Our first two days in Paris: Eiffel Tower and the Natural History Museum

View out the window of our apartment.

For all our worry about the 7-hour plane ride, the boys did great. Louis enjoyed his headset, listening to music, and David was happy to just read... also to stay awake the whole time. Louis's claim was that he slept the least of anyone on the plane, though in fact he logged at least 4 hours of sound sleeping, beating all his family by a long shot. We took the cab to our apartment in the 15th arrondisement. The apartment turned out to be on the 7th floor, not the 5th as we had thought. That's a lot of spiral steps.

Louis and David, just east of the Eiffel Tower

We rested up for a few hours then headed out to see the Eiffel Tower. The boys started catching glimpses of the top of the tower as we rode in on the train, just the very top of it between apartment buildings. When we got off the train, we walked right to the base of it, and the boys were thrilled.

The weather was warm but windy. We walked around the tower, took pictures, then walked along the Seine where the Christmas markets were up. It was a lovely first afternoon in the city with the great tables of nougat being chopped up, the cream-filled chocolates, the purple and yellow and green macaroons, the watches with Eiffel Towers on their faces, the trays filled with illuminated Eiffel-tower bric-a-brac. We walked back to the Metro, got little quiches and grapes and carrots and bread for supper, then tucked in early.

Christmas eve day, our second day in Paris
The boys woke up after 10 a.m., still tired from yesterday. We had bread and cheese and fruit for breakfast, then started the day with a train ride to Jardin des Plantes. We took the boys to the Hall of Evolution at the Natural History Museum. It is a great place to take kids. The exhibit is 5 stories high, an open hall with the exhibits around the edges.

We started in the basement with ocean life, giant swordfishes and a squid, schools of smaller ocean fish, flounders, a narwhal, little crabs, sea turtles, and penguins. We had been here before and loved it, but we hadn't been to the children's area, which turns out to be great. The children's focuses strongly on where animals live in the city. There are cut-aways showing insects in homes, pigeons roosting on buildings. There are taxidermic animals close enough that kids can almost touch them, and a small cave just the right size for a 1st grader, with a video of a mouse about kid-size nibbling away in the cave. One of the more unique exhibits was a panel discussion area where kids sit around a table, hear arguments regarding organic farming and other sustainable living issues, then vote on them. Kids each chose to be a character on the village board:

At the end of the discussion, the kids voted on whether they were convinced by the argument or not, and then they found out how the previous days' votes had gone.

We spent several hours at the museum, then headed out in the rain toward Shakespeare and Company. The boys were fading, and we weren't sure how things would go, but at the Cluny-Sorbonne stop we stumbled right into a comic book store that Rachel had found online, the Album, and the boys were delighted. We spent nearly an hour there, then walked up toward Notre Dame. It was Christmas eve, and in front of Notre Dame the police were managing crowds, letting in groups of 100 or so at a time. There was a huge screen outside broadcasting the priest conducting mass, and speakers broadcasting the choir. We went in to light candles and watch mass. Then we headed home for the night.