It's A WONDERful 2015 - Feb Cruise, May WDW grand tour, and France/DLP! NEW 10/25 Nice & End!

[Dugette]

Paris has a Museum Pass which allows you entry to almost all of the museums and attractions in the city (and beyond). It includes the Louvre, Versailles, and tons more, and for many of the museums it allows you to skip the ticket line altogether (although if there is security you still have to stand in that line). The passes come in 2,4, and 6 day lengths, so our plan was to get 4-day tickets and use all 4 days. It was nice because it was cheaper than individual tickets at the places we definitely wanted to visit (Louvre, Versailles, Les Invalides, Arc de Triumph etc) and also allowed us to enter some others even for a few minutes without worrying about the cost of admission.

Sounds like a fantastic deal!

I can't tell you how badly I want to eat my screen right now! YUM!

After this photo, Aria had a bit of a breakdown and couldn't settle down so she ended up in time out.

Haha, maybe she'd been thinking too hard in that last pose.

this museum alone we saved about 2 hours of waiting!

Wow!

We were a little hungry so on our way we decided to wake Aria up with a stop at a gelato place.

This is such a nice way to wake up!

Yep, I'd prefer to always be woken up with gelato.

And then we found a huge playground - which had an entrance fee!! It was around 2.50 each but still, I was a little dumbfounded at that.

Did they charge for everyone or just kids?

But first Marina took a "Luxembourg Pose"

Cute!

- I ordered this chocolate dome which the waiter then poured hot chocolate over to melt the dome and ice cream with fruit was inside.

That is awesome!

Just as we made it back to the apartment and put Aria to sleep, it was time for the Eiffel tower to twinkle (the lights twinkle on the hour!) and we sat outside for a few minutes savoring our view and relaxing our legs.

What a perfect way to end the night!

Your whole day sounds great. Cool museums and grounds, good company, tasty food, lots of scenery. Sounds wonderful!

 

[Imagineer5]

Sounds like a fantastic deal!


I can't tell you how badly I want to eat my screen right now! YUM!


Haha, maybe she'd been thinking too hard in that last pose.


Wow!


Yep, I'd prefer to always be woken up with gelato.


Did they charge for everyone or just kids?


Cute!


That is awesome!


What a perfect way to end the night!

Your whole day sounds great. Cool museums and grounds, good company, tasty food, lots of scenery. Sounds wonderful!

The playground charged for everyone! And it was ridiculously busy so they were making tons of $$!

It was a really fun day. And fun to relive it by revisiting the photos. ANdrew and I talked about the kid's meal aria got for 12 euros yesterday while we ordered a $12 molten lava chocolate cake at lunch yesterday - LOL!

 

[Imagineer5]

Well I guess I'll move on! Everyone must be busy with Summer.

Day 3 in France - Paris! Today we didn't have plans to meet up with Marina & Eric as we wanted to do the Louvre, possibly Notre Dame, and see some more of the city whereas they had their own plans. After all the walking from the previous day, my preggo body couldn't handle more today so we actually took our rental car out this morning and drove! It was a Sunday so zero traffic in the city, and there are no zone restrictions like other cities we've driven in (Florence, Rome, etc) so it was actually really easy. The Louvre opens at 9AM, and we wanted to get there earlier than that, so we left our apartment around 8 and quickly found parking. Side note - the street parking takes chipped CC's but for some reason our Andrew's FCU CC didn't work in them, so we ended up parking in a parking garage, which cost about 10 euros - compared to the $35 for a day in Boston, it was surprisingly cheap!

Anyway, by 8:30 we were making the short walk to the Louvre

There was already a decent line for security (on the right side below

But since we had the stroller, we were able to enter on the left side and were 2nd in line!

