During our trip to London last month, Bridgette, Chung Ma Ma, and I took the Eurostar train to Paris for 2 days. What an adventure that turned out to be!
It was an easy 2 hour train ride from London to Paris, and we backpacked our way there to make it easier for us to get around. Since the well-being of an 80 year old + a 4 year old fell upon me, I made sure I was on guard at all times. I don’t think I ever made such a big effort to read maps!
We arrived in Paris at 10am, so we couldn’t check into our hotel yet. We took the Metro to Tuileries Gardens, a public park near the Louvre. It was a bit chilly that morning, but we still enjoyed the beauty of the gardens, and Chung Ma Ma especially appreciated the amount of chairs that were always readily available for us when we needed to take a break.
We walked the narrow side streets of Paris and found ourselves a small bistro for lunch. Their fried goat cheese appetizer was out of this world!!!! My nicoise salad was just mediocre though. Chung Ma Ma had a lovely salmon pasta, and Bridgette indulged in her favorite french onion soup.
Everything was so expensive in both London and Paris. To give you an idea, that french onion soup costed USD $20!
After lunch, we continued browsing around the area and eventually arrived at the Louvre. We didn’t go inside, as it would have been too much walking for both Chung Ma Ma and Bridgette.
That evening, we had to drag our aching feet back to the hotel, but not before we had a delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant nearby!
I seriously think Bridgette could survive happily on just bread and butter. That was her favorite part of every meal!
We got a good night sleep on our first night in Paris, and woke up the next morning ready for more sightseeing. We started out with a river cruise, which was awesome because it took us around to some of the major icons such as the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Boy did that save us a lot of running around on our own! For a short trip to Paris like ours, this was definitely the best option to consider.
One of Bridgette’s favorite part of the river cruise was going underneath all the bridges…and there were plenty of them!
After the cruise, we headed to the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees. We had lunch at another nice little bistro, and did what the French appeared to enjoy a lot: people watching.
After lunch, we window shopped along Champs Elysees, and then finally….we came upon Laduree, the beautiful pastry shop that I have been dying to see! Bridgette and I eagerly dashed inside, and were both mesmerized by the extraordinary desserts in front of us.
Although we were still pretty full from lunch at the time, it just seemed wrong to leave Laduree empty-handed, so despite the long line, I allowed Bridgette to pick one giant macaron and one pastry of her choice.
We eventually finished walking Champs Elysees, and were once again in dire need to rest our aching feet. Fortunately, we came across a small park just in time, with plenty of seat areas. Bridgette was ecstatic to see another carousel as well!
On our final day in Paris, we went to the famous Luxembourg Gardens and enjoyed the warm, beautiful weather there with a casual lunch and plenty of time at the playground that charged 1.50 Euro per person!
We had some time to kill before our train ride back to London, so I got to shop a little bit at the cute boutiques near the park. Since we didn’t have any luggage space at all, I couldn’t really buy much, but I did manage to buy two pair of shoes for Bridgette! 🙂
And that was the end of our remarkable two day trip to Paris….
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