Paris, France
Aug. 6, 2007



We had a 6 hour drive from Zurich to Paris, so we got up early and were on the road a little after 7:00, leaving my parents and Aunt and Uncle in Zurich. My Aunt and Uncle would fly home from Zurich on Wednesday and my parents were leaving on Tuesday to go to Germany before flying home on Friday from Frankfurt.
It’s a pretty easy drive from Zurich to Paris. At the beginning of our vacation Heather asked me why there are not highway sticker requirements for France, after we had purchased the Hungarian highway sticker, the Austrian sticker, and then the Swiss highway sticker (which requires you to buy an annual sticker for $35). We found out why France has no sticker when we arrived at the final toll booth to pay the toll for the highway we had used in France when we were told our charge was $45, this for just one drive, while the other 3 countries we drove through cost a total of $45 also, but Hungary for a month, Austria for 10 days, and Switzerland for a year (or at least what is left of this year). So now we know!
We drove into Paris around 1:30 in the afternoon and drove immediately to Notre Dame Cathedral where we ended up finding a parking garage a few blocks away, actually in front of the Palace of Justice. Seven years ago Heather and I made the same trek that I had made in 1996, walking from Notre Dame to the Arch de Triumph, passing the Hotel Deville (Town Hall), Rue de Rivoli, the Louvre, the Place de Concorde, and the Champs Elysee on the way. Of course we had to stop off at the most wonderful bakery we have ever encountered in our lives, just a block from Notre Dame. Last time we were here we went in and bought/ate an éclair. Then we went back in and got a sandwich. Then we went back in and bought a bagette. Then we went back in and bought more éclairs. I am sure the attendant at the counter thought we were nuts, but it was so good we couldn’t help ourselves. So we found the exact same place and I have to tell you, the éclairs and sandwiches were AS good, if not BETTER than we remembered! This time, though, we were smart enough to just buy everything right up front! It was good to share our experience with Katie, who enjoyed the éclair as much as we did (actually, only half, as I fed her the éclair in bites, so as to not get the filling on her clothes, I kind of ended up eating half of hers for her)!
We kept walking (we brought the double stroller that we bought and that my parents lugged over for us from the US and schlepped around London prior to meeting us in Switzerland!), since we knew the walk was long). We got to the Louvre, and this time, unlike the last time, we actually went in! It has been seven long years of Heather reminding me that I took her to Paris and we walked right PAST the Louvre without going in. We thought we would wait until the end of the week to go, after Disney, but as we were contemplating getting in the long line for entrance, a very nice security guard escorted us to the front and right in, so that simplified the decision! We purchased our tickets and made our way to the Mona Lisa, which was actually easier to get to than the last time. It was still very crowded, but the lack of organization allowed anyone to just make there way to the exhibit vs. waiting in an organized queue.
After seeing the Mona Lisa and walking through the rest of that wing, Katie had to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find that seemingly close bathroom that Robert Langdon snuck out of near the Mona Lisa in the DaVinci code, which would have been perfect. Instead we found out that the Louvre does not have that many bathrooms and the ones that DO exist are being cleaned or out of order. Heather ran around the museum looking for a bathroom before coming back undertaking a futile exercise. I took a turn and ran Katie around the Museum, finally finding a ladies room that was working, but with a line longer than Katie would have been able to hang on. Fortunately, my look of panic towards the lady in the front of the line convinced her non-verbally to let Katie go the front. We then walked back and met Heather at the Venus Demilo before continuing on our voyage to the Arch de Triumph.
Once we were done with the Louvre, that is when we told Katie and Ashley that we were taking them to Disneyland for the next three days. Katie was obviously VERY excited and anxious (one of her first questions was why we had to wait until the next day to go, which is the reason we waited until then to tell her versus a few months ago, or even at the beginning of our vacation!). Ashley, on the other hand, didn’t quite understand but mimicked Katie’s excitement, as she usually does.
I forgot how long the walk really is, as you can see the Arch from the Louvre, and you forget that it isn’t as close as it appears (same goes for the Eiffel Tower, which we also figured we would just walk to once we arrived at the Arch! Not happening, particularly with a 2 year old and a 5 year old!). But we enjoyed the stroll through the park and the Champse Elysee before arriving at the Arch and then taking the subway back to our car. From there we drove back to our hotel, after which I walked about 5 miles to a grocery store for some food (ok, it was at least a mile, but after walking so much in the last few days I was exhausted…and I have to remember the European “15 minutes” equals 1 hour, otherwise I would have driven!). We went to bed with an early wake up call to get to Disneyland Paris the next day.