Oui, Oui Paris!

We've seen London we've seen France....

This past week we boarded the Eurostar and rode to Paris for five beautiful, and HOT days!

(We figured out why the French have a reputation for BO- it is because of the heat, cramming into crowded trains and lots of walking through dirty Metro stations :) The reputation is real by the way....amazing.

The Eurostar, on the other hand, was awesome. It was a smooth, quick, 2-hour ride from London to the heart of Paris. Lots better than the train to Dover, Hover-craft across the channel to France, and then another train to Paris like I did as a kid.

Bamma joined us for this trip!

We were able to experience just about everything we had hoped
without feeling like we had to rush everywhere to cram it all in.

The Eiffel Tower was a favorite for everyone.

It's hard to fit everyone in and the whole tower too!

A benefit of traveling with young children is being able to see a variety of public restrooms around the city. We especially enjoyed one at the Orly airport guarded by a very gruff looking lady we named "Tanya the Toilet Troll". Tanya wanted coins and she would not let us in no matter how we begged, even with our kids dancing in circles after an hour of searching for a restroom.

Another favorite potty experience was here at the top of the Eiffel Tower, where another Toilet Troll waved Lucy and me into the Men's restroom - we came out of the stall minutes later to find the urinals lined with very surprised looking men! Maybe she thought I was a guy? I WAS having a bad hair day as I forgot my shampoo, conditioner and hairspray.

We visited Notre-Dame at a perfect time of day for pictures.

Abe and I decided we want to come back to Paris on another anniversary and stay on the Champs-Elysees. The cafe's and shops are purely European living.

We stopped in a few shops and had some Ice Cream.
Abe bought me a new watch at the swatch store for our anniversary.

Our last afternoon in Paris we visited the Montmartre neighborhood. We loved it! A street performer was standing on the steps leading up to Sacre-Coure doing tricks with a soccer ball, we had the best chocolate/banana crepe I think I've ever had
and we found some great artwork to take home with us.

My favorite moments of the trip were riding to the top of the Eiffel Tower (even after waiting in line for over two hours), eating Quiche at the open air cafe by Notre-Dame, a quiet anniversary dinner with my sweetie, and walking the Montmartre area with its Cafe's, shops, artists and yummy chocolate-banana crepes.

We spent our 12th anniversary taking the train out to Versailles
and touring the palace and gardens.
It was very beautiful and very HOT!

Lucy and I tried sitting down on the grass and it felt like heaven.
About two minutes after sitting down we were asked to please stay off the grass!

The fountains still work and they did a whole production with music and the fountains.

Sunday we found the Paris branch of the church and attended meetings there in French.
It is always a treat to attend a ward in another language.

After church we went to the Louvre for a few hours.

I love these pictures of the kids looking out the windows of the Louvre.

We had to check out of our hotel early in the day
although our train back to London was not until evening.
We decided to leave our luggage in a locker at the train station.
Lucy climbed right in.

This was the kids game every time we were waiting for a train to come.
They would claim their space and see who guessed where the door would end up.

Looking out the back of the train