There are other entrances to the Louvre, but since I had read about the "stroller trick" and we already had our Museum Passes, I wanted to do it via the glass pyramid. Before 9 we were inside and ready to scan in - we headed first to the Mona Lisa as that's the busiest location in the museum. Before going on the trip I bought some kid's art books & books about Paris, so Aria knew what the Mona Lisa looked like (and we also talked a lot about Leonardo da Vinci). Now having a stroller was pretty annoying but I'll get to that soon - we had to take an elevator down to the main lobby area from the pyramid entrance, then find an elevator to take you to the entrance to this side of the museum.

Once scanned in, we had to take another elevator to the level where the Mona Lisa is located.

But soon we saw this sight.

Yeah you don't get that view very often!! No one there! It was so cool.

From there we made an attempt to follow along with Rick Steve's audio tour of the Louvre, where we headed to the Grecian artifacts and statues, but with all the ups and downs and stairs and searching for elevators, this didn't last very long.

Everyone says it, but seriously the sheer size of this museum is stunning.

Ceilings were all stunning as well

Here we were still on the Rick Steves tour, which had a downloadable video with photos. I did this in advance so that Aria might be interested to follow along - she was! And enjoyed the sort of scavenger hunt looking for the painting or sculpture that he was talking about.

She also enjoyed jumping over cracks in the tile floor...

And finding air vents LOL

See, it really has something for everyone!

We did a lot of this:

But Aria was glad to have the stroller

At this point my stomach wasn't feeling very good and we were all hungry, so we went in search of food. There's a few eateries inside and we ended up in a cafeteria of sorts.

They had a whole bunch of pre-made stuff but their main café wasn't open yet so I just picked out whatever looked good. There was a cup with mozzarella balls and cherry tomatoes which was refreshing, plus a yogurt parfait and some pastries and sandwiches.

After eating, I was feeling a bit better so we headed out to see more.

Inside the museum is Napoleon's apartment, so we headed there next to give a bit of a change of pace. Again, we had to take some elevators down, walk a bit, another elevator down, then go across to another entrance (there's 3 different museum entrance points from the main lobby area under the pyramid).

Soon we made it to the apartment though and this was probably my favorite thing we saw at the Louvre - just spectacular

I love these seats

Check out this bassinet!

Afterwards we weren't quite ready to leave, although were pretty weary (we'd been in the museum for about 4 hours at this point!) so we decided to check out a little more art and also peek in at the line to see the mona lisa.

It was much busier now!

We called it a day at the Louvre after that and headed out - first a family pic!

Looking up

On the cool open elevator in the pyramid

 

[heaven2dc]

These carousels are neat - if you're seated on an outside horse you get a stick and try to grab rings on it. There is one similar on Martha's Vineyard - but these horses are really tough to get. I mean parents are slipping their kids onto the seats as your kid is climbing up! It's brutal! I didn't have the nerve to do that so Aria got to ride on the inside here.

And then we found a huge playground - which had an entrance fee!! It was around 2.50 each but still, I was a little dumbfounded at that.

Yes, we did pay to get in.

Your daughter is such a trooper visiting these museums! I bet she really enjoyed her time playing in the park and riding on the carousel.

 

[Imagineer5]

Your daughter is such a trooper visiting these museums! I bet she really enjoyed her time playing in the park and riding on the carousel.

We tried to include play time for her each day (and it was pretty easy to considering how many parks, playgrounds and carousels there were in the city!)

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

You definitely scored with being the first to the Mona Lisa. Great pictures.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

That museum pass sounds like a great idea and deal - just in the time saved alone!

Pretty cool to be able to see Napoleon's Tomb and then that room with the 3-D models looks amazing!

I've found times we've had strollers in NYC really show how not accessible city's can be - even if their are elevators they are often out of the way and small and (at least in NYC) smell not so great. Seems like it worked out switching off though

yeah, I'd say that's some pretty impressive stained glass

That whole process with the carousel and the outside horses sounds pretty stressful. And that is kinda surprising with all the gardens and public spaces that you had to pay for the playground - looked like a fun area though

Dinner looks nice and your dessert looks amazing! Looks like a great kids meal too!

