Paris 2.0

This past week Germany celebrated Corpus Christi (Latin for Body of Christ and a Western Catholic feast). In doing so we had the luxury of a long, 4 day weekend. And as typical American's we packed up a suitcase and hopped in the car. We won't be here forever and we need to see all we can!

Where did we go? Back to Paris! It is about 4 1/2 hours south of us if traffic isn't too bad. It's hard to think that in the time it would take us to drive to Traverse City we can be in Paris. We went back because we enjoyed it so much the

first time around, but mostly because we didn't really see much. This time we were better prepared! We knew how the train system worked, which bus was the best to take and most importantly we remembered to get lunch before the restaurants closed for the afternoon. Happy belly's = happy kids. Plus Larry and I enjoyed a little more wine to take the edge off of the kids whining.

We started our first day with the hop on-hop off bus. It was a beautiful sunny day and the kids loved sitting on the open topped double decker bus. Larry and I could relax a little from making sure Landon didn't run off anywhere. It was great! We saw the Arc de Triomphe, Champes-Elysees and other sights along that route. We shopped a little and ended our evening eating dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Burger's and fries for the kids, a Corona for me and Larry and everyone was happy!

The next day the kids slept in! We missed breakfast (really not a bad thing) and headed back to the bus. This time we took a different routing and saw the Moulin Rouge. It's really perfect timing for us as a family since Ali is currently learning sex education at school ;) I really enjoyed our special chat at we passed by some great stores with interesting window displays! Good times! We ended the evening in the Latin Quarter for dinner with a stroll past the Notre Dame.

On our last day we headed to see the Statue of Liberty (yes they have one too!), eat the best Falafel ever! and the kids played in the Luxembourg garden before getting in the car again for the drive home.

We had our fair share of meltdowns along the way (yes, all of us at one time or another) and we never saw a single museum or actually walked into a tourist attraction, but we enjoyed Paris in a way we have become accustomed to. We travel to the beat of a stubborn 4 year old and the interest level of an 8 year old. If you don't fight it and remember to be thankful you're even on a vacation, it can be quite enjoyable.