Paris, Paris

Paris (July 21-29), city of lights, city of love, city of pee

And don´t miss: The Penningtons in Parisian swimwear. What it´s all about - the sights

... and the cafes

But not the motorways. Jac: "We now feel like experienced right hand drivers & no longer do I feel the urge to grip the seat & flinch every time another car approaches. We use the very fast motorway at an eyewatering toll of 18 euros ($35 I think) to get to Paris from Calais in an easy 2 ½ hours. " Whereupon we take 2 more hours to find the house we´ve done a swap with.

Mate John joins us and we picnic by the Seine, a nose-holding experience some of the time

Oui, another big old church, with big old windows

Enough of that, time to hit the beach - the Paris Plage in fact.

Jac: "The north bank of the Seine is set up with a beach-like theme (Paris Plage). Part of it was made up with imported sand & deck chairs, spent a good hour there enjoying the first of many gelatos."

And why go in the Pompidou Centre for one of the world´s top 2 displays of modern art when you can watch the bubbleman outside?

Parisiens within the inner 20 arrondisements look down on the outer suburbs but we found our house swap quite amenable, merci.

The Natural History Museum - more a taxidermist´s heaven but in a grand old building, and the carousel had some interesting rides

Jac writes: "I’m not sure if the photo will make it past censorship (it has, see left) to get on the blog but if you see no other photo this one is a must. We find a pool which is really an exercise pool attached to a gym, friendly enough staff & cheap prices so in we trot. Once inside we discover the strict speedo & swimming cap rule. I bow out but brave Phil dons John´s speedos & a machine bought swimming cap. The 5 of them were truly a lovely site bought tears to my eyes in fact."

Jac: "So we get to Versaille on a sunny Saturday afternoon to find of course that quite a few others have the same idea. We queue mins just to get into the carpark, then John foolishly/gallantly offers to wait in the queue (that´s part of the line above) to get tickets while we eat our picnic & ferry him food. No rush, that queue took 2 hours !! The kids & I had plenty of time to queue 20 mins to get to the toilet. Finally we get into this truly stunning ENORMOUS palace. After the first 5 rooms of walking with several others the mini Penningtons were beginning to stage their own revolution."

The grandeur....

The scale...

The impact ...

"The most boring day of my life" - Sam

Nothing relieves boredom like sorbet and glace

...or a high ride at the mini/cheapish - 2 euro 10 a ride and 2.90 to get in - inner-city (Bois de Boulogne) theme park, the Jardin dÁcclimatation

Not steam but fine-mist sprayers, used not just in the parks but in some restaurants on hot days

But we didn´t need sprayers for our main meal out, at the Cafe de Champs near the Eiffel Tower...

... We had the rubbishmen instead.
Jac: "John disappears into Paris for a couple of hours while we go home bath & change & meet up with him for our dinner out. Really great café very busy, outside of course & the interruption of the rubbish truck pulling up next to our table and emptying the neighbourhood rubbish bins only added to the excitement. We left the table and walked to the Eiffel Tower. It’s the one sight of many that I will remember, beautifully lit up warm still night, loads of people of course. Really one of those incredible moments, we are really here. We’d left it a bit late so didn’t have time to go up that night but caught the tube & stumbled into bed at midnight."
PS: we also had a wee old man who sat at our table while John waited, and did not move when we turned up, even though Phil didn´t have a seat, but sat, smoking his pipe and drinking his wine and saying nothing, till eventually the waiter found him his own table. Letting the tourists know what´s what.

Heights of sophistication. (Just plain lamb and probably from NZed, no escargot or frogs´legs much to Sam´s disappointment.)

And yawning gulfs while awaiting Le Tube

The staircase up inside the Arc de Triomphe (9 euro an adult, kids free).

Sam and Ellie´s memory of the Arc: "We dropped banana lollies down on the people walking underneath." Call it revenge for the Rainbow Warrior.

We did eventually get up Paris´most famous landmark (64 euro for a family to get to the top).

This, at left, is not it, but the amazing dome ceiling of one of Paris´huge shopping malls, Galeries Lafayette, as amazing as the queue inside for the 300 euro handbags by Prada or some such. I did not let Jac out of my sight for a second.
Jac: "Still funny to see people that must have several more zeros in their weekly income than we ever will."

At left, in Paris´biggest toyshop.
Lara: "Hamly´s in London was much better cos we got to go on all the toys."
Jac: "Here is a true sign of just how far our normal parenting rules have gone. After getting off the tube exhausted at 7pm we stop at the local, yes you guessed it, MACDONALDS. The kids have not entered a MacDonalds in the entire time we’ve been away but 7pm in Paris, place of beautiful food they sit down to a giant sized McFlurry while we drink can you believe it MacDonalds coffee. BUT after they had eaten their icecream they then spent the next hour playing tag or touché with some random French kids in the playground. If you ask them about it playing tag is one of their top highlights of Paris. No language needed just a whole lot of fun with people their own size."

The irony - that turned out to be our only sit-down coffee the entire time in Paris.

Chill time, no mind if the Asterix and Tintin are in French.

True art, in a boulangerie in Montmartre.

And true style on the street after.

Baguette dipped in vinagairette became a staple - how´s that for sophisticated! We weren´t so taken with the NZ$1.40 little macaroons in red, green and brown



Montmartre itself, and Sacre Couer, which gets joint top prize with the south bank of the Seine for smelliest footpath.

More of those cooling mist-sprayers, at Paris Plage, where we had another swimming cap moment at the temporary pool set up beside the Seine for hot Parisiens (it was about 30 degrees this day)

The girls.

More busker watching at the Pompidou.

This one´s specially for Uncle Mike, from the steps of the Royal Opera - don´t worry Eva, your dad won´t be president of the Big L club forever.

Jac: "Leaving Paris by car ended up being almost as frustrating as getting in, and would you believe it we ended up back at our very first picnic place ....Made it onto the ferry where the kids 2nd highlight was, watching buzz light year movie & getting a bought ferry dinner (even had mushy peas). Was nice to be home we don’t think we could have maintained the pace anymore. The list of things we still want to do in Paris is long but will have to wait til we go back in maybe another 10 years."

Au revoir