American Mum: Bonjour Paris!!!

We had a merveilleux time in Paris! Our journey there went very well. We drove about two and a half hours, heading just south of London to the Eurotunnel. I was not sure how it was all going to work with driving our vehicle onto a train that went into a tunnel and under the water. It was wonderful! What an easy way to travel. We pulled up to the gates, and it scanned our license plate. The screen read, "Welcome E Trost." We were given the option of taking an earlier train, which we did. At the passport check, Eric lifted up our five passports, and without even taking them, the guard motioned us to continue. Then we pulled into a parking lot so I could feed Cora. Eric took the kids inside to use the restrooms. It was set up similiar to an airport inside with screens telling when to board your train, several shops and take out food.

We then drove onto a train car. It reminded me of a subway, but for cars. We were allowed to get out of our car and walk around during the train ride. They even had restrooms in a few of the coaches. It was about a 35 minute journey in the tunnel. The kids loved being able to move around. The unloading was quick and smooth, and the next thing you knew, we were plugging our Paris hotel information into the GPS.

Loading ramp

That is the train we were boarding

Driving onto the train

Driving inside the train cars

We looked out the windows until we entered the tunnel.

It felt good to stand up for a while. The pictures are yellow because you could not use a flash once you were in the train. It could throw off the fire safety system.

In France, they drive on the right side of the road. Ahh, what a relief! However, our steering wheel is on the right side of the car, so it felt a little strange to Eric. The countryside in France was such a beautiful green that it looked fake. We did notice a lot of graffity on the overpasses and sides of the highways closer to Paris. That's too bad because France itself is quite pretty. It took us about three hours to reach Paris and find our hotel. We had the kids on the lookout for the Eiffel Tower. I probably told them to start looking about 15 minutes too early, but they finally spotted it when we were close. It is tres grand (quite large)!

They had interesting road signs. One we passed looked like two knights who were jousting.

More countryside

They had LOTS of windmills in France!

Driving into Paris...

The Eiffel Tower is on the left, and our hotel is the red one on the right.

Once we got settled in our hotel room, we took a walk to the Eiffel Tower to see it up close. It was much larger than I imagined! We enjoyed some dinner sitting outside that evening. It was close to 9:00 p.m. when we walked back to the hotel and it was still light outside. We watched the Eiffel Tower from our hotel window. At 10:00, 11:00 and midnight, it lights up with blinking lights. The kids saw it light up at 10:00 p.m., and then they were off to sleep, including my biggest kid, Eric.

Electric cars plugged in to charge

Walking to the Eiffel Tower from our hotel

Daddy had everyone under control

Dylan looking at the tower

H-U-G-E!

Tres Grand!

People everywhere and repairs taking place

Sweet Cora and her strawberry blonde hair. It usually does not look this red. It must have been the lighting.

Dinner...most of the workers spoke both French and English

At least I knew how to say, "Bonjour, merci, oui, si'l vous plait, and excusez-moi". I have not spoken French since high school, and I did not remember much.

Guess I get the king-size bed all to myself!

The next morning, we headed to the Eiffel Tower again to attempt standing in the long line for the lifts. Only one of the four lifts was working, so it was an extra long line. We stayed busy and the two hour wait went by fairly quickly. We had a few light sprinkles, but we were prepared. It was worth it. When would we be back to Paris again? We HAD to do it!