A quelques jours à Paris

We have now left Paris after a great week there. In hindsight it was probably a day or two too long given the weather. The kids have turned out to be brilliant travelers, which has made everything so much easier.

We visited the Lourve and it was stunning. The kids were very excited to see the Mona Lisa. It’s a little bit of a sensory overload to be honest , but by far the piece I liked most was ‘Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss’. There is a photo of it up on my facebook page and I will try to get around to uploading it here. We were lucky as the snow and cloud disappeared before we left the Louvre and it was great to see the sun again.

We were not so lucky the next day as it was snowing heavily and close to -5. We left to see Musee D’Armee and it was so cold that we decided to buy tickets for one of the tourist buses that goes to all the major sites. As we drove down Champs Elysee we decided to jump out which was not a great idea. It was really crowded as it was Valentine’s day weekend, and there was also a Ireland vs France soccer match on. We jumped on the next bus that came past that was a double decker with a open roof. We were freezing as there were no seats below, eventually we had to go downstairs and stand up. Luckily we got a seat at the next stop. By that time we were all hungry and getting warm after being outside so we decided to catch the bus around the whole loop, and see the Army Museum on Valentine’s day. We saw the l'Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, La Madeline, the Ritz in Paris (which is where Diana stayed before she died), and many other sites. We ended up the day at a great restaurant just around the corner from our flat.
Valentine’s day started out beautifully with Callum making me breakfast in bed. We headed out to catch the metro to Invalides, and thankfully a little sun peaked through the clouds at us. I know most people would think that spending Valentine’s day in Paris visting the army museum was not the most romantic thing, but it actually was as we are both history buffs. It was moving reading about the resistance fighters, and Maya and I read at a interactive display about a female resistance member. Seeing the Nazi uniforms and the Star of David used to mark Jews was a little shocking, as we are so used to seeing displays about the war in the Pacific, and the Japanese Army. Unfortunately our camera ran out of battery despite being charged that morning so we don’t have many photo’s.