It’s all back to reality today after a fantastic weekend in Paris. We stayed for three days and two nights in this most glorious city (you can tell I’m still on my Paris high) and I must admit, the best part was just waking up there for two mornings. It’s one of my finest feelings.
First (but not in any order of importance…it was all so good), the hotel. Using
lastminute.com we got in at the
Villathena in the 9th arrondisement. It was perfect for us, with a very comfortable room, quiet vibe, trendy décor, and helpful staff. And I know this sounds strange, but the hotel was super clean, in looks and smells. That’s not always a given at a hotel, as we all know. Anyway, I can’t recommend it enough, because not only did it provide us with a lovely place to sleep (we needed our rest!) but it was so well located for our adventures.
Next, the museums. We hit the
Egyptian antiquities, in the Sully wing, at the
Louvre and were completely enthralled with the collection. The highlight for Bailey was getting to see a real mummy, still preserved in his bandages. We also saw a mummified crocodile, which scared the hell out of her (which surprised me, after her love for
Old Joe at
Wakulla Springs, whom she got to know when
Zil took us there). Of course, we also saw a lot of other items that had us captivated almost until the Louvre closed Friday night. Thankfully we had time to see some of the sculpture collection as well, but saved the rest of the art for another visit.
On the museum front we also visited
Centre Pompidou, specifically to see the
Louise Bourgeois exhibit (an artist we both like, thanks to
her huge metal spider we got to see at Tate Modern last autumn). The Bourgeois exhibit was fascinating and unexpectedly moving, especially her pieces involving hanging women’s items of clothing off animal bones. We used our time inside to also see the
Traces du Sacré exhibition, some pieces of which were pretty stressful but still had to be appreciated.
Then onto tourist must-dos. I decided we should take a bus tour, so we could be sure to see as much as possible in our short time in the city. This worked out great, especially because we sat up top in a double-decker open-top bus for it. We got lots of pics and could see far more than we could’ve on foot during that time. This helped me add lots to our list of must-sees for the next trip.
We also did a bit of shopping in
Galeries Lafayette. Again, it’s really a must-see, but we also got a few little souvenirs of our trip and took pics of their
beautiful stained glass dome ceiling. Breathtaking.
One place we didn’t visit although I had hoped to was
Notre-Dame. It’s not for any other reason than when we got there the
City of Paris bread festival was taking place out front. I simply couldn’t cope with an entire market dedicated to the scrumptious and varied French breads, when I couldn’t have any myself. I know it’s selfish but I made a promise to take Bailey there the next time and that’s my right as a parent (and here's a
helpful ex-pat's blog about it, in case you're curious).
Lastly, the big event for Bailey, going up the
Eiffel Tower at night. We managed to survive the hour queue (thanks to the very nice conversations we started with three law school students next to us) and made it up in the middle of the
“sparkling” lights display which takes place on the hour (the first time I saw this, it was 2000 and I was with Mary and we broke out into applause and cheers when it ended. It’s a
thrilling display). The views that night were quite beautiful, thanks to a clear sky, and although it was crowded, it was well worth the efforts.
In conclusion, it was one of the nicest trips to Paris I’ve ever had. Bailey’s small but sincere attempts at speaking French thankfully charmed the recipients and she loved all the positive feedback. I got to enjoy some great momma-and-daughter time, whilst being in my favourite city and staying at a cool hotel. How could I not be on a high after that?
Yesterday we had a family outing to London, to see Grease at the Piccadilly Theatre. We opted for the easy way into town; I drove us to Great Russell Street (to the carpark we affectionately call "the stinky carpark") and we walked to the Soho theatre from there. This walk should've been straight-forward and uneventful, but that's never the case when you're walking a 4 1/2 year old through Soho. Our first encounter with madness was witnessing a young man yelling, "PAEDOPHILE!! HE'S A PAEDOPHILE!!" over and over whilst chasing after an old man down Charing Cross. This dramatic chase led bystanders to comment, mostly shouting expletives after the old man. Being England, these weren't the mild-end-of-the-spectrum expletives so not only did Bailey hear the word "paedophile" but she also got it sandwiched with the c-word and the f-word. This, of course, led Simon to tell people to watch their language, which led to further exchanges requiring expletives from all involved parties.
