Tuesday - To Paris!

We made it!

Paris!

It took a 2 hour drive, a 3 hour TGV high-speed train ride, and a 10 minute taxi ride ---- and we are now in the city of lights.  

Dan and I have been here before, but I have a feeling this will be a very different visit!  

Sara has now seen the Eifel Tower.  We drove past it in the cab.  It was as if the cab was on rollerskates, gliding past the tower giving us a gorgeous first glimpse of it.  "There it is! I see it!" Sara said.  She has been waiting a long time - and now we are finally here!

The drive was easy.  The train ride was mostly easy, but it is a bit hard to manage a 3 hour train ride with 2 squirmy kids.  They were constantly busy.  Trying to be normal active kids within the confines of a family bank of train seats (they faced each other with a table in the middle).  We survived.

The taxi ride was harried.  We have a lot of stuff, so I took Sara and all the luggage and Dan walked with Julia.  Thus I got here long before he did, met the owner and got a tour of our Paris apartment.  Compared to the house we just left, this place is a shoe box.  We have a tiny kitchen (with a clothes washer), a bathroom, a bedroom, a dining room/living room, and a bed for Sara.  We'll share our room with Julia in her travel crib that we brought.

The owner is nice, he is English, so there is no language barrier (he lives her now and also speaks French).  He shares the same birthday with Dan.  I mean the *same* birthday - turning the same age as Dan on the same day!  

Even though it is 7:37 PM as I write this, Julia is playing next to me (with clay, legos, and a small strawberry shortcake doll).  Sara is making up stories (and recording them) on the iPad.  

Earlier Sara typed this: 
sara :)

Quote of the day:
Sara: "Julia and I had fun playing two years ago.  She was littler then."

End of post -- Can you believe we're in Paris!?