A few days in Paris – we decided. Just enough to show the kids the main sites but not spend too much time, since there were so many places in Europe that we wanted to take them (in the allowed 90 days of Schengen zone time).

So, we had a travel day into the city, a day of tourism, a day with Mass, and then a day at Disneyland Paris, before we hopped a flight the day after. It was a more aggressive schedule than we would have liked but sometimes that’s how things work out.

We stayed outside the city in an apartment on the metro line. It was sort of like a suburb of Paris (zone 3). It probably would have been better to stay right in the city for such a short trip but we found there were some fun surprises in staying where we did.

On our first full day in the city, we played the part of Paris tourists and prepared to see all the big sights. We started early, taking the metro in to Notre Dame. It’s not fully open again to the public after the big fire a few years back but there’s a nice set up of photos to look at outside. You can see most of the facade and get a sense for the repairs that have been going on, as well as the history of the church.

Next we walked to Sainte Chapelle (Church) but there was a very long line and that was just to get a timed ticket for later. We decided to pass.

We kept walking, over to the Louvre. An art museum that size can be a lot to tackle with kids, so we picked some of the most famous works and set about finding them. The French Crown Jewels, The Venus de Milo, The Winged Victory of Samothrace, The Virgin and Child with Little Saint John the Baptist and of course The Mona Lisa, to name a few.

The room with the Mona Lisa was a lot more crowded than I’ve seen it in the past and also had a lot more security. It was harder to get anywhere to close to the painting, than I’ve ever seen. So interesting how those things change over time – as we would find out again soon at the Eiffel tower.

Truth be told, after all the walking of the morning, plus through the museum, plus the lines and the crowds (and standing up to eat a late lunch in the museum cafe), we were all a little crabby. We agreed to leave, only to discover that leaving wasn’t a very straightforward proposition. There’s a whole mall tacked on to the exit of the Louvre and finding the true exit to outside was a challenge.

Some would say we should have called it a day at that point.

Maybe that would have been good, but instead we decided to keep going through the crabbiness, walking over to the Arc de Triomphe (children really began to revolt at this point) and then another long walk to the Eiffel Tower.

By this time my feet were killing me (up over 25,000 steps) but we had gotten to the Eiffel Tower and thought we should take the kids up to the top.

The infrastructure outside of it was much more intense than I’d seen in the past. I remember when you could just walk up and buy a ticket and then go up. No longer.

A long line for security, then choosing another line based on whether we wanted to walk up the stairs or take the elevator. That ticket line lead into another line…lots of waiting when it was all said and done. The one good thing was the highest platform had been full (and closed) and by the time we bought tickets it was no longer full and we could go all the way up.

We enjoyed a little time up at the top of the Eiffel tower and then the boys took the stairs down and the girls took the elevator down.

It was time for dinner and rather than wander and seek out something unknown, we grabbed a pizza from a vendor right there and had a picnic under the Eiffel tower.

It had been a really, really long day. Time to head to the metro for the first time since that morning and head back.

On the metro home, our 4 year old began throwing up. I had started to travel with bread bags in my purse for this reason. Luckily after one time, she seemed better and promptly fell asleep. Like a good sport, Chris carried her back from the metro multiple blocks and up flights of stairs to the airbnb.

Sunday was a new day.

We went to a nearby Catholic church for Mass and though the church itself wasn’t fancy, we enjoyed some of the best hospitality we’ve seen in any church on this trip. They had a get together following Mass with food and drinks and a sweet lady made sure we knew we were invited. This turned into multiple hours of talking and hanging out with the people of the parish and of course the kids all played with each other. It was a beautiful experience. We don’t speak French and the people we spoke with were gracious about speaking English with us. (Sidebar – I speak some German and Chris speaks some Spanish and we do try to learn a few phrases in the language of each place we go, but that’s not a lot to build a conversation on.)

Later in the day, Chris and the kids discovered a huge Versailles-like park nearby our airbnb. They played and had fun while I had some time to pack up our suitcases before our busy day the next day. (We would be going from a day in Disneyland right into our flight out of the country.)

Bright and early Monday morning, we headed to Disneyland Paris.

Thankfully it wasn’t supposed to be too hot or too crowded and the day started out moderate for both. (Crowds stress me out so I was happy that it wasn’t really crowded.)

The fast passes at Disneyland Paris are pretty expensive so we just used the app to watch wait times and try to pick the best rides at the lowest wait times. We didn’t make it to the Princess area (over a 2 hour wait all day) but Chiara loved seeing the inside of Sleeping Beauty’s castle.

The boys loved Hyper Space Mountain. Disneyland Paris is smaller than Disneyworld – more the size of Disneyland in California. The kids loved seeing their favorite characters in parade and Chris and I appreciated seeing their faces as they had these experiences.

It was fun to see how some rides were the same as at home. (Though even when the names were the same, the rides differed at times – like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is better in Paris.)

We did stay until the park closed and got to see both the 30th anniversary show and the nightly fireworks. It was a very late night to have before a flight but it was a one time thing. Chris and Alexander would have kept going if they could but the rest of us were falling asleep on the train home.

We had a jam packed few days in Paris. It was the best of times (Disney) and the worst of times (tired kids dragging around Paris).

After this whirlwind visit, we were ready for a longer stay in Portugal. Ideally one with lots of rest and chill time.

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