Merci Paris

On Friday, we travelled from London to Paris on the Eurostar Rail via the Chunnel, the tunnel under the English Channel connecting England and France. The train ride itself was easy – just under three hours. But getting from the train station to our hotel in Paris was another story.

I refer to this day as the “luggage” day, and now I know why they call it luggage. We lugged our stuff for at least a mile in London to get to the train station, and then when we got to Paris, we made the critical error of trying to save Euros by taking the subway (3 transfers) to our hotel rather than two cabs. We saved a lot of money, but almost lost each other.

The subway was so crammed we tried to get ourselves and our luggage on, but Jake didn’t make it. Dave jumped off at the last second as the rest of us were crushed with people and luggage. Luckily, Joel remembered the name of the stop where we were to transfer (Thank you Joel!), so we got off there and re-met up with Jake and Dave at the transfer stop. It took us an hour and a half to get to our hotel, which included miles of walking the streets of Paris with luggage in tow.

Next time, we take the cab 🙂

That night, we explored the Eiffel Tower, just a short walk from our hotel. It was amazing! We all loved it, and the views of Paris from the top f the tower were magnificent. We walked down the stairs from the second level to the bottom, the equivalent of 44 stories of an office building. Caleb counted all the steps. As night fell, the tower lit up in sparking lights. It was like a stationary fireworks show!

Other highlights in Paris were attending Mass on Sunday in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, then climbing to the top of the tower; a guided tour of the Louvre (yes we saw The Mona Lisa), The Musee de Orsay, the Arc De Triumph, Montmartre and the Cathedral of Sacre Coeur. Along the way we enjoyed croissants, brie and Parisian bread and sweets. I am starting to feel the effects of the rich French food.

By the end of our two days in Paris, we knew the subway system by heart. Without luggage, it worked like a charm.

Today, we rented a van and drove to Beaune, a three-hour drive from Paris. Beaune is the capital of Burgundy wines, with hundreds of wine cellars beneath the cobbled streets of the town. It is utterly charming. I am sorry we only have one night here, because I would be happy to explore its winding streets and picturesque buildings for days. Ah, but tomorrow we leave the laid-back attitude of Beaune and head for the high altitude of the Swiss Alps.

The kids are loving Europe, but missing being wired to their friends, as our hotel in Paris had no wifi and now in Beaune, you must pay for Internet access. I suggested to Chloe that she forget about Facebook and enjoy the romantic, timeless aura of rural France, and she said, “I’m so past it, Mom.” I burst out laughing.

We are driving around with a Mercedes van that is larger than our Toyota Sienna. It took Dave two hours at the rental place to get any van, and they ended up giving him an upgrade. We are calling it “The Boxvan” and our kids are the European Boxvan children. Driving the boxy behemoth through the narrow cobblestone streets into Beaune was harrowing, to say the least. At least we didn’t crash through into the wine cellars below!

To that we toast and say “Merci!”