Ooh La La Paris - Family Europe Trip Part 4

How lucky were we to be in Paris the week that 

the Eiffel Tower turned 130!!  She is looking fabulous 

for her age.  

For a brief moment I told everyone that Rome was my 

new favorite city, but as soon as I entered Paris, I 

went back to loving Paris the most!!

We took an Uber (and some of our group took the train) 

to hotel - The Paris Marriott Champs Elysees Hotel.

Hubby and I had stayed there before and we loved 

the fun and central location.

We saved our most elegant place for last.  You go up 

this grand staircase to the lobby.

And what a lobby it is!  Our rooms were just up a couple of 

floors at that end, looking down onto the lobby.

We were greeted in the lobby with trays for everyone 

with cold water, wet wipes and candy.  Great first 

impressions.

Hubby and I have been to Paris many, many times,

so we knew things we wanted the kids to experience.

One of those experiences is this crepe and waffle 

stand right where Champs Elysees meets the Tuileries. 

I have never had a Nutella Chantilly Waffle quite like 

theirs.  The Crepes are good too, but their waffles are 

out of this world. 

It was a 14 minute walk from our hotel to the Tuileries, 

then through the Tuileries to the Louvre.

From there we boarded our Hop on Hop Off Bato Boat 

to go and see Notre Dame.

It was worth being on the boat because we got up close 

to the reconstruction.  On street level you can't see much 

except the bell towers end.  It was so nice to see the 

cranes working and hear the pounding of hammers.  

When we had a meeting to plan our trip on Sunday night,

I said Hubby and I had never taken the time to wait in line 

for the roof top tour, so those were advance tickets I 

wanted to purchase.  The very next day the fire happened.

Poor grandson in black got strep throat and was 

pretty miserable, but he didn't want to miss anything, 

so he trudged along.

Sainte Chappelle, right around the corner, 

was busier than usual, but there were no lines.  

It really is hard to imagine how beautiful the stained 

glass windows are. 

When we finished there, we crossed the street to 

the flower markets.  The hydrangeas were in their glory.

In that same area they were having a Bread Fest, and these 

darling little bakers were learning about making bread.

By this time the family with the sick boy walked 

back to the hotel and these two with their baby 

in tow went off to see so much more of Paris.  

We had to stop at Edwarts for sipping Chocolate - 

thick as melted pure chocolate and oh so wonderful.

We had a wonderful chocolate tasting there too, 

so we had to bring a box home with us.

Next stop was for pastries at Angelina's.  I like Edwart's 

sipping chocolate better, so we saved Angelina's for 

the next day.

Having just seen Phantom of the Opera in London, 

it was fun to show them the Opera House.

Then we headed to Galeries Lafayette stunning and 

enormous centerpiece - the stained glass dome.

As we tried to get a look at it we noticed this giant 

trampoline like thing stretched across the upper 

part of the dome, and also up to the right you can 

see a glass bridge.  

There was no cost and only a five minute line, so 

they went out on it for a few minutes while I 

watched baby girl, and then I switched with Mama 

and took a turn.  You could bounce or jump or 

just lie back and look at the gorgeous century old dome.

I was so sad that the rest of the family missed this fun.

The Paris Sky Trampoline was a temporary exhibit to

celebrate the arrival of summer.  It ended June 9th. 

Then we were off to to the Gourmet Food Halls. 

We took an Uber over to meet up with the rest of the 

family at the Eiffel Tower just before dusk, so they 

could see the view and then watch the lights sparkle. 

There were new glass fences around the base of the 

tower, but just off to the right, having to wade 

through the hawkers, you entered a security gate 

and went in.  There was no cost to enter, just to go 

up.  My oldest son took his family in March as 

they just had a baby a week ago, and he thought 

there was a charge to go in under the Tower.

We have gone up many times, so we sat out 

with the stroller, while baby went up with 

everyone else.  As they got down, the tower 

began its on the hour sparkle.  It sparkles for about 

5 minutes.

