Ahhh... Paris! What a wonderful city! It felt great to come back as a family of three after all these years. To revisit familiar places and discover new ones. We traveled with friends Paul and Andrea who found us a characteristic (and eclectic) AirBnB apartment just north of the Marais. We arrived in the evening and while I put Jude to bed, Pete ran out and brought back some wine, cheese and baguette for our in-house picnic. When Paul and Andrea got back from their dinner out, they stayed to watch Jude while Pete and I strolled the neighborhood and found a local bistro for dessert.
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| The apartment |
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| Charming! |
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| Canal Saint Martin |
On Saturday it was up and at 'em early to get a full day of sightseeing in (not a problem with a traveling babe)! A quick croissant and quiche breakfast pickup at the local boulangerie and off we went on the metro (super easy to navigate after years of living in NYC). We made our way to L' Orangerie museum to see Monet's Les Nympheas, the scale of which impressed us both.
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| Why do croissants taste so much better in France?? |
Then we strolled the Jardin des Tuileries and up the Champs-Elysees until we found one of the Velib (Velo libre) bike share stands. A few friends had told us that cycling was the way to see the city and Paris' bike share program is very popular. We decided to give it a try for the rest of the day.
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| Jardin des Tuileries |
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| Champs- Elysees |
First we cycled to the main attraction, the Eiffel Tower. We went up it on our last visit and didn't feel the need to do it again this time around. We had hoped to buy some food and picnic on the lawn as we did years ago, but the grassy areas are now closed off for winter. We fought the mobs to snap some shots and then continued by foot to Rue Cler for a crepe lunch.
After lunch, we mad our way to the Rodin museum via Les Invalides and Napolean's impressive tomb.
I have fond memories of the Rodin museum gardens from our last trip. It was our last stop on a whirlwind museum-visiting day and it was so peaceful to sit and relax amongst Rodin's sculptures. Jude seemed to like the gardens too!
After a few unsuccessful attempts to borrow the Velib bikes again due to broken or empty stations, we finally found two in working order after strolling through the area around the Rodin. Then it was off to bike to Notre Dame. Here the bike lanes ended and we wound up in the bus/bike lane, which was a bit too chaotic for my liking. We found a cute park next to the cathedral and had fun see-sawing with Jude before calling it a day!
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