The Hype

On our last day in Edinburgh the kids visited the pool one more time (intensifying the rash it gave Alice on her face), we hit up the National Museum of Scotland (whaddup, Dolly the sheep?) and had a nice sunny picnic in The Meadows before trying every piece of playground equipment within a 1km radius.



Then we hopped an EasyJet flight to Paris, narrowly avoided the scam taxis at CDG airport, and landed at our hotel around 10pm. There was still time to nip out and grab a 4 euro bottle of wine and some chocolate eclairs from a patisserie before things closed (do they close?); there was time to marvel at the novelty of being able to get a really good quality baked good so late, and of buying wine at a regular food store, and of having the shop attendant offer to open the wine for you because your hotel room probably doesn't have a wine opener. Within an hour, Brian and I understood the hype about Paris, a city we resisted for so long, for no good reason. There is a real "f$#& it" attitude here that I can get behind: not overly rule-bound, trusting that others will treat you the way you'd like to be treated. I'm sure it's different, living here, but it immediately had a different feel than the other places we've been.

We woke up and commenced the hunt for a Pain au Chocolat, finding some within a few blocks. This was at the top of A's list.


They were delicious, but we all think we should try again tomorrow just in case we can top these ones. Once we had breakfast and coffee on board, we walked to Notre Dame Cathedral. By 9:30am it was already hopping. We didn't go in, knowing we could only get 1 or 2 long waits out of the kids in one day, and we predicted using them later. 

We hopped a double-decker hop-on-hop-off bus (and bought the kids a nutella crepe while we waited) and got ourselves to Arc du Triomphe. Again, we observed it from the ground, saving our lineups and waits for later. We walked down Champs Elysees, had a cafe lunch (there's an appropriate amount of walking and time passing between these meals, rest assured). Walking and bussing allowed us to see the Eiffel Tower (we'll really visit it tomorrow), walk around the Louvre pyramid, and go to Pompidou where we took in the Paris Noir, and exhibition of the works of Black artists who lived and/or created in Paris from the 1940s to now. 




In between and afterwards we just wandered, spending much of our time in Le Marais. Without realizing it, we walked over 23,000 steps. It's easy to do here; there's always something interesting just ahead of you.







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