A Day in Paris

4:50am the alarm buzzes.... What were we thinking??? No turning back now. We signed up for a free military bus ride to Paris, so here we go. Rob and I rub our eyes, get dressed, wake Allie up, stick Jake in his car seat and away we go down to the base, hop on the bus and down to Paris we head. The night before I was searching the internet for fun things to see for kids in Paris and I came to a website that had a Madeline Tour. Allies Nonnie (my mom) gave her these gorgeous Madeline dolls and the collection of Madeline books so Allie has been in LOVE with her. She wants to be Madeline for halloween, too cute. Anyways, so I thought it would be fun to visit the sites in Paris that are seen in the books. We arrived to Paris around 9am. Rob was pointing out the Eiffel Tower as Allie states "MOM MOM LOOK LOOK! the Eiffel Tower!" She was more than excited to see it. We get dropped off and we quickly head to the Garden of Luxembourg, the first stop on the Madeline tour. Rob and I look at the map and think, well that doesn't look to far to walk..... Little did we know it is a VERY magnified view of the city. It ended up taking about an hour to walk to, but well worth it. The Garden of Luxembourg is huge. As Rob stated, I think we could spend all day just in the garden. It is full of things to do. Miniature horses to ride, crepes to be eaten, paths to be walked, and a HUGE playground to be played on. We of course made our way to the crepes, ordered three, of which we did not know the flavors, but ended up to be amazing as to be expected. Allie loved the Nutella one :) We walked over to the horses cause Allie was stating she wanted to ride. Allie got on the horse, got tied on, as I was walking to get my camera something in Allie realized she did NOT want to ride, so the tears started flowing. She decided that riding a horse was a horrible idea.... lovely. I try to explain to the man who only speaks french that she wants off. So he kindly unties her. We sit and watch the kids have fun as they walk down the paths, Allie states "Mom next time we come I will ride, I am just to little to ride right now. And I will ride when Bella comes too, cause I bet she will want to ride, I just don't want to ride without my friend." hummm. If only her friend wasn't across a very large ocean! So we walked over to this playground that was huge. It costs 2.5 Euros for allie and 1.5 Euros for each Adult. So of course we had to go. Allie was dying to get in. It was a pretty cool playground. Allie played for about an hour as Rob and I tried to figure out where to head next. We walked over the the main garden part that is found in Madeline books where Allie states "Mom Madeline walked right here??" in amazement. Yup Allie. We opened Allies Madeline book and found the picture. So fun.

We then realized we had our Eiffel Tower appointment at 1:00 so we needed to head over. We took the metro. The lines were still very long even with the reservation. We made it up to the 2nd floor where there was a very long line. Allie hopped in Jakes stroller and PASSED out. She was exhausted. I looked and Rob and laughed saying that it was hilarious that Allie was sooo excited to go to the Eiffel tower and she was sound asleep :) Thankfully after we waited about 40 minutes in line we got in the elevator and Allie wakes up just in time. We make it to the top, Allie is extremely groggy, but happy to see the top. We point out some places where Madeline went and back down the elevator we went. We didn't realize how long it would take to do the Eiffel Tower so we try to quickly head to a lunch spot. We all get back on the metro and head to the Champs Elysée for lunch/early dinner. Allie tries some bubbly water and decides that it is NOT good. We enjoy some pasta, a yummy pizza and a baguette, of course. After lunch we walk down the street look at some shops, peek into the disney store, and head back to the metro. We get back to the Eiffel tower just in time to catch our bus back... we get on the bus, Allie and Jake fall fast asleep. We arrive back at the hotel at 11pm...

Long day.

We didn't see as much as we wanted, but it was a fun day. We knew that we would be back a lot more times so there was no need to stress. I did not get my latte I was hoping for... next time. But all in all it was a good day... Good to realize that Paris is huge and not possible to do in one day. Allie enjoyed it although she was trying to find the Paris that was covered in vines since all the Madeline books start off "In an old house in Paris that was covered in vines lived 12 little girls in two straight lines..." She couldn't understand that it was the house that was covered in vines not the city Paris.... Oh well.. Next time I'm sure we'll find a house covered in vines...

To see the pics and some videos cut and past this website: leave a comment if it doesn't work!

http://picasaweb.google.com/109618480278935753781/ParisJuly31st2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCNn0nomx34i2Pw