This morning I got up to my alarm at 6am and went on a run in the park. I was nervous about falling on my sore knees, so I stayed in the park and didn't look at my phone map once. We left our apartment at 8am, rode public transit for a solid 45 minutes and got off the last bus at the base of the Eiffel Tower.
Family Eiffel Selfie!
But first, some tranquility from my early morning park run.
Sunlight filtering through trees: my one weakness.
Sleepyheads: Kids with jet lag are equally sad and hilarious.
[Journal, continued]
The Eiffel Tower was filling up fast, but we managed it all--line, up, and down-- in just under two hours. It was our first big LINE waiting of the trip. (no museum pass there). It was not our usual to go to the biggest touristy hotspot in the high season and join the throngs squeezing onto the Eiffel Tower. We prefer the less-crowded routes. In fact I had a minor tourist-existential-crisis while standing in that line, haha. But we had to take the kids up the Eiffel Tower! The kids did great, walking up the 700-ish stairs up to the second level (then an elevator to the very top--no stairs past level 2). Leslie rode the elevator from the bottom (no stairs for Grama) and her line was so long we were coming down by the time she got onto her elevator. Since it was so crowded and she's done it before, she didn't end up going all the way to the top. She came back down after reaching the second level, and joined us at the bottom.
What would it be like standing under the Eiffel Tower in the rain? Would it provide any shelter at all?
I had to WORK to get these few crazy pictures. The kids were not in the mood.
I enjoyed the encouraging posters that were hung every few stories.
Climbing up: Rose and Amber ran up the stairs so fast they were quickly out of sight. Jeff went with them, and I stayed with Jay.
I measured the journey up the Eiffel stairs on my watch, and it is a third of a mile of climbing steps to get to the elevator on level 2. It took us about 20 minutes.
Jay does NOT like heights, and I could barely get him to stand against the railing for this picture with the Champs de Mars park in the background.
Looking up from the second level.
This was the norm for pictures that day.
We had to wait in another line on the second level to get to the elevator. It cracks me up when kids sit down anywhere, because I have so many distinct memories of sitting down wherever I could as a kid too.
LINE.
Amber really liked getting tickets. She became a pro at feeding her metro ticket into the machine and taking it out again to walk through the barrier, and she especially appreciated the pretty picture on the Eiffel Tower tickets.
Le Trocadero from the top of the tower.
Pointy shadow across the Seine. The kids wanted to stick their arms out so they could have an arm shadow at the top of the Eiffel shadow. I had to explain why that didn't work.
Family selfie at the top of the Eiffel Tower!! YES!
Descent
Hanging out waiting for Grama Leslie to join us at the bottom of the tower.
[journal entry, continued]
Everyone was too hungry and hot and tired for us to go around to the Champ des Mars for some classic far-away Eiffel pictures, so we took a quick up-close selfie and then went to the overpriced crepe stand just outside the bulletproof Eiffel glass. 30 Euros later, we were all eating crepes and drinking expensive water. After that lunch, we let the kids ride the nearby carousel. They had fun, and I managed to swallow my tourist-trap-phobia just enough to get through the experience, haha. Jay rode a horse--although he wanted to ride the tiger, he didn't know if it would go up and down like the horses so he stayed on the horse. Rose sat in a teacup saucer that she could spin herself by pulling on the handle in the middle. Amber sat in a stationary black train. I was surprised that Amber didn't choose an up-and-down horse, but she was thrilled with her train so it worked. It's always interesting to see what each kid chooses to ride on a carousel.
We decided to rest in the shady grassy area between the Eiffel Tower and the Seine for half an hour to recover our energy. The kids watched a show on a phone, Leslie laid on a bench, and Jeff and I laid in the grass together with his backpack as our pillow, chatting and soaking in the tranquility that always comes from lying directly on the ground. The tree above us was leafy and beautiful. The cars on the nearby street were not too frequent or loud, and we enjoyed our peaceful rest time.
After our break, we caught a bus to Les Invalides and saw Napoleon Bonaparte's grave and looked at the Ancient Armory museum there (musee d'armee I think it's called). The kids perked up a lot and really got into looking at all of the medieval knight armor and weaponry. Amber fell in love with Louis XIII's childhood miniature armor set. It was so much fun looking at the museum with excited engaged kids! Every other second, they called out "look at THIS ONE, Mommy!" and I'd go look at another rusty weapon or crazy knight helmet. It was fun.
Crepe lunch--mine was ham and cheese and actually ended up being filling enough to warrant the 7 euros it cost us.
Carousel time!
Resting.
Sunlight through tree branches--still my favorite.
At Les Invalides
That's Napoleon Bonaparte's grave behind them.
Who doesn't love a nice ornate domed ceiling?
Jay, checking to see if this suit of armor would fit him.
Amber with her favorite child-sized suit of armor.
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