We woke up to slightly overcast weather, with a bit of a chill. But we had checked the weather forecast before we left home, so everyone had warm clothes and a light jacket. Rather than try and figure out Paris traffic, we walked over to the station and hopped on the next Paris-bound train. We don’t like French trains as much as Swiss ones, everything seems just a bit dirtier and more run down, but they still get you there in the end.
Good thing we have Alexandra mapping out our route for us, otherwise we might get lost. 
After we finally arrived downtown, everyone was in serious need of the facilities. We finally found some, but many of our party had to be convinced to use them. Especially after Noah got locked in and couldn’t figure out how to open the door to escape. 
Here he is getting comforted after he finally got out. What are the girls looking at with such interest?
This ad for a chocolate bar. We saw it everywhere, and sadly, never found the actual chocolate to try it out. 
We had only planned to see three things on this day; the Sacre Couer, the Obelisk, and the ancient Egyptian section of the Louvre. We managed 2 out of 3.
We stopped for a quick snack at the base of the beautiful stairs. While we were eating, we saw a policeman jogging up the center of the grass, either showing off his form, or off to break up a disturbance. We never did find out which.
This was our first time visiting this amazing building, and we were all impressed. I especially loved the story of why it was built, as a way for Parisians to show their penance and committal to do better after years of excesses and war. It was mostly paid for largely by small, individual donations, collected over several years. Reminds me of how the early temples and chapels were built and paid for by the Saints. It’s also cool that the stone gets whiter every time it rains. There were tons of people inside and out, but it wasn’t so bad that we felt like we couldn’t see what we wanted to, or that we were being crushed.
One of my favorite things about these old churches is having Nicholas read the Latin inscriptions for me. 
This one says, “This temple is dedicated to penitence and worship.”
No pictures of the inside, they weren’t allowed. But on our way back to the city center, we found my new favorite part of Paris, fabric heaven! 
Store after store with giant bolts of fabric piled up on the tables on the sidewalk. The bolts were so long, that they were placed through the store windows. You would point to what you wanted, and a worker would come cut it right there, outside. And the stuff was cheap. At least the few prices I saw were 2-3 Euros a meter. what?!?!? Unfortunately for me, no one was in the mood to stand around for 30 minutes while I had a proper look and bought goodies. Instead, Sophie and I got 5 minutes to run around the inside of one haberdashery shop, looking and touching everything we could. Too little time and too much stuff to make any kind of decision, but I am going back. Oh yes, I am….
We were off to see the Obelisk and the Louvre next, but first we were in need of some sustenance.
We found a little bakery where some of the kids picked out sandwiches and gourmet hot dogs to eat. But Sarah and Alexandra wanted fruit, so I bravely ventured into a little shop to try out my french. I had been telling the kids the whole time that I do speak French, and then I would do my exaggerated “hauh!Hauh!Hauh! Oui!Oui!Oui!” in a horrible impersonation of a stereotypical Frenchman in an old Hollywood movie. I promised them that I would use it at least one time while we were in France. This was my chance.
I pointed to some delicious looking apricots and said, “Hauh!Hauh!Hauh! “with a big smile on my face, and had the gentleman working there put them in my basket. Then I grabbed a couple of bananas, and went to pay. The girl told me the total, which I understood not at all, but I just nodded and said, “Oui!Oui!Oui!” and handed her a hopefully large enough Euro note. It worked! I got change back and my fruit. Goal accomplished.hahahaha
The kids ate their food while I performed a little emergency surgery on the giant blister on my heel. Apparently the newish shoes I brought along because they were worn in enough, weren’t. I could barely hobble down the street, until I finally popped the thing and put on a giant bandage. Hurray for me actually being prepared!
We also passed a bridge covered in little locks, complete with people attaching more as we watched. 
We figured it was a like the bridge we saw in Salzburg covered in locks. I remarked to Chris that most of the couples probably broke up within 6 months of attaching their lock to the bridge. I am not normally a cynic, but attaching so much significance to such a meaningless act usually means the foundation of your relationship probably isn’t that strong to begin with. And there are a LOT of people who have now broken up, if the number of locks is anything to go by.
I don’t know how people even find room to add anymore. The thing was literally covered in them.
Along more of our walk to the Obelisk and the Louvre we passed these cool statues.
The armpit sniffer and the crybaby. hee
They dropped me off at the Louvre, my heel just couldn’t manage all the way to the Obelisk and back. Even though it could be seen , it was still a ways off in the distance. They actually saw these statues after leaving me behind. They also needed to take a second rest at this fountain.
It was much farther than it looked on the map, and in hindsight we should have maybe hopped on the metro, but then we would have missed all the fun sights we saw along the way. It gave us a true sense of Paris, and no one complained about the distance, so perhaps it was better this way after all.
In the end, they did finally reach their goal. Sarah and Nicholas were the two who really wanted to see it, but the others got caught up in their excitement and happily tagged along.
When they finally came back to get me at the Louvre I had to give them the sad news. Despite my research on the internet beforehand about what tours were available at the Louvre and which section we wanted to see, I had failed to read anywhere that it is closed on Tuesdays. Yeah, major bummer. Nicholas was most excited about the museum, he didn’t even care about Disneyland. And it was closed. So, so sad. Fortunately we could easily promise him that we would come again and make sure it was open before we did.
On our slow, leisurely walk back to the train station we saw this cool chalk art. 
For some reason it took much less time to get back, maybe because we took a more direct route? No idea. We were glad to get back to the somewhat scary apartment/hotel at a reasonable time for dinner. That way we were in bed early, and well rested for our day at Disneyland!!!