It was our second full day in Paris and everyone was a little less jet-lagged (hopefully). We’d made the most of the wet weather the day before with plenty of delicious food and amazing Christmas windows, but today was a big day of Paris sightseeing. With it being Miss Zinnia’s first trip to Paris we had to hit up all the important landmarks.

Laduree brunch…..

After a ‘starter breakfast’ of baguette in the apartment we were off to Ladurée on the Champs-Elysees for brunch. We’d taken Di here on our last Paris trip with her 6 years ago and she had requested a repeat visit. It hurts the bank balance but is always spectacular for the decor and the food.

After we admired our surrounding and the crockery that was way too expensive for my children to be near, we had to decide on which form of excessive calories we wanted to consume.

The amount of cream even defeated Max as we had our delicious hot chocolates, pastries, French toast, omelets and macarons. The hot chocolates are always a favourite here and Zinnia’s face was priceless when she saw the amount of chocolate and cream……

Normally we’d be tempted by the amazing displays of cakes and macarons but with our breakfast left overs packaged up for later, when we felt a bit more like we could eat again, we just admired on the way through and had to waddle our way out the door!

It’s definitely always a special treat to visit Ladurée and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, although we were pretty sure we were in a sugar coma as we exited the building!

Off down the Champs we go…..

To walk off some of the sugar we ventured down the Champs-Elysees to check out the Christmas windows at Louis Vuitton, where we denied Soren access as he would likely break something.

Throughout our December jaunts around Europe we did spy the same Louis Vuitton Christmas windows many times over in various cities and countries. They were rather fun to watch.

The outside of the Louis Vuitton building on the Champs-Elysees is probably the most impressive of all of them though!

The decorations were definitely being matched by those on the Dior building too!

It had been a few years between wanders down the Champs. One days we’ll hopefully manage to time our visit here for the finish of the Tour de France. Today it was just regular crowds and far less bikes!

Views from the Arc

Next stop was the Arc de Triomphe. Anto and I always like the view from here and it was worth the relatively short wait to get up.

While we were standing around waiting to climb the stairs we amused ourselves checking out the exterior of the Arc. Soren started his obsession with comparing the features of statues of Europe and commenting on their lack of clothes.

Soon it was our turn. We made the kids walk up the stairs, much to their annoyance, as Max and Di took the lift. We were still buzzing from all the breakfast sugar so the stairs were probably a good idea.

Unlike the day before, where there was so much drizzle you couldn’t see anything from the roof of Galeries Lafayette, today it was a beautiful clear day.

The kids enjoyed seeing the Eiffel Tower and the geography of Paris. You can really get a feel for the layout of Paris from on top of the Arc.

It’s also obvious that Montmartre really is the only hill of any note!

The very first time Anto and I had gone up the Arc de Triomphe was when Astrid was 15 months old. She was a lot easier to lift then! This time I only just managed to lift Zinnia…….

It was looking like it was going to be a beautiful day to visit the Eiffel Tower. That was in store for the kids for the afternoon. Zinnia has been obsessed with the Eiffel Tower for a very long time and ever since we arrived in Paris, any time she saw it she would exclaim ‘look Mum, it’s the REAL Eiffel Tower!’…..

Eiffel time….

After ticking off one iconic view we figured it was time for another. We metro’d over to Eiffel Tower. We had a bit of time before the Tour Max and Di had booked for themselves and the kids. Given it was a lovely day we wandered along the Seine with all the other tourists.

The build up to Zinnia’s long awaited Eiffel Tower visit was intense. She was starting to get a bit nervous about both leaving mum and dad and going up something so tall. Or maybe she was just a bit too full of sugar!

The Olympic rings have moved down to the Pont Alexandre III bridge, so we checked them out and the view of the tower. You’ve got to have your obligatory photos in front of the Eiffel Tower!

The last time we were here in March 2018, they were putting up the fencing around the tower. You used to be able to walk under it without a ticket to go up. Not any more but we did get our photos from a distance.

