The London & Paris Adventure

Courtney and Thomas said they would watch our kids for a few days so we could take a trip on our own somewhere.  I decided Paris would be a good choice.  Originally I had thought we would take the Chunnel, but I didn't realize that you had to buy tickets like an Airplane, and by the time I went to buy them they were really expensive.  More money than buying plane tickets.  So we decided to fly there.

We drove our rental car back to the airport to turn it in.  We would take the train from then on out.  After dropping off our car we took the train ride to Hyde park, where we had booked some tickets to a concert.  We were excited to see Bon Jovi for the first time at a concert in London!!  It was a festival, and Bon Jovi was closing, so I figured if we got there by 7pm we should be ok.

We got on the train after dropping off our car and didn't realize it took 45 minutes to get to our destination (not to mention some shady characters on the train).  We arrived at our stop, but still had some trouble finding our little hotel (we were trying to use a walking GPS app on our ipad along with dragging all of our luggage).  I had figured if it was across the street from the park, it would be close to the concert.  Little did I know that the park was the size of Central park in New York!!!  

We dropped our bag off in an old hotel, where our room was about the size of a closet. We were exhausted, but we hadn't eaten and it was already getting close to 7pm.

We headed out and figured we would get a bite to eat on the way to the concert.  I had figured there would be some advertising or signage about the concert, but there was nothing!!  We ended up trying to walk towards the sound/music we heard.  We were so tired and hungry, but there were no restaurants to be found.  We just kept walking and walking, and about 45 minutes later we found a huge clearing with carnival rides and the entrance to the concert.  Finally!!

As we approached the entrance, tired and hungry, we heard Bon Jovi singing!!!!  Brian and I were so upset.  All this way and we were missing Bon Jovi.  We hustled inside, and saw the largest crowd of people we had ever seen at a concert.  There was no way we were getting anywhere close to the stage.  For so many people being there, security was sparse.  People seemed to be very happy to be so far away.  

Then we noticed several vendors selling food and beer.  We got hot dogs and drinks and listened to Bon Jovi.  He played for several hours and it was an amazing experience.  In the end we were so happy.

After the concert we were so tired, we saw rickshaws ready to take us home.  We thought that would be well worth it.  After blasting Lady Gaga and almost getting killed, we made it back to our hotel.  He wanted 40 pounds for the ride, which is almost $80!!!  Brian negotiated him down thankfully.  Guess we should have done that before the ride.

The next morning we had to take the first train back to the airport.  We arrived at our apartment that we were renting and got a tour.  I had booked it through Airbnb.  It was an amazing location, but the bed wasn't very comfortable, and it smelled of rancid peanuts.  She was also quite messy.  There was quite a bit of clutter.  The lady also told us to make sure to lock the windows to make sure looters didn't get in while we weren't home.  There weren't any balconies.  It was a strait shot down and we were about 3 floors up, so we kind of got freaked out about that.  At night we ended up shutting the windows even though we were hot, since we were afraid of looters!

Our Building

The courtyard

View from the room

Our first stop was a quaint little eatery that the lady had recommended.  It was local, they didn't speak English at all so we tried to maneuver our way through the menu.

That evening I had booked dinner at the Eiffel tower.  First we headed to go on a river tour.  Unfortunately Brian got spit on from one of the people on a bridge.  We enjoyed an amazingly romantic meal on the Eiffel tower.  One thing we were beginning to realize is that food was extraordinary here.

Waiting for the boat tour

The boat

Before going up the Eiffel Tower

Spent some time on the grass after we had dinner.

The next day we made our way to Notre Dame, and went inside.  We also had seen that there was a free walking tour starting from there, so we decided to try and find it.

We found the beginning of the walking tour, and enjoyed the beginning very much.

The walking tour came to the Luve, and she told us that the first Sundays of the month are free, and today was the first Sunday of the month!  The line was huge, but she told us there was a "Secret Entrance" somewhere near the subway station.  We decided that we wanted to see the Luve, so we broke off from the group and decided to try and find this secret entrance.

After having no luck in the subway station finding the entrance, we googled it.  We were told to pass the gardens, and we could get to the entrance.  Sure enough, we found it and got into the luve free!!

We had a nice lunch in a pub with some seriously good food.

We always got a laugh when we saw the Smurfs movie poster (based in Paris).  That is a long word for Smurfs!

We had some great pastries.

We went to the war museum as suggested by Brian's cousin.  It was well worth the trip.

Some sort of government meeting was happening that morning, with an entire marching band.

Did a last spin through some shops and bought chocolates and presents for the kids.

We had a wonderful time touring Paris.

Heading home we barely made the last train back into Prickwillow where my brother lived.  We had quite the time trying to get tickets to board.  My brother said Connor tried to wait for us to get back.  He was really missing us.  Otherwise, everything went well while we were gone.