Ready to go early this morning. I mean vacay early. Up at qtr to 8. Shower nice. Get the sweaty grime of Paris off of us. Sounds nice, no? Beat my adult children out of bed. Not so shocking. At all. I was clean, dressed and fed before they opened their eyes. Quel shock, no? No. See I speak Frenchish.
Emily is right behind me. Kids still in bed. I am sure Michael will jump up and be ready by 9. He is always ready on time no matter what. Carly and Marika will drag up late.
Today we are on schedule at 1130 for the Louvre. Something to look fwd to. Emily has always wanted to visit here. A lifelong dream realized. Hope it holds up to expectations.
I have been sitting here an hour waiting on the three children. They are damn slow. And Michael is always on a mission. That does not seem to extend today to getting ready.
Finally out the door at 935. A quick walk to the Metro. The Metro lines run the same as the lines in London, similar equipment, so it has a familiiar feel. The lines go everywhere in Paris and the run with the train system so you can go back and forth between each. One ticket. Not even 30 euro per person on a 4 day ticket. I like that part.
We stopped at a small “Sandwicheria” outside the train station, on the way in. They have croissants and other food. We stocked up and ate in the train. I have to say, we have had a few croissants and pastries here. They are markedly better than those made in the US. Makes no sense. We as Americans always adopt other cultures food and make it better. Why not pastries? How hard can it be?
We took our usual Metro line into town. About 40 minutes. Today we are going to the Louvre. Everyone’s favorite Paris destination. And I mean everyone. It was marginally crowded when we arrived. By the the time we left it was a complete madhouse. Glad I left.
The Louvre is huge. And there are an insane amount of exhibits here. After a couple hours you realize you are not going to see it all. Not possible in one day. So, we stuck to what sounded like the things we want to see. And, of course, the must see’s. We saw the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory and the Mona Lisa. Everyone goes to see Mona Lisa. All at once it seems. No crowd control, just jam into the room, push to the front and get your selfie. That’s enough to show everyone back home you did it. Part of vacation is going to see what you are supposed to see.
After the Louvre, Emily and I split off from the kids. They went to do their thing and we went to do some normal shopping. First stop the drug store. Probably could have gone to a variety store but we could not find one. And it’s difficult with our limited grasp of French to ask. But, he drug stores are easily identified bybhe green cross on the front. Emily needed a few items of clothing so we went in search. After a few wrong stops, a salesclerk was able to direct us to a Monoprix, which is a store more like a CVS. It has a little bit of everything. She managed to find what she needed.
The kids called a little later and we took the metro over to the Notre Dame area to meet them for dinner. We found a nice cafe bistro. The place was all French, menu and waiters. Not even trying to help tourists. I don’t care. I had high school French. I ended up with a beef stew with pasta and vegatables which was very good. And a glass of “red” wine. I say red cuz it was unidentified. No help from the waiter. As is usual, we had a very good meal with nice wine, in the style francaise. Seems like every place we go is very good.
After dinner, we got ice cream. We had passed a spot that sells glacé on our way in from the Metro. So on our way back we stopped. We split up again after dessert. Em and I back to hotel and the kids out for drinks as usual.
It’s amazing how quickly you can pick up the transit system in foreign cities. True, they are all similar, but each has its intricacies. We had three connections by metro and train on the return and managed to navigate the trip.
We got back and still had laundry. I have work I still need to get done. A client needs some tax returns finished in order to get financing and that means I am working after running around all day. So I gotta cut back on sleep to find the time. Bad combo to be tired on vacation.
I managed to finish four returns tonight, with crappy WiFi and all the interruptions. Kids came home around one am. They had a good time. As they always manage to do. And I got to go to bed before 2am. Gonna be tired tomorrow.