The Eiffel Tower and The Louvre

Well, it's Saturday and taxes are done so now I have some time to blog about our trip.  It is April 1, and this is our first full day in Paris.  We let the kids sleep a little this morning because of our extremely long travel day.  We got up, got dressed and headed out to find some breakfast.  We walked across the Ile de Cite over to the Left bank where we were told were lots of restaruants and such.  We finally decided on just getting crepes at a little sidewalk shop.  We tried all different sorts - nutella, strawberry jam, ham and cheese and just plain cheese.  Lizzie decided she didn't want a crepe so she had a ham and cheese sandwich on a baguette.  It is a rare treat for us to have ham lately so we truly enjoyed it!

From our hotel window

From here we decided that we were going to head over to the Eiffel Tower.  Mark didn't yet have a SIM card for his cell phone (and GPS).  We tried to purchase one but his iPhone has a micro-SIM and and the little shop nearby had only regular ones.  So we had no idea how to walk there (because who can get anywhere without GPS nowadays) but we did have a nice little app that would help us with the train to get there.  We headed to a close train station and purchased our three day city pass.  If I remember correctly, we made it to the correct station pretty easily and soon spotted the Eiffel Tower.

We got in line for tickets to go to the top and soon headed up in the elevator.  Megan was not excited about going all the way to the highest point, but we convinced her that she needed to go.  How many times would we have this opportunity - so up we went.  First you head up an inclined elevator to what I think is called the 3rd floor.  There is a level below it that connected by stairs that contains stores and a restaurant.  Then you head up another elevator to the top. 

You are warned at many turns to be aware of pick pockets!

There is an indoor viewing platform and then you can head up the stairs to the highest level which is outside.  The view was spectacular even though it was kind of a cloudy day but it was very windy and cold!

Spencer and Alex under the USA flag

Rachel, Alex and Lizzie under the Saudi Arabia flag

Mark and Lizzie trying to stay warm at the top of the

Eiffel Tower

Alex is checking out the sights

Here are some views of Paris from the very top of the Eiffel tower.

So once we had our fill of the view of the city, we headed away from the tower so that we could get some pictures of the kids.  When we were making our decision whether we would move to Saudi Arabia or not, travel was probably the main thing that enticed me into making this move.  I'm sure I've told many of you that the picture in my head was a picture of my kids in front of the Eiffel Tower.  These are some that we took the first day.  I think they turned out okay but my favorite is one that we took later in the week.

We didn't think that it was going to be that cold while we were in Paris.  The forecast had said that it would be in the low 60s, but without sun and with a little wind, it was very chilly.  It could be that we're just getting used to our low 80s always sunny Saudi Arabian weather too.  So our next goal was to find some lunch and some jackets for the kids. 



We found a little place at the Champs de Mars which was called (surprisingly) Champs de Mars.  It was probably a little touristy because it was right on the corner - and when I say touristy, I mean expensive!  I think it was our most expensive meal of the trip and the food really wasn't that great.  We found a cute souvenir shop after lunch and bought the kids some sweatshirts and some little trinkets. 

At this point, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel and get a little rest before we head over to the Louvre.  This is where the train fun starts.  We have come to find out since we've returned from our vacation that the metro stop near our hotel, the Chatalet - Les Halles station, is the largest station in Europe.  We get back to the station, there are 11 exits and we have no idea which one is the closest to our hotel.  So basically we pick one, come up onto the street and don't reconize anything.  We did happen to see a mobile phone store so we popped in to see if we could get Mark a SIM card and voila!  we could get one!  We got it installed and with the GPS determined the way back to the hotel.  We ended up walking down a street with some very interesting stores so we were happy to make it back to the hotel.

After a little rest, we hopped back on the train and headed over to the Louvre.  Anyone who has seen or probably heard of this museum knows how large it is.  I don't think that you could possibly see everything without spending a lot of time.  These next 2 pictures were taken just outside the "inside" entrance to the Louvre.

So our main goal was to see the Mona Lisa of course.  We spend some time looking around just enjoying some of the truly amazing art that is here.  Lizzie still pointed out (just like in Athens) the nakedness of many of the statues.  But after what seemed like a fairly long walk, we made it to the room that housed the Mona Lisa.  Well, it was a little underwhelming....for all the fuss - you'd think that it would have been bigger!  It was very cool to see it though!

Megan probably won't like that I posted the picture

but it gives you an idea of how big the Mona Lisa

really is.

Alex was extremely bored during this whole adventure (and really let us know it) so we finished up and headed outside to see the pyramid.  We enjoyed watching the people and enjoying the scenery.

We had headed a bit away from the museum and crossed the circle towards the big arch when we noticed that there were these military guys walking around.  We came to learn later that they often have military presence at a lot of their monuments because of the happenings in the world.  But the odd thing about this that as we started to walk back to the train station, they started blocking off the road and moving people away from certain areas.  It was kind of disturbing so we headed off back to our hotel.