Then right after the sparkle, music began and a light 

show started that last almost half an hour.  We were 

sure surprised by this, but found out it was to celebrate 

her 130th birthday.  We were lucky to get to see this.

The next morning we headed out on electric scooters 

for breakfast at Angelina's.

Hot chocolate and croissants, 

and pastries - Yum!

You can do take out or sit down service.

Can you guess where Ms. Angelina got her name? 

Then we were off to Versailles.  Ms. Angelina was 

certainly in her element here. 

I had purchased skip the line tickets beforehand, but 

today there were no lines.  We arrived around noon 

by Uber.  It was cheaper than the train for our group 

and much faster, plus we got to see a lot of Paris.

Of course, The Hall of Mirrors is one of the 

highlights, 

but it also became one of the scariest/funniest moments 

on the trip.  As baby got held up for a photo, a group of 

tourists swarmed mom and dad, and literally scooped 

her right out of dad's arms so they could get a picture 

with her.  They swarmed her for several minutes.  Dad 

had served a mission for our church in Korea, so he 

was able to talk with some of them.  They were so, so, so 

excited to see a baby!!  At the time it was a little scary 

how aggressive they were, but you can see dad kept 

his arm on the lady who had the baby. 

Marie Antoinette's Hamlet ended up being the favorite 

part for everyone.  This one kept asking his dad if they 

could make their back yard like this.  I told him I had 

thought the same thing since I had first seen it. 

He told us he could live here!!

Our pregnant mama kept up so well on the two week trip, 

but by this last day she was worn out and couldn't 

make it out to the gardens.  She and baby girl were real troopers. 

Our final item on our itinerary 

was the Paris Temple for the 

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. 

As I mentioned in the Rome edition of our trip, 

we had promised the kids that we would go to Europe 

when the Rome Temple was completed.  The Paris Temple 

had been completed around a year before, so we 

wanted to go there too.  It is in Les Chesney, just a 

short Uber ride from the Palace of Versailles.  

 We did have a hard time getting an Uber or taxi to 

go there as they wanted a longer ride back to Paris.

We simply walked a little further up the rode from 

the Palace and then Uber drivers didn't refuse us.

The Paris Temple complex is not as grand as the Rome one,

but they did have this beautiful courtyard and a lovely 

visitor's center with a model of the temple, exterior and 

interior.  As you can see behind the trees, the Paris 

Temple is built right next to apartments.  

We ended our stay in Paris with a wonderful dinner 

at our favorite, Pizza Pino, just across the street from 

our Marriott Hotel on Champs Elysees.  The pastas 

are their real specialties, and they could easily accommodate 

all 13 of us.  

The kids all rode the electric scooters back to the Eiffel Tower 

to watch the show once again, while I relaxed in the room 

with a carton of Haagen Dazs ice cream.  

Our flight left the next morning around 10:00, so 

we got to the airport nice and early.  Our experience in 

the Paris airport in the past has been that two hours 

to get through is pushing it, so with as many as we had, 

we got there about 3 hours before and had no lines and 

no panic.  The kids treated me with this beautiful box 

of Laduree macarons for Mother's Day that they 

purchased at the airport.  Notice the gold leafed one 

in the center.  

A week later we had a family dinner and everyone 

had to make something from Europe.  My oldest daughter 

and my oldest granddaughter made this gorgeous 

collection of macarons - Paris, Rome, London and you 

can even get a peek on the left side of a Disney one.

They were all delicious but my favorites were the ones 

stacked with raspberries and strawberries. 

I would ask the kids every night what their favorite 

activities were, it was always so hard to choose.

We had a marvelous trip and I proved I could be a 

group travel agent (although I said I never wanted to 

do that for a living!)

Phew!  That took me longer to document than 

the trip itself.  I have my kids wanting to plan 

another trip to Europe right away!  Haha, 

not for a while, but we have decided to use 

our resources to create memories and this 

certainly created some fabulous memories. 

Now I need to make them each a book. 

Thanks for coming along to Europe with us.