Nick (amazingly enough) was very keen to see the Louvre as he is doing a school project on it this term. Michael was keen to go for a bike ride and so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and cycle to the Louvre! Paris has bike hire stations all over the city and there’s was one just around the corner from our home and so we duly took possession of four bikes and proceeded to cycle (and I use this term loosely, as “wobble” might have been a more apt description for Michael and me) through the streets of Paris. I was still very un-used to traffic on the other side of the road and struggling with loose steering and almost no brakes so after a few blocks we reverted to the footpath (much safer for us if not for the pedestrians!!) and eventually wobbled down to the the stunning river front. The boys spotted the Eiffel Tower in the distance and for a wonderful moment, really “got” that they were having an amazing experience in Paris!
We sailed done to the Louvre, found a spot to park the bikes, and proceeded downstairs via the Tuileries, because we’d heard a hot trip that the queue would be shorter down there. Can I just say, that the queue was without exaggeration, at least 150 meters long, but we were feeling relaxed and so we decided to join it, with various family member popping in and out to do some shopping in the lovely stores downstairs as the queue moved along. Soon enough we found ourselves in the Louvre…and then we weren’t quite sure where to go! Nick was keen to see the medieval section as he had been studying it in history and I had a vague idea we should see the Egyptology section as we had to raced though it last time. Instead we wandered around in circles, feeling quite dazed and drained by the ubiquitous crowds, wandering from room to room, up tairs, downstairs, until we felt we’d had enough.
In our aimless wanderings we did discover that the Louvre used to be a medieval castle and we wandered around the old walls and moat of the castle downstairs. Nick got to take another selfie in front of the Mona Lisa (which I always find quite irreverant and amusing), but then we definitely felt we were ready to go.
By this time it was lunchtime and Naomi had arrived on her train from London and was ready to meet us in the Tuileries! It was really exciting seeing her and we had a wonderful lunch sitting in the sun eating (guess what?) baguettes and catching up on her trip to London.
The occasion seemed to call for a drink so our next stop was a cafe within the gardens for a kir and glacé for the children, and then a stroll along the Champs Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe.
At about this point, our children decided to turn vile – Michael was desperate for an enormous mask he had seen in the Disney Store which would not fit in our suitcase and Nick had decided he wanted Nike shoes after all. Michael sobbed all the way up the Champs Élysées and Nick sulked and poor, poor Naomi probably wondered why she had bothered coming to Paris at all! Our sour afternoon finished with dinner at probably the worst restaurant in Le Marais, where Naomi’s medium rare steak was as tough and overlooked as an old boot, more unpleasantness from the children, and two very angry parents!