Night 1 and Day 2 Morning

Our family doesn’t like to be on-the-go at a fast pace when visiting cities. My quandary lies in visiting a HUGE city, deciding what to visit, how to avoid crowds, managing expectations, riding public transportation, and having four different opinions. 

We opted for 2 ticketed events per day, one in the morning and one in the evening to bookend our days. This allowed for meandering, cafe food breaks, stores to visit, and the slower pace. We also stayed on the eastern side of Paris, allowing us to retreat from crowds, which saved us money in hotel rates, yet caused us to ride the metro longer each day.  Night 1 we arrived after the kids’ school day. This was our first time traveling late on trains. We are not fans of the end of the day train bathrooms and overall cleanliness. We found our hotel, and walked to a local Italian restaurant that we all enjoyed.

Day 2 began with Eiffel Tower elevator tickets to floor 2 and the top.

Zach was not impressed. He thought it would be higher. It is 3x the size of the Kings Dominion Eiffel Tower. We rode to level 2 and walked around. We rode to the top and walked around.

We rode back down to level 2. Then took the stairs down to level 1. The boys continued down while Mazie and I visited gift shops. Her love of giving gifts found us buying an Eiffle keychain and a baguette shaped pen for Zach. We located the boys from level 1, then took to the stairs.