Paris: Part deux

Day 2 started with a simple breakfast again and a short subway ride to the Louvre.

Unfortunately, it was raining but we didn't let that dampen our spirits. We timed our visit just right because we only waited in line about 10 minutes before entering. We made our way through the museum more quickly than others would but we managed to see quite a lot. Quinn really enjoyed the section of Egyptian antiquities and Ava desperately wanted to see and take pix of the Mona Lisa. We also strolled through many of the other galleries taking in sculpture and other wondrous works of art. We had a snack at the Louvre cafe, which was surprisingly good and then headed to the gift shop where we looked in vain for a Mona Lisa umbrella. We decided to take our souvenir shopping outside where it was cooler and a bit cheaper. Ava found a lovely umbrella with a impressionist-like picture of the Eiffel tower on it. she was thrilled.

Off to the subway again to an area of the city called Montmartre, that was suggested to us by some ladies whom we had breakfast with that morning. While on the subway, an unfortunate incident occurred. Our subway car stopped for one reason or another and then lurched back into action tossing all of us a bit. Quinn was standing holding onto the pole when a 300 lb. Frenchman (with a large suitcase), standing near him lost his balance and unexpectedly smacked him in the face. Aaron caught/tackled the man so he didn't crack his head on anything, but needless to say Quinn was pretty shocked, scared, and a bit injured. His head also fell off, as you can see in the next picture.

Montmartre is located just north of Paris proper and is what I imagined Paris to look like. Small, twisty, alley-like reads with little cafes and artists with easels out in the streets. It is also build on a VERY large hill with many, many steps. Those of you in Hamilton think the Colgate hill is steep! We decided that today was going to be easy going souvenir day so we did a lot of window and regular shopping. We found lots of fun things. We also decided that we had to find a crepe stand and get some. We found a lovely cafe where they made your crepe out front so we could watch (a requirement of Ava) and had a few (2) tables in the back. Quinn decided on Nutella crepes, Aaron and I chose the same but with the addition of bananas, and Ava got caramel. Paired with an outstanding cappuccino, we were in heaven.

We took the Finnucular (a cable car-like elevator) up to the top of the hill and scouted our way around to find the Salvador Dali museum. It was actually a lot of fun walking around this area in the rain with the cobble stone streets and the views were beautiful. Had the weather been nice we may have had our portrait done by one of the street artists but none of us were in quite the right frame of mind for that. We found the Dali museum and very much enjoyed all of the artworks on display there. The kids and I had pictures taken of ourselves in a Dali painting and Ava enquired about purchasing some of the lesser works in the "for sale gallery". The salesman was very nice and quoted her some prices and we told her she could buy something or go to college. Smart girl chose education. But she did end up using some of her birthday money to buy a wood mounted print of what she calls "the floating rose" (it's real name is meditative rose):

We travelled back to the center of Paris via subway and scouted around for dinner. We tried to remember the name of the first restaurant we went to or even how to get there, but with no avail. So we settled on a bistro that served mainly sandwiches that was close to the hostel.

After dinner headed back to our room to unwind and let the kids play. Apparently, Karate was the game of choice. After some very exhausting kicks and punches we settled down for reading and rest.

The next morning consisted of trying to cram all our purchases into our carry-ons and getting ready to go. Eating breakfast, grabbing the subway with 2 tired kids and getting to the airport on time. Bye Paris, it was lovely!