Not to bad to get back and just rest and watch the Eiffel Tower!

 

[Dugette]

Well I guess I'll move on! Everyone must be busy with Summer.

Yep, it's been pretty slow on the TR boards in general, I think.

But since we had the stroller, we were able to enter on the left side and were 2nd in line!

Great tip!

But soon we saw this sight.

Yeah you don't get that view very often!! No one there! It was so cool.

That is amazing! I showed the pic to Dug earlier and he said it was a once in a lifetime rare opportunity to get a photo like that (he's been reading all the France updates too, by the way).

but with all the ups and downs and stairs and searching for elevators, this didn't last very long.

So, was it worthwhile to bring the stroller? Sounds like it was great for getting you in quickly, a pain the whole time, then nice when she wanted to rest? Izzy will probably be 5 by the time we go, so not sure what we'd do....maybe an umbrella stroller that gets us in and then fold it up and carry it?

Here we were still on the Rick Steves tour, which had a downloadable video with photos. I did this in advance so that Aria might be interested to follow along - she was! And enjoyed the sort of scavenger hunt looking for the painting or sculpture that he was talking about.

Glad she enjoyed it! Good thinking to pre-load those.

She also enjoyed jumping over cracks in the tile floor...

And finding air vents LOL

See, it really has something for everyone!

Love her dress over the vents!

And Izzy has been all about following cracks and lines on floors lately, so she'd have a blast there.

Napoleon's apartment looks really cool too.

 

[Imagineer5]

You definitely scored with being the first to the Mona Lisa. Great pictures.

THanks!! yes that was the plan!

That museum pass sounds like a great idea and deal - just in the time saved alone!

Pretty cool to be able to see Napoleon's Tomb and then that room with the 3-D models looks amazing!

I've found times we've had strollers in NYC really show how not accessible city's can be - even if their are elevators they are often out of the way and small and (at least in NYC) smell not so great. Seems like it worked out switching off though

yeah, I'd say that's some pretty impressive stained glass



That whole process with the carousel and the outside horses sounds pretty stressful. And that is kinda surprising with all the gardens and public spaces that you had to pay for the playground - looked like a fun area though

Dinner looks nice and your dessert looks amazing! Looks like a great kids meal too!

Not to bad to get back and just rest and watch the Eiffel Tower!

Yeah the museum pass was great. I'd get it again when we return, the list it includes is really impressive!

That was the only playground we had to pay for, at least!

Yep, it's been pretty slow on the TR boards in general, I think.


Great tip!


That is amazing! I showed the pic to Dug earlier and he said it was a once in a lifetime rare opportunity to get a photo like that (he's been reading all the France updates too, by the way).


So, was it worthwhile to bring the stroller? Sounds like it was great for getting you in quickly, a pain the whole time, then nice when she wanted to rest? Izzy will probably be 5 by the time we go, so not sure what we'd do....maybe an umbrella stroller that gets us in and then fold it up and carry it?


Glad she enjoyed it! Good thinking to pre-load those.


Love her dress over the vents!

And Izzy has been all about following cracks and lines on floors lately, so she'd have a blast there.

Napoleon's apartment looks really cool too.

Well I think with planning it out and getting there first thing, it's like a Disney park. Hard to get that photo of the castle in the background with zero people, unless you plan ahead

We needed the stroller for sure. Esp at the Louvre - it was a LOT of walking for Aria. Again kinda like Disney - most places a 5 year old (in your case when you bring izzy) won't be needing a stroller anymore, but you'd still plan on one for Disney. Same thing here, although an umbrella would be fine at that point IMO. Our next Europe trip next year, when Aria is 5.5, I'm thinking we'll bring the City Mini again for Maya, with that board attachment for Aria. But we don't plan on any multi hour long museums and can carry Maya in a carrier if Aria needs to sit.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

ah, missed an update

The Louvre sounds like a very confusing museum with all the entrances and elevators and scanning, etc. - but definitely worth it to see the Mona Lisa and some of those other artifacts and pieces

