a mannequin, to remember that a guy used to direct the old timey elevators, before they installed the new-timey ones (sorry, I'm sure there's a more technical explanation) |
Here's the pictures from the second level:
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| Notice the tiny copy of the Statue of Liberty. Gustave Eiffel (creator of the Eiffel Tower) also designed the supports of New York's Statue of Liberty. |
Views from the top level:
And then, after taking in the great views, we went back down to the ground! We all took the elevator down from the top level (you have to, as if you'd want to take the stairs!). Then GramAnne and Daniel took the elevator down to the second and first levels while Kevin, Justin, and I took the stairs.
2 comments:
Sanctification, baby. You guys are so patient and have such good attitudes. Excellent traits for international travel. Hi to all!
Love these pics!! So glad Kelly's mom is there to enjoy this with ya'll!
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