After a 4.9 magnitude earthquake hit Japan 30 minutes after we took off the previous day, and we had arrived in Paris an hour before the French government dissolved. What disasters would we bring with us today?
After not much sleep since departure from Australia several days earlier, and over 24 hours awake we all fell into our Paris beds by 9pm the previous night. Everyone actually slept until at least 5am…… Luckily the boulangeries are open early and we had coffee supplies!
When in Paris fresh pastries and plenty of croissants for breakfast are a must so we made sure we indulged!
Rainy morning wanders….
After our carb-laden but delicious breakfast we ventured out to explore Paris. It was Thursday the 5th of December and our first full day here in Paris. It was too long between Paris visits for us Wuth’s and Miss Zinnia wasn’t even born on our last trip, so she was very excited to get her first taste of Paris and France.
Having departed a hot Aussie Summer, with only a couple of days layover in Tokyo, we were bracing ourselves for the onset of cold. It was definitely cooler today than Tokyo, 5 degrees, feels like zero and unsurprisingly for Paris, it was raining!
I don’t think we’ve ever managed a stay in Paris without some rain! Lucky Paris is fun to walk around, rain or not. We headed out on foot to the nearest metro, deciding to keep ourselves as dry as possible. On the agenda for the morning was Christmas window viewing. First stop Galeries Lafayette in the 9th arrondissement.
Christmas magic at Galeries Lafayette…..
Galeries Lafayette, Paris are known for their amazing for Christmas windows. We had only once managed to time our Paris visit with Christmas window displays and had many fond memories. So on this trip we were all going to indulge. Max was rather keen on getting his fill of Christmas magic alongside the kids.
The windows at Galeries were adorable with a bird theme. Zinnia was mesmerised from the get go and we spent quite awhile checking out every window.
Once we’d watched each of the windows a couple of time it was time to head inside Galeries to view the beautiful roof and famous giant Christmas tree that is in the centre throughout the Christmas period. Di (and of course Zinnia) hadn’t been to Galeries Lafayette before so were keen to see the roof and tree. This year’s tree was rather pretty and brightened up a dreary Paris day.
Plenty of people come in just to see the roof and tree and take tree selfies. We had originally planned to do the same but after our fill of photos thought we might as well check out the kids clothes and toys.
Once the kids were on the kids and toy floor our plan to ‘not buy much in Paris as we are coming back at the end of the trip’ didn’t last long. It did provide excellent recon for our super high speed shopping day on our last day in Paris, but we had to stop the kids from spending all their pocket money and filling up our suitcases in the first week of the trip.
Despite the rain and cold we went up to the terrace as it’s always a great view, even in the mist and rain. As usual there was no shortage of tourists taking in the iconic views. It’s definitely the best place to view Palais Garnier and you can usually get a good view of Montmarte and the Eiffel Tower. Today was more grey and cold but still some iconic Paris views.
French bistro lunches and more shopping….
After Galeries we caught the metro over to Hotel de Ville in search of the supposed Christmas market located there. We had a wander across the Seine and it seemed like not that long ago we’d been here with Di, but Astrid was definitely a lot shorter then!
There was no sign of the market at Hotel de Ville. We later discovered the dates had changed due to some post-Olympic clean up. We decided it was time for lunch as we were all cold and our carbohydrate levels had dropped sufficiently.
We found a French bistro that was warm and had a menu that was only going to be half a week’s a salary. The lunch was indeed delicious. The kids all warmed up with excellent hot chocolates while the adults figured we might as well sample the local wines and beers.
Zinnia was introduced the the French staple of steak hache and frittes, which she thoroughly enjoyed. Anto and Soren had many forms of tartare. This kicked off Soren (and later Astrid’s) steak tartare obsession during the trip.
Max and Di had to have a French onion soup and I got the one vegetarian item on the menu, my standard goats cheese salad. It’s lucky I really like goats cheese as I end up eating a lot of it in France! This was a delicious one though……
With full tummies we had a visit to our favourite shopping mall, BHV Marais to check out more Christmas windows and do a bit of shopping.
The Catacombs that weren’t……
Our plan for the afternoon was to take the older 2 kids to the Catacombs, one of the few things in Paris we hadn’t done over our many trips. Zinnia was in need of a quiet afternoon, after very little sleep, so Di, Max and Zinnia head back to our apartment, via some grocery shopping (and of course baguette purchasing). Unfortunately when we arrived at the Catacombs they were closed for the day due to a strike. Soren wasn’t impressed as he as wanted to go for ages! It was literally the only day they were closed and it appeared it was a rather last minute thing so weren’t aware.
Plans for the afternoon scuttled we wandered the markets in the nearby La Defense area and admired so many delicious things.
Despite the fact that we’d just had an enormous lunch there is always the temptation to look at all the wonderful pastries, wines and cheeses you see on the street. We also found a market to wander through, our wallets only saved by the fact that we weren’t actually that hungry.
It was still raining and we were all a bit weary so back the 2nd, and our apartment, it was and on the way we picked up afternoon pastries from one of our favourite patisseries. It had been almost 20 hours in Paris without a Gâteau opéra – this had to be rectified!
Finishing the day with tired kids and plenty of pastry….
By now it was 4pm and we arrived back to a Zinnia who didn’t want to wake up.
Astrid was also fading fast and becoming more than the usual teenager amount of argumentative. According to Astrid, it wasn’t jet lag but when she didn’t want to wake up 2 hours after a late afternoon nap, and was crying into her pasta and fresh baguette, we begged to differ! Apparently fresh baguette and butter wasn’t going to make her hungry, she just needed to sleep and she wasn’t going to wake up at 3am if we let her sleep all afternoon! Zinnia wasn’t faring much better but could at least be bribed with pastries.
The pastries were indeed delicious. Particularly the Gâteau opéra. It’s always one of my favourites!
Anto and Di had the pleasure of visiting the laundromat while I argued with children who thought they should sleep, rather than eat dinner, so we were glad we had planned dinner in the apartment, with of course French wine and baguette.
Tomorrow more Paris, this time with hopefully less rain!
Up next…
A breakfast at Ladurée, more Christmas windows on the Champs-Élysées, and a visit to the Arc de Triomphe. Then Zinnia and her siblings got their long awaited Eiffel Tower visit while Anto and I headed to Montmarte and enjoyed our first Christmas market and vin Chaud.