Because they headed us off in a different direction, we couldn't get to our original station, so we walked along the Seine River for a while.  We passed the Pont des Arts which is a pedestrian bridge across the Seine.  If you can see, the side of the bridge has all of these things hanging off of it, these are padlocks - the padlock is hung by sweethearts and it symbolizes their love.  Kind of cool!

So it's dinner time and again we're trying to determine what to have for dinner.  We opted for an exciting dinner at Pizza Hut near our hotel.  Kind of pathetic for Paris but we were tired and hungry and it was close and open.  We enjoyed our first day in the City of Lights and are excited for our next one to begin....but first we all need a good night's sleep!

Thanks for reading!

The Longest Day Ever

We've just returned from a week in Paris and now it's time to blog about it...I sure hope that you enjoy our stories and pictures.  Our week was filled with fun and frustration but we enjoyed spending time together as a family in a very beautiful city.

In Saudi Arabia, it seems like the flight times that you can leave or arrive are always very strange.  I booked a round-trip direct flight to Paris from Jeddah and the outbound flight left at 3:05 am.  So after finishing up our final preparations, we got a little rest and  woke the kids up about 11:45 to be ready for the taxi to pick us up at midnight.  The ride down to the airport takes about an hour and we arrived in plenty of time, got our luggage from the taxi and in line to check in for our flight.  It is amazing to see how much traffic and how many people are at out and about in the city at this time of day. 

We approached the ticket counter about 1 am and presented our passports to the agent.  He then proceeded to tell us that our flight is overbooked by 50 passengers.  FIFTY!  I can't imagine how an airline could overbook by that many.  It looked like there was no way that we would get on this flight because we were a large group and they were also moving business class people down to economy and bumping the economy passengers.  Air France offered us 300 EUR per person and a hotel voucher to give up our seats and after a little discussion we decided to take the offer.  We probably wouldn't get seats together which makes travelling with children difficult and the money would be a nice chunk for our next trip.  So we stood aside for a little bit until finally someone got to us and took Mark up to write up the vouchers and put us on flights for tomorrow.  The kids and I waited in some seats and we were ready to head to the hotel by about 3:00 am.  There were many people just sitting around in the chairs by the door - it was interesting to see Security approach a lot of them and ask to see passports.  We were never questioned by anyone. 

When Mark was done with everything, we checked our luggage for our flight in the morning which was very helpful because we didn't have to drag it to the hotel.  They put us on a little shuttle bus with a few other people who had gotten bumped from the flight and we headed out to the hotel.  Much to my chagrin, we passed hotel after hotel in this old bus that swayed back and forth and was making me very sick to my stomach.  It took us 30 minutes to get to our hotel (so much for close to the airport).  The hotel was very nice on the inside and they were nice enough to put us in a large suite so we could all stay together.  We rolled into bed about 4:00 am and fell right to sleep.  About an hour later, call to prayer started in the many mosques surrounding the hotel, it woke both Mark and I up and I did not sleep well the rest of the night because I was afraid that we would oversleep and miss our flight in the morning.

We got up about 7:00 am, had a quick breakfast and got a taxi to the airport.  Now, I've talked about driving in Jeddah before, but I don't think I've ever experienced a taxi driver quite this bad.  He was going so fast and if anyone ever was in front of him, he would honk a lot until they got out of our way.  I kept saying prayers the whole time that we would make it back to the airport safely!  Luckily (and probably with divine intervention), we arrived without incident and it only took us about half the time it took us to get to the hotel the night before!

Our flight left Jeddah a little after 10 am and we had a short hour and a half layover in Milan, Italy where we experienced their airport - how exciting!  We boarded our last flight about 4:30 pm and landed in Paris at 6:00 pm - these flights were nice and uneventful although we didn't sleep much.

I had hired a shuttle service (Always Shuttle) to take us from the airport to our hotel in Paris which in hindsight was a great idea.  You'll hear more about the Paris train system later ;-)  Our driver was great - he was talkative and gave us a great tour of the city as we drove to our hotel.  We were so excited to see all the beautiful buildings and places that we would soon get to visit!

We arrived at our hotel - the Novotel Les Halles - at about 8:00.  The hotel was nice and very centrally located which is why I picked it.  It was a fairly reasonable cost also - everything in the city was very expensive!  We thought about heading out for dinner but opted for the hotel restaurant instead where we had a nice meal.  We were all so tired so we just turned in for the night.  We kept referring to the "start" of our trip as yesterday when it really was the same day - so the kids dubbed this travel day as the "Longest Day Ever" - so forever shall it be known!

We had missed our "first" day in Paris because of our flight changes (originally we should have arrived at 8:30 am) but we were excited for our adventure to begin in the morning.  Stay tuned for pictures and the Eiffel tower...

Thanks for reading!