Paris, France May 15th, 2012

We took the fast train to Paris.  Wow - what a day!!  For any of you who think you might try it, we would recommend NOT doing Paris in a day. :)  We are glad we could go though and hope you enjoy the pictures!

We set off early in the morning...

...and headed to the train station!

My travel buddy.

Stasia and Seth

Sabrina

Sayer and I

Sienna and Daddy

We road the ICE train.  It was cold.  Just kidding.

Coming into...

Saarbrucken station - if you're familiar with the story of the Great Escape during WWII, this is the station where Roger or "Big X" got caught.

French house in the country.

Mommy and Shen.

This nice gentleman goes to Paris frequently on business and was able to give daddy some pointers on using the subway.

Out the window.

Coming into Paris.

The train station is on one side of Paris, and the sites are on the other.  We hopped on the bus to the Arc de Triumph.

We had a change of plans though when the roads were blocked because of the new French President being put into office.  He was speaking at the Arc, so obviously we had to change up our plans.

This lady who had been on the bus and works at the Trocadero, helped us get accustomed to the subway and showed us the way.

We decided the Eiffel Tower would be our first stop of the day.

Our first glimpse.

At the Trocadero.

The Trocadero.

It was cold and rainy.  We huddled under umbrellas and grabbed some crepes for a snack.  Those warm crepes sure felt good!

We walked right under the Eiffel Tower.

Subway once again.

The quick version of our day:  arrive in Paris, ride a bus, ride the subway, see a site, walk, dodge the rain, see a site, enjoy the sun, see a site, ride the subway, see a site, dodge the rain, ride the subway, enjoy the sun, see a site, dodge the rain, race to make our train (you get the idea :).

Walking the streets of Paris.

Musee d Orsay

The gate outside the Louvre. 

It reminds me of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

If you look really hard, you can see the Arc de Triumph at the end of the Avenue Des Champs-Elysees.

Zoomed in.

The Louvre.

Pause for a picture

 Now we come to the first part of the hat story.  We were walking across this bridge when a huge gust of wind came up and blew Seth's hat right into the Seine river!  Poor Seth!!  The story ended better than it could have though, as Sabrina (who is Seth's travel buddy) would tell you that she thought we were going to lose Seth in the river as well when he tried to catch his hat!!

There it is.

Hey, I think I see the sun!

We stopped for a break and warmed up with some coffee and hot chocolate!

 Another bridge picture (there are a lot of bridges!!).

Oh no, I see the rain coming!!

We decided to get out of the rain (which was this time accompanied by sleet/hail) and enjoy some lunch.  Well, here are nine of us entering this tiny cafe, which appeared rather packed!  There was a very nice man that insisted we come on in and head to the back.  People moved over and we crowded in with them and enjoyed some delicious croque madame sandwiches for lunch.  

 

It doesn't take long for the sun to come out again!  I was amazed by the number of birds on this bush!

We headed to the Notre Dame.

The back side of Notre Dame is very pretty as well.

We head off again.

Notre Dame from a distance.

Our next destination.

Trying to beat the next downpour!

We arrive.

The Bastille is no longer standing, but it was neat to see where it would have once stood.

Just as we entered the subway to head to our next destination, it started raining.  That timing was perfect!

It was nice to come out on the back side of that storm.

A rather large traffic circle.  It's hard to tell by the picture, but it is five lanes across!

That name sounds familiar.

The Eiffel Tower in the background.

The Louvre behind us.

Do you remember that long walk to the Arc de Triumph that I mentioned earlier from the Louvre?  We did it!

Walking down the Champs-Elysees.

Very happy to find...

...a Starbucks!! :)

We each had a different location that we were supposed to read up on and then be able to explain to the family.  Sienna's was...

The Arc de Triumph.

What a great way to end the day!

As another storm rolls in...

...we board a very crowded subway (you were literally up against the people around you!) and raced to make our train.  Thankfully, even in the midst of a ticket fiasco, we made it.

Back in Germany!