Paris – Day 7 can be found here.
Yet another leisurely morning – I think we could get used to this.
And another round of delicious, fluffy, butter croissant and jam. Yum.
Then off to the coffee shop for our latest round of Dungeons & Dragons. The kids defeated the last BBEG (big bad evil guy) in Lost Mines of Phandelver, as well as two delicious hot chocolates. I managed to eat a very chocolate-heavy cappuccino without getting (much of) a chocolate mustache. Success!
We then went out for lunch at La Fontaine du Mars, one of the oldest bistros in Paris.
We’d neglected to check the menu before we went, so we weren’t aware that they didn’t really have much of a lunch menu. But thankfully the menu included steak frites – a continued favourite of our daughter, despite it rapidly becoming ‘the tajin of Paris’.
(Our son will tolerate it so long as there isn’t a cheeseburger available.)
Here I made the mistake of ordering what I thought to be a small glass of wine, only to discover that I had in fact ordered a pot of wine, which is roughly 2/3 of a bottle. (Quite the deal at a mere 14 Euro.)
And this on the day when we were planning to walk three hours across Paris. Oops.
Both the lunch and the wine were delicious. I had the duck confit:
My wife had the chicken:
And both kids had the steak frites:
We then went back to the apartment for a bit, spotting some street art along the way…
…Before heading out to visit Napoleon’s tomb at Invalides:
Annoyingly, despite ordering tickets online – and paying a surcharge for this privilege – we did not actually get the kids tickets e-mailed to us. So that meant we had to go line up for tickets afterall. Thankfully, the line was moving quickly so it added less than 15 minutes to the process – but very frustrating when all the other museums in Paris seem to have figured this out.
Even so, it was a lovely site to visit:
The Dome was the tallest building in Paris until the construction of the Eiffel tower
The tomb of the older brother of Napoleon I
A tribute to Marshal Fuchs
The tomb of Napoleon I – it contains a nest of 5 coffins, including one of soft iron, another of mahogany, two of lead and one of ebony, along with Napoleon himself dressed in his colonel’s uniform.
After, we went to visit the war museum. We didn’t have much time to spare, so we focused on the French resistance and the free French army:
The section on the French resistance was very well done.
I particularly enjoyed seeing some of the covert wireless sets:
The stamps used for forging documents:
As well as the supply canisters that were dropped by parachute:
The free French army display was also interesting, but somehow lacked the same impact as the section regarding the resistance.
We would’ve liked to have gone on to see the army museum – particularly the section on World War I and II – but we had learned that the kids could only do an hour or so at any given museum, and we were rapidly approaching that.
So we decided to head off toward Jardin de Luxembourg instead. During which, we had the very authentic French experience of having our journey affected by a protest:
On the way, we stopped at Arnauld Larher for some macarons and gelato, and then went off to Dilettantes Cave a Champagne, which our guide Marie Alicia had recommended during our chocolate and pastry tour.
It was something of a hike, but I’m glad we went – we met up with the owner, Aurore, who helped us pick two excellent bottles of champagne. One was a 100% Chardonnay champagne with hints of apple (45 Euro), and the second was a lightly oaked pinot noir champagne (75 Euro).
Aurore gave us instructions on how to store them – to wait at least a month after our flight before opening, and to ensure they were opened at least 45 minutes prior to drinking. She also said that they would cellar very well for an extended period. We didn’t have the heart to tell her that we were planning to drink them once we got back to our apartment (well, over the next few nights).
With that mission accomplished, we wandered through the beautiful side street of Crescent du Commerce Saint-Andre:
And finally made it to Le Jardin du Luxembourg, some three hours after we initially set out form our apartment.
We had all earned a much-deserved macaron break at this stage:
We wandered the gardens for a bit, hoping to find a spot where the kids could play tag. Lovely to see all the leaves coming in.
Much of the park was gravel, but we did find this:
What an incredible surprise for our last full day in Paris.
We sent the kids on ahead, only to discover that we needed to pay an admission fee before they’d be able to enter. We also heard the phrase, “Closing in 10 minutes.”
But thankfully we were able to stay for close to 30 minutes.
My son and daughter particularly enjoyed the seesaw – there’s something of a size difference there, but they were able to find some other children who wanted to play with. Thankfully, my son had enough French to invite them to join them.
It was a highlight of the trip – I only wish we’d known this was here earlier so we could have visited more than once. Ah, well – next time.
Then back on the road, and another 40 minute walk before we made it home. Despite the fact that we didn’t really leave the apartment until 1 pm, we still ended up walking more than 20,000 steps.
After our massive dinner out, we decided to keep it simple for dinner that evening. The kids had baguette sandwiches, while my wife and I elected to pick up some pho from Restaurant Dong Phat on Rue Malar.
It was absolutely delicious – just what we wanted after a long day’s walk.
Then it was time to send the kids to bed, and enjoy our first bottle of champagne – which promptly exploded after being shaken roughly 10,000 times. But there was still plenty left to enjoy. And it was also fantastic.
Early to bed tonight – we need to be up bright and early at 7 am tomorrow to make our half-day kids’ tour of Versailles.
Continue reading Paris – Day 9.