That was a good "trick" with the stroller to get in with a shorter line, though I guess it came with a price and all those stairs

I like the idea of having the download with the pictures and making it a bit of a scavenger hunt - I am sure that element helped with Aria

 

[Nora03]

Hi,
Just wanted to comment on your trip report. I'm more of a reader and rarely comment, but hope that you know that there are probably many people like me. I'm really excited to read about your trip to France. Your daughter is absolutely adorable and that picture of her standing over the vent is priceless. Wow, you really lucked out getting to see the Mona Lisa with no crowds. A few years ago I was lucky to see the Pieta in Rome and was so disappointed that I couldn't get near it due to the hundreds of other people who stood in front of me. I held up my camera and snapped away. I was SO pleased when I saw that I had some good pictures. Enjoying your report and will be watching for more.

 

[khertz]

The museum pass sounds perfect! I'm glad Aria did so well with the museums and artwork. I can't say Paxton would be as agreeable! That picture of her in time out was pretty cute though... lol How funny will that be to show her when she's older? That time she got punished in Paris!! lol

Nice work getting to see the Mona Lisa before the crowds. It looks so tiny!!

 

[Pamlur]

I have been reading along from the very beginning of whichever thrip that was, and enjoying it thoroughly! My oldest granddaughter is doing a Study Abroad program in London; she said she wanted to do a "day trip to Paris, just to zip into the Louvre, see the Mona Lisa and zip out". I tried to tell her that was not going to work, I don't know whether she listened or not.

 

[cindianne320]

Amazing views in the museums! Aria seemed to do quite well- I love that you had the interactive tour to keep her entertained for awhile. Great tips!

 

[Imagineer5]

ah, missed an update

The Louvre sounds like a very confusing museum with all the entrances and elevators and scanning, etc. - but definitely worth it to see the Mona Lisa and some of those other artifacts and pieces

That was a good "trick" with the stroller to get in with a shorter line, though I guess it came with a price and all those stairs

I like the idea of having the download with the pictures and making it a bit of a scavenger hunt - I am sure that element helped with Aria

It is - considering it's an old Palace, it wasn't originally made to be a museum so it is pretty confusing (also built before strollers lol). It was a really cool museum! Aria enjoyed it - we read a couple books before hand and talked about it, knowing this would be a tough few hours for a 3 year old, but she was fine.

Hi,
Just wanted to comment on your trip report. I'm more of a reader and rarely comment, but hope that you know that there are probably many people like me. I'm really excited to read about your trip to France. Your daughter is absolutely adorable and that picture of her standing over the vent is priceless. Wow, you really lucked out getting to see the Mona Lisa with no crowds. A few years ago I was lucky to see the Pieta in Rome and was so disappointed that I couldn't get near it due to the hundreds of other people who stood in front of me. I held up my camera and snapped away. I was SO pleased when I saw that I had some good pictures. Enjoying your report and will be watching for more.

Thank you so much for commenting!! And thanks for reading along, I'm glad to hear there are more people enjoying the report.

The museum pass sounds perfect! I'm glad Aria did so well with the museums and artwork. I can't say Paxton would be as agreeable! That picture of her in time out was pretty cute though... lol How funny will that be to show her when she's older? That time she got punished in Paris!! lol

Nice work getting to see the Mona Lisa before the crowds. It looks so tiny!!

LOL I had to snap a pic of that time out. It's really amazing how well time out works with her.

I have been reading along from the very beginning of whichever thrip that was, and enjoying it thoroughly! My oldest granddaughter is doing a Study Abroad program in London; she said she wanted to do a "day trip to Paris, just to zip into the Louvre, see the Mona Lisa and zip out". I tried to tell her that was not going to work, I don't know whether she listened or not.

