The only thing we had scheduled before arriving in Paris was to go to the Louvre, so I bought tickets for a 9:00 entry online, so we wouldn’t have to stand in line.
We finally came upon a semi-deserted cafe but the basket of croissants we saw from the sidewalk looked inviting enough so we found a table and ordered a couple of americanos to go with it. 50 euros later (!) we were good to go. We hurried now, because we were on the clock. At 9:30 our pre-paid online tickets would expire, we would turn into pumpkins, and all my organization and pre-planning would actually end up costing me money instead of saving me time. I drug Elise and the kids through the pyramid and the security line. When the ticket taker scanned the bar code on our tickets at 9:32 and let us in, Elise and I high-fived.
Afterwards, we wandered through the museum, even finding some exhibits Elise and I hadn’t seen on our first visit 12 years ago, such as Napolean’s apartment.
We left the Louvre right around lunchtime, grabbed ham and cheese baguettes at a kiosk just outside, and stopped in the Jardin de Tuileries for lunch. We slowly started to make our way to the Eiffel Tower through the garden, pausing frequently, once for ice cream at a small truck parked at one end of Pont Alexandre III.
We left our hotel at 8:10, plenty of time to grab a bite on the go and still walk the mile from our hotel to the Louvre. We came across a bakery quickly, but weren’t wowed by their offerings. We decided to soldier on, assuming there would be a hundred bakeries to choose from between our hotel and the Louvre.
We assumed incorrectly.
The first bakery we came upon was the only bakery that was open at 8:30 on a Saturday morning in the Latin Quarter. The kids moaned and audibly made Elise and I acutely aware we of their impending starvation which mostly fell on deaf ears. We told them if 12 Thai kids and their soccer coach can survive in a flooded cave for nine days with food, then you’ll be just fine. (The Thai soccer team actually ruined it for every kid who claimed to be on the verge of starvation in order to tease a snack out of their parents!)
We finally came upon a semi-deserted cafe but the basket of croissants we saw from the sidewalk looked inviting enough so we found a table and ordered a couple of americanos to go with it. 50 euros later (!) we were good to go. We hurried now, because we were on the clock. At 9:30 our pre-paid online tickets would expire, we would turn into pumpkins, and all my organization and pre-planning would actually end up costing me money instead of saving me time. I drug Elise and the kids through the pyramid and the security line. When the ticket taker scanned the bar code on our tickets at 9:32 and let us in, Elise and I high-fived.
Everyone had to go to the bathroom. In our haste to get into the museum we forewent the conveniently located bathrooms just outside the main entrance. Now, we had to search the serpentine corridors of the museum for a bathroom.
Our journey took us — literally — to the catacombs of the Louvre. We passed through dimly-lit, rarely-visited galleries filled with ancient tiles and stones (probably from Jordan, Elise and I surmised) until we finally found a bathroom next to a service elevator in the basement.
That was locked.
We pushed on, trying our luck in Ancient Egyptian art, before finally finding the bathroom near the Italian paintings.
The first things the kids wanted to see — perhaps not surprisingly — was the Mona Lisa.
Afterwards, we wandered through the museum, even finding some exhibits Elise and I hadn’t seen on our first visit 12 years ago, such as Napolean’s apartment.
We left the Louvre right around lunchtime, grabbed ham and cheese baguettes at a kiosk just outside, and stopped in the Jardin de Tuileries for lunch. We slowly started to make our way to the Eiffel Tower through the garden, pausing frequently, once for ice cream at a small truck parked at one end of Pont Alexandre III.
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