Zinnia’s excitement for her tower ascent was now building…… the big moment was almost here! We farewelled the kids and left them with Max and Di who had bravely volunteered to take them up the tower as Max was keen to go again. Anto and I having already been up once in 2012 and again in 2016 with both Astrid and Soren, were not super keen to go again. We gratefully accepted to offer for the afternoon off parent duty, and hightailed it out of the Tower vicinity leaving the over-excited kids with Max and Di who were planning an afternoon snack and rest of their weary legs before Eiffel excitement.

Montmartre

Now kid free, Anto and I decided that since it was a nice day we might go check out Montmartre as it’s always a nice walk up the hill. We happened across a Christmas market and decided our first vin chaud of the trip was in order. You can never have too much hot wine at Christmas time, even if it wasn’t super cold this particular day 🙂

Being a nice afternoon there were plenty of people around, enjoying wandering the shops and cafes and the Christmas market.

With some vin chaud on board, buskers playing Christmas tunes and all the decorations we were getting into the Christmas spirit!

We’ve visited Montmartre and Sacré Cœur a few times over the years and didn’t feel the need to go into the basilica. We do love the views from the top of the hill on a lovely day. We also thought the accordion player with his loyal cat was classic!

The afternoon light was pretty spectacular and it was buzzing up at Sacré-Cœur. This was the first time we’d managed to see it with Christmas decorations out the front. The many buskers and our mellowing vin chaud helped add to the atmosphere. We couldn’t have picked a better day for views across Paris…..

We’d certainly covered off some landmarks in our wanders for the day and made the most of the glorious weather.

A kid free dinner…..

The kids Tower tour was still in progress. We were now feeling a bit weary from all the walking for the day and were still walking around with our leftover Ladurée brunch pastries. We jumped on a metro and head back to the 2nd and our apartment to drop off all the excess calories. we’d been carrying around all day. We thought we should have dinner somewhere nearby in case the kids were back soon. Little did we know this wasn’t going to be a problem!

There are plenty of restaurants nearby, and we rarely eat out in Paris as we are normally happy to grab an easy dinner in our apartment. We thought this was a good opportunity to try a local restaurant. Being France we had the challenge of finding something vegetarian for me that wasn’t salad. It was still quite early when we first head out and many places weren’t serving dinner yet. We somehow walked about another 5km but eventually found a restaurant that had duck for Anto, baked camembert and other vegetarian treats for me. As a bonus my cocktail came in the form of a bathtub.

As the kids still hadn’t returned from their adventures, and we were now full of food we needed to walk off, we wandered to nearby Les Halles, found another Christmas market. We were now too full to be tempted by the tasty smelling treats. Instead we enjoyed the buildings all lit up and the giant Christmas tree we saw on arrival but couldn’t enjoy at the time due to the number of bags we had.

Tour Eiffel….

Once the wanderers eventually returned at almost 7.30pm (their tour was booked for 4pm) the verdict was that the kids had mixed opinions on the Eiffel Tower. This was Astrid’s third time up, Soren’s second and Zinnia’s first.

After wanting to go up the tower for so long Zinnia decided she preferred the tower from the ground as neither her nor Astrid are fans of heights.

After an incredibly long wait for their tour to start the crowds and height were a bit much for both Astrid and Zinnia once they got to the top level. Granny got some great photos of them looking rather terrified!

Soren took some great videos and had a great time except when he got lost and scared Granny and Max (and himself). The second time he has gotten separated from us in 2 countries! Apparently the Tour guide was a bit long and boring and everyone was a bit too tired by the end. I have been regaled with many Eiffel Tower facts for the last day though!

In the end a very big day of sightseeing for all 7 of us and there were a lot of tired feet and people- both big and small. For the 6th night in a row the kids begged to go to bed……. a definite opposite to what normally happens at home. You know you are packing plenty into your days when the kids are collapsing asleep the second the stop moving.

We had definitely made the most of a glorious Winter day. The temperature had made it to almost 13, after starting at a very mild 8 degrees and glorious sunshine. The good weather definitely didn’t hold for our entire stay in Paris but our plan for the next day was a visit to Versaille so we had our fingers crossed for more sunshine and plenty of delicious food.

Up next…

Our last full day with Max and Di before they head off to Belgium and the Netherlands and we were heading out to Versailles to check out the palace and gardens, before utilising their child minding services so Anto and I could check out the cabaret Paradis Latin!