Out With The Kids: Sunday in Paris

We pushed ourselves and our daughter pretty hard today. We were faced with the possibility of this being the only sunny/clear/pleasant day during our week in Paris. So, naturally we wanted to see the outdoor stuff and ride up to the top of the Eiffel Tower (and see the city awash in daylight and not soggy with rain). We were amazed by how well our daughter handled the day. She took no nap at all. We walked for miles and miles inside the Louvre and outside on the city streets. We barely ate a proper meal and drank water and juice while moving - and still she hardly had a complaint. Yes, we know how lucky we are - this plan could have gone horribly wrong! As it was, we had a wonderful day.

We bought a 5 day pass for the BatoBus - a water taxi type of service along the Seine. The pass was 16 Euro (compared with 10 Euro for a single 1 hour non-stop tour on the other boats). There are seven stops along the Seine and you are able to ride as often as you wish. Not a bad deal. The one downside (so far) is the lack of robust outdoor space (which the proper "tour" boats have plenty of). It was quite warm in the hothouse-like glass dome boat. I imagine this will become less of a complaint when the rain and tempature begin to fall.

We saw the outside of Notre Dame (the line to enter was insanely long - we will save that for a rainy morning).

The pictures show the beautiful blue sky overhead (a change from the morning shots outside the Louvre). From there we relaxed and lingered for a spell behind the famous Cathedral and saw a couple of young lads playing acoustic guitar and then a New Orleans styled American jazz band playing in the center of a street, just a stone's-through from Notre Dame. We stopped and listened to the end of their last set, allowed our girl to toss a few coins into their sax and trombone cases laying on the ground in front of them and spoke with the singer/guitar player for a bit - they are called The Wedding Band.

After the music, we hopped back on the boat at the Hotel de Ville stop and took it to the Eiffel Tower.

We needed to get up there today and so even though the line was long, we waited and waited...until finally we were granted access to the lift and rose to the 2nd level...and then to the very top. Wow, it was a lovely time of day to be looking out onto Paris.

The sun was heading south in the west so there was no glare when focusing on the famous sections of the city, to the east of the Tower.
As we descended, the Tower and city lights were becoming illuminated. Dusk in Paris is a rather breathtaking time of day.