Aw, thank you for commenting. That is really cool she is studying abroad, although I'd love to hear her experience with attempting Paris in 1 day to see the Mona Lisa. LOL! Why doesn't she go for a weekend at least? I'd be so excited if we had an opportunity to move to Europe for a couple years, just for the proximity to so much history.

Amazing views in the museums! Aria seemed to do quite well- I love that you had the interactive tour to keep her entertained for awhile. Great tips!

 

[Imagineer5]

I left off after spending a fun and busy few hours at the Louvre! Next on our plate was walking over to Notre Dame and that area. I had notes to visit the Conciergerie and Shakespeare & Co if we hadn't already, but we had so instead the plan was to do Notre Dame, The Crypt, and see that area. Leaving the Louvre -

We walked along the Seine. I had read they took these locks down, so we didn't bring one to do ourselves but apparently they decided not to?

Along the way we saw a few pop up shops, but it was Sunday so it wasn't that busy really. There was one selling live animals in cages, eek

We also saw this odd sign. Still unsure what it means? No holding hands? No walking? No children? I'm not sure.

Then, we found the crowds at the Notre dame!

Our museum pass did not let us skip any lines here, as the long line was for security and it snaked for quite a while. However since it was Sunday, there was a separate entrance, so I just popped my head in there for a minute and called it a day. I had read that if we were going to see just one, the gorgeous Saint Chapelle was actually much prettier, and we had seen that one.

So instead we headed to the Crypt. No line to get in here and it was pretty interesting

The crypt actually shows ancient ruins they discovered fairly recently (60's and 70's) that show how Paris has been highly occupied for 2000+ years.

After that interlude (we were only in there about 25-30 minutes) we decided to take a walk around the back of the Notre Dame in search of a Holocaust memorial that Marina and Erik had mentioned.

I also took the opportunity to get some neat shots with the Notre Dame in the background

There was a small playground nearby so Aria played there for a few minutes before we moved on.

We found the memorial but alas it was closed on Sundays! However we did get a nice family photo on a bridge after spotting a couple who wanted to get their pic taken and they returned the favor.

We saw the backside of the ND

Then it was past Aria's nap time. We found a small café with sandwiches and decided that Andrew would run back to find the car, and Aria and I would wait there (after we checked a map to look at one-way streets to be sure he could get to where we were!). I noted that 45 minutes went by and we still had not seen him! At that point I tried calling his cell phone - we hadn't gotten a plan for his cell but he had it just in case. Well he didn't pick up, so we just continued to wait and he did finally come. Phew! At that point it was WAY beyond Aria's nap time and she was definitely tired (had I known it would take so long, I would have put her down in the stroller!). Since she fell right asleep in the car seat, we didn't want to go straight back to the apartment and get her up, so instead we decided to drive around Paris. I set the GPS to take us to the Sacre Coeur, which is a really neat church on a very steep hill you have to climb. With that destination in mind, we started driving. Since it was Sunday there really wasn't much traffic and the city wasn't tough to navigate at all.

We saw the Moulin Rouge

Some beautiful architecture

And then....we ended up really far from where the Sacre Coeur should be...and I realized the GPS had the wrong address for it. Whoops! So I did a quick internet search, plugged that in, and we ended up on the highway that circles Paris. At that point we decided to cut our losses and head back to the apartment lol. This time we were able to take the elevator straight up to our floor and then head into the apartment. We relaxed for a few minutes and decided what to do with our evening.

Originally I had reservations at Le Train Bleu, remember this?

Well, we weren't really feeling up to driving around again nor spending 200 euro on dinner, so we nixed those plans and instead decided to head to the park by the Eiffel Tower (our apartment overlooked this park) where there are playgrounds and a carousel, and then head to dinner locally. A quick Trip Advisor search noted a pizza place just down the street from us. The reviews said food was great but service pushy, we decided to chance it...

