Notre Dame de Paris

Wow, so behind updating this.  On Saturday we didn’t do anything in terms of tourist activities. We find every couple of days the boys need a day just doing regular stuff as they would at home or they just get worn out. So we just did a little grocery shopping and played with trains, built a lot with Legos and played with their new toy tractors (acquired since arriving in Ireland in accordance with the tractor love that has developed!).

On Sunday morning we went to walk around the Notre Dame and Île de la Cité.

   

                   

       

There was a bread fete set up in a marquee in front of the cathedral and there were various stalls set up selling baked products outside. We happened upon one selling pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants) and we availed them of two for each of us (before you go thinking what porkers we are, they were mini sized) each and I think from here on Rian had one every day. Kaelan very much enjoyed eating his and smearing it all over his face.

   

After we had wandered around we stopped at the playground right beside the Notre Dame and the boys had a great time on the seesaws.

   

   

You may notice that Rian is always wearing a red shirt in all the photos. Rian’s favourite colour is red. For the last month, Rian has worn only red shirts and preferably those with long sleeves. I may as well not have brought anything else with us. Any other items of clothing are met with general distaste and rejected. He even has a favourite red t-shirt that he prefers over the others!

   

We walked back along the seine to the metro looking at the book stalls and prints and Rian managed to wheedle out of us a red (funnily enough) Eiffel tower keyring! If he had his way I think we would have had about ten different Eiffel Tower ornaments before we left Paris. Rian just adores the Eiffel Tower. As far as he is concerned I think they could rename Paris “Eiffel” he was that excited every time he saw it peeping out in the background from all the places we went.    

Wexford Strawberries

Rian is very impressed with strawberry production Wexford!  Even before today, they were his favourite fruit.  We picked up a large punnet of massive strawberries from a roadside seller on the way to Kilkenny.  Rian ate the biggest one which was the size of a small apple and then proceeded to make a big dent in the rest of the punnet!

   

Kaelan on the other hand does not like strawberries and begs to be given one of these giants only to poke his finger into it and squish it all up!

Basilique du Sacré-Cœur

I am a bit slow updating this, we are actually in Manchester now. But I am so stuffed by the end of most days I can hardly summon the energy to do anything once the boys are asleep! On Sunday morning we visited Sacré-Cœur. Someone wasn't paying attention to the map and we ended up walking halfway up and missing the starting point for the funicular. On the way Rian commented under the strain that it was "higher than Gordon's hill"!

The boys rode the carousel at the bottom which they adored. Kaelan just loved riding the 'sessies' (horsies) and did not want to get off.

(Sorry about the order of the photos, I think Blogger hates me. )

La Tour Eiffel

After a rest back at the apartment and a sleep for Kaelan in the afternoon we decided to go and check out Rian's beloved Eiffel Tower. Ever since we booked out tickets to come over to Europe, Rian has been talking about the picture we have of it in our hallway from one of Daryl's and my previous trips to Paris and getting me to print out colouring pictures from the internet, build it with blocks etc. For some reason he was - is - really taken with it.

So we set off on the metro to get there. The Paris metro is not particularly stroller friendly, most of the stations have only steps, some have escalators and a handful have lifts. So, we knew we had to be prepared to carry the stroller and Kaelan up and down the steps.

Rian was so excited when it came into view as we walked from the metro station (Bir-Hakeim) and every time it was visible through the trees he exclaimed, "There it is, the Eiffel Tower, Look Daddy / Mummy, the Eiffel Tower!".

We walked underneath it and had ice creams sitting on the grass on the other side.

We made a purchase from one of the many people selling replicas of the Eiffel Tower. Rian was desperate to have one and would only accept the largest one the guy had! He cleverly handed it to Rian to have a look at and we knew we'd never get him to let it go without a complete meltdown! Since we brought it back to the apartment it has been very busy having Gordon and Henry chuffing through underneath it and Postman Pat making a few deliveries in his van.

Afterwards we had a play in the playground located in Champs de Mars. Gotta love the French for putting children's playgrounds next to major tourist attractions!

Jardin du Luxembourg

On Thursday morning we went for a walk to the Luxembourg gardens. We purposely rented our apartment nearby as we knew it would be a great place for the boys to be easily entertained. Besides the palace and beautiful gardens, there are pony rides, a carousel, a marionette theatre, wooden sailboats for hire, sandpit and a great playground.

Rian was very happy with his map (the same as Daddy's) in his back pocket which he whipped out at the same time Daddy did to work out which direction we should go next.

We walked around for a while and fed the ducks in the pond before we gave into Rian's pleas to get back to the playground we had walked past on the way in. There the boys had a great time playing in the sandpit and on the play equipment. So great to be able to relax in the way in central Paris with them. In many ways (and then not in many others) Paris is surprisingly well set up for small children if you look in the right places.

Here are Master Busy and Master Extra busy running about....

And feeding the ducks...

Rian refused to be in this photo...

The playground at Jardin Du Luxembourg

In the sandpit

What Daddy does while the children play.....

Watching our crepes be made

Kaelan getting stuck into his jambone et fromage crepe

We'll return to the gardens on the weekend when the marionette theatre is running and we can rent wooden sail boats on the pond.