Swiss Family Lary: Easter weekend in Paris!

Upon the arrival of a four-day weekend here in Europe we hopped on the TGV ("super fast train" as the boys call it) and ventured to beautiful Paris. We awoke Friday morning to about an inch of fresh snow on the ground. Our first snow at home since we arrived! The weather was expected to be quite chilly all over but we hoped for some sunshine upon arrival to Paris. The ride on the train was very pleasant and quick, about three hours. We arrived to windy, cool conditions but some spots of blue. After checking into our rented apartment we were off to see the Eiffel Tower. Didn't you know that Remy the rat from Ratatouille lives there? Well the boys were convinced this was the case so when we saw the tower there were lots of oohs and ahhs! They searched high and low for the little rat until we convinced them he could be sleeping or hiding somewhere away from the crowds. The sun peeked out here and there and it dried up some so we trekked on. We walked and the boys played at the many parks in front of the tower. We saw all angles of the tower and were convinced, as the clouds moved quickly in the sky, that looking up, the tower was also moving!

The structure is quite amazing ... birthed on March 31, 1889 (hoisting the flag to the top) it was built for the Universal Exhibition in celebration of the French Revolution. It is composed of 18,038 pieces, 2,500,000 rivets and the metal itself weighs 7,300 tons with a total weight of 10,100 tons. It stands 324m (height with flagpole) or more than 1,000 feet. And there were swarms of people everywhere. But that would make sense since as of December 2007, it has been visited by 236,445,812 people. Unfortunately we weren't able to scale the structure this time around but hopefully we'll visit again soon.

On Saturday, we trekked through the rain and wind to visit Notre Dame, which again, was swarmed by people. Weather doesn't stop the tourists! It is still used as a Roman Catholic cathedral and is the seat of the Archbishop of Paris. Notre Dame de Paris is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. The name Notre Dame means "Our Lady" in French. After getting a bit too damp for comfort we jumped on the Metro and headed away from the hustle and bustle to the Cite des Siences et de l'industrie (aka Science and Industry Museum). This was a great place for the kiddos. They had several aquariums, a planetarium, a kids library, a kids play area and more. We found out quickly that you have to plan in advance for a visit to see any of the special exhibits or IMAX films but the boys stayed occupied and had fun anyway.

On Sunday we awoke to a brisk morning with sunshine. We went to mass at a French church just down the block from our apartment. It was fun to experience a Catholic mass all in French - we followed along just fine! Later we decided to get on the double decker bus and tour the city. We saw all the sights in Paris ... the Louvre, the Bastille, Champs-Elysee (amazing shopping!), Arc de Triomph, sites along the Siene and so many other amazing, intricate, historical structures of Paris.

We hopped back on our TGV on Monday afternoon and returned to more flurries of snow in Geneva. The trip to Paris was nice and we'd definitely like to return when the weather warms (That means more tourists, how is that possible?). We quickly learned that the kids are a bit young to be drug around via foot, metro, bus or train in the damp weather so they had some tough moments which tested our patience for sure! More adventures ahead so stay tuned!