Paris-Day 2



Ready for our first full day of Paris adventures!!



Our first full day in Paris, we planned to see the Eiffel Tower, the Arc De Triomphe, stroll along the Champs Elysses, and finish up our day at the Louvre. 

The Eiffel Tower was a pretty long walk from the apartment...so we thought we would tackle it first, while we were fresh!  It was a beautiful walk...we saw lots of neat things along the way!

We can see it off in the background!!  Doesn't look that far away, right?

Little R doing some posing!

The walk was BEAUTIFUL!!!

Getting closer!!

Fountains everywhere!

The Seine River

R happened upon his next new car on the walk over to the Eiffel Tower.

We finally made it!  When we got to the Eiffel Tower, only one lift was working, so the line was outrageously long to go up the lift or the stairs...over a 2-hr wait!!  So we decided to enjoy it from the ground.  A was very disappointed...she had hopes of going to the top! 

It is absolutely HUGE up close!

Amazing!

This was a bit surprisng to us...those are some major guns!!

We found a carousel at the Eiffel Tower...everyone loves a carousel!

Even T wanted to ride...although she wasn't too sure after she got on!

Gettin' some exercise!

The view of the tower as we left...

It really was amazing!

After the tower, we decided to find a place to eat lunch.  We wanted something French, so we stopped at a little Bistro that looked good.  It was a neat atmosphere, and the food was really good!

Cute little Bistro where we ate our first lunch!

R tried duck for the first time!

T had a smoked salmon club sandwich.  A had crepes.  I played it safe and had Tomato Basil Pasta! : )

We learned pretty quick that the best part of Paris is the desserts!!  This molten chocolate cake was AWESOME!!!

After lunch we marched on to the Arc De Triomphe.  I wasn't too crazy about the crowded underground pedestrian crossing to get over to it...but we made it!

Pretty cool, huh?  Do you see all the traffic in this roundabout??  It was crazy!

Impressive!

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I

After the Arc De Triomphe, we headed down the Champs Elysses for some window shopping!!

R picked out a watch...only 29,000 euros!

A was excited about this one.  There was a line to get into the store, so we didn't go in...which was probably a good thing, because she wanted a LV bag SO bad...and she wasn't getting one! : )

This was paradise for T!!!

After our window-shopping, we started our walk to the Louvre.  Again, a beautiful walk, and lots of fun!  When we got to the Louvre, the line was outrageously long!  But my Paris book had another ticket location, so after some excellent map-reading skills by R, we found the location and got tickets!  The Louvre is not very stroller friendly, but there was no way we could let little R loose in that crowd...so it was a definite struggle!!  R's crowd tolerance was way over-limit by the time we left!!  And A's toes were all smooshed from being stepped on!!  But we got to see the main things we wanted to see.  I would love to take T back someday and just let her roam for an entire day.  But even she was ready to get out of the chaos!!

Pretty flowers along the way.

Beautiful tree!

Happy Daddy!!  : )  There is another pic of the girls and me doing our "jump for joy", but since I am the blog poster, it will not be making an appearance! : )

The Louvre

SO many people!!!

The girls with Venus De Milo

Beautiful!

The ceilings were as pretty as the artwork hanging on the walls!

The Lady of the Louvre!! 

After the Louvre, we headed back to our apartment for dinner and to rest our aching feet!!  It was a great day, but we were all exhausted!!  After dinner little R played "Daddy Dress Up"....it was kinda cute!

"Look, I'm Daddy!"

"Cool Daddy"