 

[Imagineer5]

First up was an afternoon at the playground-

This one was free and there were actually two separate playgrounds across from each other.

Then there was a carousel nearby (around 2 euros for a ride). Aria really wanted to be on an outside horse so I sort of watched the locals to see how they did it and just stalked a horse and grabbed aria quickly and she got one.

She wasn't able to get a ring on her stick by herself but the guy put one on mid-ride. She wasn't happy that she didn't do it herself though, lol!

After that we headed out to the lawn to sit and let Aria play with her new toy - she had picked one out the night before on Rue Vavin. It was a flying fairy and the open park was a good place for her to play with it.

I had an embarrassing moment. I was sitting in the stroller bc the grass was slightly damp, and it wasn't that level so I actually toppled to the ground. It was one of those moments you quickly get up and look around to see if anyone saw. Well I know many saw and I felt like a beached whale at that point with my big belly. With that, we decided to head to dinner lol!


We got there and were the only ones there (French do tend to eat much later, we were always at the opening of restaurants). Our waitress was fantastic! She asked Aria to draw her a picture of the sun, and she would get a lollipop afterwards.

Aria took her job very seriously

They also brought us a bowl of olives to snack on. Like restaurants in Italy, they don't bring out crushed red pepper, instead it is an olive oil mixed with pepper and SO good, so we were excited to have that again here.

We ordered our pizzas and for some reason ordered Aria her very own lol

They don't have pepperoni here (which is Aria's favorite) so we got her ham and she wasn't very thrilled with it but did have a slice

Mine was a goat cheese and spinach pizza. I forgot that they crust the goat cheese much like brie - and I can't stand that, so I spent a little time taking off that moldy crust (EWW) well once I got past that, it was very good (esp with that spicy oil).

Aria's meal came with some ice cream, so she got that AND the lollipop

And we ended up taking the rest of the pizza to go since they had pizza boxes.

After dinner we walked the short distance back to our apartment, did some laundry as we wouldn't have a washer/dryer at Disneyland Paris (next stop), and then headed to bed. We still had 1 more full day in Paris ahead!

 

[cindianne320]

Sounds like a great day in Paris! Can't wait to hear about Disneyland and your last full day in Paris!

 

[Dugette]

We also saw this odd sign. Still unsure what it means? No holding hands? No walking? No children? I'm not sure.

What a bizarre sign! I cannot figure it out, but I think that Aria might need to get rid of her dress if she intends to hold hands with an adult.

I also took the opportunity to get some neat shots with the Notre Dame in the background

Cute shot!

There was a small playground nearby so Aria played there for a few minutes before we moved on.

Aw, Aria got to teeter tot with Maya.

However we did get a nice family photo on a bridge after spotting a couple who wanted to get their pic taken and they returned the favor.

Very nice photo!

Originally I had reservations at Le Train Bleu, remember this?

What a gorgeous restaurant!

I had an embarrassing moment. I was sitting in the stroller bc the grass was slightly damp, and it wasn't that level so I actually toppled to the ground. It was one of those moments you quickly get up and look around to see if anyone saw. Well I know many saw and I felt like a beached whale at that point with my big belly. With that, we decided to head to dinner lol!

Oh, geez, sorry that happened!

They also brought us a bowl of olives to snack on. Like restaurants in Italy, they don't bring out crushed red pepper, instead it is an olive oil mixed with pepper and SO good, so we were excited to have that again here.

Mmmm, sounds good!

They don't have pepperoni here (which is Aria's favorite) so we got her ham and she wasn't very thrilled with it but did have a slice

Just tell her it's how the French make pepperoni. Izzy is still a weirdo who insists that she doesn't like pizza, despite having never tried it. She is certain she will like it when she grows up, though.

 

[cindianne320]

Ok- your sign had me perplexed, but my googling tells me it may mean
"End of Mandatory Pedestrian Path"