Wednesday, March 13, 2024 - Bonjour Paris 🇫🇷
We had an early morning train to Paris! Abby, again, was a night owl, so getting up early for our train was a struggle. Again, we double teamed it. Abby and I grabbed breakfast, while David prepared our backpacks for the trip. At this point, Abby had a “usual” for breakfast eggs and beans and her favorite vanilla yogurt. But we didn’t get much time to enjoy ourselves before dashing off to the train station. We took a taxi because we were cutting it waaaaayyyyy too close. We got to the train station, and weaved through the elevator maze, and when we finally got to the Eurostar check-in, we unfortunately missed the 30 minute window. Apparently, you must check-in 30 min before your train departs or else they won’t let you even go through security. So we had to change tickets, but thankfully trains depart from London to Paris every hour.
Keep updated on our adventures!
When we get on the Eurostar, we realize our seats don’t have a window, which is kinda disappointing, but we used the trip to get some much needed sleep, while Abby watched Mickey Mouse. Arriving in Paris, or technically, Gare du Nord, we felt very much like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, when she said “Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.” Suddenly, everything around us was in French, everyone was speaking French, and we, as Americans, felt very lost. We decided to walk to the Orsay Museum because we had reservations in 2 hours and wanted to see as much as we could, and we figured walking was the best way to do that, but the walking route was about an hour.
French Pastries 🥐
The first thing we saw when stepping out of the train station was the cutest little french bakery, and of course, we had to stop. It was very much hole-in-the-wall vibes with 3 tables outside on the curb and just the smallest area to order. Abby and I snagged the last table, and David went into order. I don’t know if it was because we were American or because of Abby’s hunger cries, but by the time David had come out with the pastries, the other two patrons had both spontaneously decided to leave. The pastries were absolutely divine! We’ve never seen Abby absolutely devour any food like she did their strawberry pasty.
Then we continued on our walk, as Abby ate at our other pastries. We get about 20 minutes in until we run into the cutest playground, and Abby seemed to really want to go so we let her. The signs on the playground, however, said ages 2 to 6, and she was only 16 months, but she really wanted to play, so I went with her to play, and we just acted like we couldn’t read the french signs. We definitely felt judged and felt the subtle, yet strong, glare of the french while we were there though. There were about 8 other families also at the park, all of them with children that were definitely at least 2, and then there was our Abby who was very little compared to them trying to run, wearing no shoes and only socks, to the “big” kids and wanting to play with them. After about 15 minutes of Abby running around the playground and just staring at the “big” kids and listening to them speaking french back-and-forth, we headed back out. Abby did not want to leave. But despite her protests, we departed the playground. We kept walking toward the Orsay and taking plenty of pictures along the way, passing the Place de la Concorde, Palais Garnier, and Jardin des Tuileries.
Orsay Museum 🎨
We arrived at the Orsay a few minutes before our reservation. There was no one else in line for security and we easily breezed in, a very different experience from what was described online, but it was perhaps because our reservation was for two hours before closing. Two hours was definitely too short to see everything, but it was perfect for our family. The main things we wanted to see were of course the Van Gogh’s, Claude Monet’s, Degas’s, among others.
When we entered the museum Abby wanted to walk around and LOVED all the statues, but she was also in her fussy part of nap time with energy to spare, but very grumpy. The main exhibits were on the top floor, so we went up the elevator and we had to put Abby in the stroller because the museum on the top floor was very crowded. We felt really bad because Abby ended up getting fussy among all the crowds and it was really quiet, so I had to take Abby out and we played with this red chair for a little bit before we stepped out and breastfed her outside a cafe. We definitely felt the french glare at us when she was fussy at the museum and while I was breastfeeding at the cafe. Fortunately, Abby fell asleep very fast. Then we put her in the stroller and explored the rest of the museum. It was absolutely incredible. The only exhibit that was really crowded was the “main exhibit” with all the famous paintings. The other parts of the museum had very few people and just as breathtaking masterpieces, if not more so.
They had huge life-like paintings, a furniture exhibit, and models of buildings like the Paris Opera House and the Palais Garnier. We had tons of fun just strolling through the museum and were in awe just of the mass number of artistic masterpieces in the Orsay. We were distraught when we had to leave, but it just made us even more excited to go to the Louvre tomorrow.
Hôtel Du Louvre 🇫🇷
After the museum, we decided to check into our hotel. Our hotel was incredible, a very different vibe than our London stay. It was a whole different level with the first thing you see is a beautiful chandelier and a winding gold staircase. We definitely felt like everyone who walked in must be so rich. We were a bit scared to check-in, because they wouldn’t let us check in 3 people online as the baby was considered a third person, but when checking us in the guy said something along the lines of how he’d make an exception for us this time, but not next time. Then he took us up to our room. The room was pretty small, honestly smaller than our room at the hub, but the exquisiteness came in the details with complimentary sparkling water and macaroons and an exquisite double-headed shower and fresh robes, and for people traveling literally with only two backpacks, it was magical.
After relaxing in the hotel for a little bit, we went out to a fancy (at least to our standards) but kid-friendly restaurant that we found online near-by our hotel. The restaurant was on the smaller side so fitting the stroller at our table was a squeeze, but the food was exquisite, albeit expensive. We got food to share and Abby, of course, loved the most expensive parts of the meal like the snail and the duck, and of course we may have spilled the bread basket at one point in the dinner, but the wait staff was so uber friendly with Abby and even helped us entertain her a bit when she was getting fussy like playing peek-a-boo with the breadsticks.
At the end of the dinner, Abby was a bit restless, so I walked her up and down the street outside the restaurant, even though it was dark and the street very much had “random alleyway” vibes, I felt very safe just walking with her. She pointed out these little kid mannequins at a piano store and waved at everyone who passed by. When we got to the hotel, we were absolutely pooped, but Abigail was not, so we played Mulan on the tv as David and I slept and Abby jumped up and down to the movie. Finally, half way through the movie she got tired so we all went to sleep.