Record heatwave meets history-making fire
Paris, France, probably on everyone’s bucket list on any tour of Europe’s favorite and must-do cities. We were all excited, especially Lara. The small list of places she wanted to go had the Eiffel Tower in second place to Pompeii, Italy. The boys were already familiar with the landmark and even recognize it today when they see it on the TV or in a picture. Kristi and I had both seen Paris before and boy oh boy we were in for a massive culture shock in the City that is known as “Europe’s Most Romantic City”.
We were also meeting up again with our wonderful traveling family friends The Lea’s from San Jose, California, who we had met in Thailand and spent time with during our Rome visit. It was their last stop before heading home after a year so their mood was somewhat mixed, we were only one step behind them. We had the UK after this and then back to the USA.
The journey to Paris from Freiburg was only our second location transfer by train. To be honest this type of transfer is so much easier than flying. Today the trains are comfortable, affordable if you buy them well upfront and extremely reliable. We had a change of trains and probably within three hours were sitting on the platform of The Garde de Est.
We decided on a larger accommodation option a little further outside of the city center. This gave us two bedrooms, a garden, a kitchen, a dining table, and an affordable suburb. The offset for this was we needed a transit pass that was again pretty reasonable at about $10 a day for Kristi and I. So having listened to my lovely Wife speaking fluent German for two weeks, I marched up to the train ticket counter and, in French, ordered two adults, one child, and two baby, seven day passes. What did I get? two adults, one child, and two baby seven-day passes. I was super proud of myself.
Paris was experiencing record heat, touching 40 degrees C. This meant marching around the city in this heat was out of the question. Carrying all of our luggage from the final train station to our accommodation, was probably about a mile. With all of our luggage and 40 degrees, we were sweltering. We were thankful our digs ended up being a basement with electric shutters, it was dark and cool.
Because our landlord had twin girls about the boy’s age, there were plenty of toys to play with. Ashy always wanted somewhere for his “moo moo” to go and soon the little guy was stuffed in the seat of the kids ride on.
The first stop for us was to go and meet up with our good friends the Lea’s. Lara had missed their twin kids the same age as her and she was dying for a sleepover and kids stuff time.
We all decided to take a picnic down to the river and just hang out. The weather was cooler in the shade and folks were just enjoying the area and doing the same. It was great to catch up with them again and swop stories since seeing them in Italy and of course get their perspective on going back to the USA.
Lara was having a sleepover so Kristi and I decided it was time to get the boys to bed after such an early start. We decided to walk over the river to a station close to the Notre Dame. The fire had almost destroyed it, but on walking past the famous front entrance it seemed as if nothing had actually happened. A more detailed visit to the Catherdral was, however, definitely not on the cards…..such a shame and wonderful to see the French getting behind it and rebuilding it. Something New Zealand’s Christchurch council could learn a thing or two from, here, after nearly ten years the famous Cathedral remains in ruins in the city center.
Day two we had arranged a lovely riverboat trip down the Seine with our friends. We met them in the blistering heat and took the boat to see the sights.
An hour later, we were back after seeing lots of lovely sights and had the rest of the day to try and find shade and coolness. Lara, again went off with the Lea’s so Kristi and I took to Google and found out that because of the heat the authorities were opening the water features around the City to anyone that fancied a dip. We were heading for the water.
The water was so refreshing we just didn’t want to get out and it seemed that half of Paris had the same idea. The boys were down to their underpants and they thought it was hilarious.
After our cool off we walked from The Eiffel Tower to The Arc de Triomphe, not that far on a normal day, but at 40 degrees, a few hundred yards was going to be a killer pushing the boys.
The Arc de Triomphe in all is glory is one of Paris’s best-known landmarks. In my opinion, best seen from the ground. Lara and I took the subway underneath the madness that was the roundabout to take a look.
We enjoyed dinner at our friend’s accommodation, a gorgeous old three-story home close to the river with acres of history and decided to call it a night.
For our last full day in Paris, we decided to divide and conquer. We all wanted to see the glass pyramid of The Louvre and the girls wanted to go and check out the Musee d’Orsay.
The pyramid is lovely, looking down into the museum’s entry gallery below. However, the boys and art museums were not going to be a good mix so I decided the boys and I would go and explore Paris, and boy Daddy could not have found a better place to go!
A park full of carnival rides was an instant success. The first ride was a racing car ride that had Charlie’s grinning from ear to ear. It allowed them their first ride alone, a bit scary for me, but this opportunity gave me another one of those favorite pictures of the entire trip…….Just look at the smile of those faces below.
This ride gave them so much joy, it gave me as much joy to let them do it again. This time, the video was on.
The park gave them fun houses that I could not get them out of and their very first water flume. We spent a couple of hours here and the boys had a blast.
Lara and Kristi, meanwhile, were checking out some of Paris’s best art and were having a great time.
Now I mentioned at the start of this blog that Paris was not what either of us had remembered. Unfortunately, this beautiful city just didn’t feel safe, anywhere. Mainly in and around the large railway stations. There would be groups of men just hanging around, not bums as such, just men hanging around doing nothing and at all times of the day. I would never in a million years allow either of my girls to walk alone or even together around the city. So, be careful, maybe it is safe, but neither of us felt it. This feeling was never felt before by either of us and at different times but we both felt unsafe here.
Well, that was our few days over in Paris, we had an early Eurostar train to catch to London the next day. This meant a really early start to walk to the local Metro station for our 35-minute train to The Garde Du Nord. Luckily, the train timetable was accurate (not all the train times actually arrived, so be careful). We had said goodbye to our traveling friends, knowing we would see them soon in San Jose.
The Eurostar experience was well worth it, easy, clean, quiet and lots of space. We had booked almost the day the tickets became available and therefore were able to pick a table. The journey to London takes no time at all.
Check out the Paris gallery here
The next stop, is our last official stop, London, saying goodbye to friends and family in Staffordshire, Harry Potter play and lots of sightseeing.
Too bad it was so hot but what a memory. Many verge large cities are feeling more unsafe but having children makes one more on edge.