Paris - Day 2

For the second day in Paris, we started in the Jardin des Tuileries, which is a park placed in between the Louvre and the place de la Concorde. We were a bit disappointed as the children's park and carousel was under construction. We wandered through the park and went on to the Louvre. In the second picture you can barely see the Louvre pyramid in the arc.

I just loved this little cart in the garden. Look at the guy inside, he is wearing a chef's hat. Love that even more!

We decided not to actually go into the Louvre, but we did sit around the pyramids, eat a snack, enjoy the sun and watch the water fountains. If you look down into the pyramids you can see the people inside the Louvre going up and down the escalators and entering the 3 different areas of the museum.

After the Louvre, we walked along the Seine for a bit, here is Bailey taking a rest:

Next we stopped for lunch and ate in the Notre Dame Cathedral square.

While in the square we had Bailey find the city center of Paris, which is the place all signposts throughout the country refer when they give distances to Paris.

We were able to tour the inside of the cathedral as well as walk the perimeter so that we could view the gargoyles and flying buttresses.

Next we walked to the Jardin du Luxembourg, another huge park just south of the Notre Dame. This is the park I referenced in the first post when I explain why I love Paris so much. Parisians are park people. They flock to these places whenever the sun is winking at them. They parks are not paved but are lined with gravel/dirt pathways. The lawns are meticulous, so you can't walk on them. This particular park has a huge man made lake right in front of the Grand Palace. We got the girls ice cream and grabbed a chair and relaxed in the sun. I of course love to people watch and I got a full 30 minutes worth, loved every minute of it. You find every different kind of person here, professionals in suits/ties, dresses/high heels, moms with their small children, elderly either with their mate or with a younger caregiver, young single adults. They are visiting, eating, reading, sleeping or just resting for a bit. Why don't American's take time out of their day for this kind of experience??

We also found a great little kids park in Luxembourg. It had an entrance fee, but was totally worth it as it was clean and super fun for the girls to let off kid-steam. Here are a couple of videos of the things they did. If you ask the kids what their favorite part of Paris was, they will tell you the Disney store and the park at Luxembourg. Seriously, who cares about all the other stuff??

We finished our day by stopping at Paul's for baguette's, eclairs, chocolate croissants and Diet Cokes (of course) then boarding a boat for a tour of the Seine. This was a good way for the kids to have a review of everything we had seen, how far they had walked and to experience Paris with yet another viewpoint.

Wait until you see the treasure that we found on Day 3!