Europe Trip Part 13: Another Day in Paris

July 1, Saturday

Today was a good day to sleep in. We've all been under the weather. Jonny had it first, then Emily, then Andrew. Now, Daniel, Michael, and I all have colds. It hasn't been too bad, but just enough to make us extra tired and give us scratchy throats and runny noses. I had a hard time getting going this morning and so did Emily. Our plan had been to go to lunch at noon today but it ended up being more like 12:30 PM. We checked out the bakery on the corner and the Chinese food restaurant just a couple doors down. Daniel and I wanted the bakery, called Midore, and everybody else wanted Chinese, called Bai Wei, so we split up. I had a croissant with ham and cheese and Daniel had a hotdog. A lot of these places have a deal where you also get a dessert and a drink for a set price. So that's what we did.

We all went back to the hotel and got organized and met up again at 2 PM. Then we headed out. It's pretty difficult for us to find taxis and Ubers. There have been very few times when we've been able to get an Uber for all six of us. Sometimes the Uber app will look like it's trying to find us a ride in a van, but then it will say no vans are available. We tried that on Michael's phone and then I used my phone to order an Uber for four people. Emily, Jonny, and I all got into that one and headed to Sacre Coeur. Michael and the boys were able to hail a cab. Ironically, that one was a van. When we got there, there were hordes of people covering the stairs and all over the place. I told the kids we need to be on high alert for pickpockets. I didn't say pick pockets but they knew what I meant. We took a couple pictures and then we got in the line. 

It was a very long line so we thought that was a good idea because then Michael and the boys could join us but before we knew it, we were at the front of the line. There was a big tour group in front of us and I was trying to contact Michael but I didn't have any service. Next thing I know, the tour group is through and it's our turn. Emily and I didn't know what to do and we tried asking the security guard if we could just stand aside and wait for our family but he was very annoyed with us and so all we could do is just go through and go into the church. As soon as we got through, Michael said they were there so they had to wait in the line but it only took a few minutes, thankfully. We all enjoyed walking around the basilica. 

There was a beautiful mosaic on the ceiling and beautiful stained glass everywhere. I didn't even know what we were supposed to do there, so I looked it up online and it mentioned all the cool things about it like the mosaic, which we had already seen and the pipe organ and the crypt and the dome. The dome had too many steps so we didn't bother with that. I think it had more than the Arc de Triomphe. We couldn't see a way to get into the crypt. We did stop at the little gift shop so I could get a magnet. At first, I thought you weren't allowed to take pictures but I asked the guy and he said we had to take them behind the rope so I did. 

When we were done and walked out of the church, we took a few pictures together. I was kind of freaked out by the armed guards in various places. We saw about five or six of them. We had read about some riots last night so we assumed that's what that was about. 

Michael said we should put a lock on the fence so we bought one from one of the street vendors. He had a marker so we could write our name and the date on it and we found a good place to put it and took some pictures of that. 

After that, we were pretty undecided about what we should do. It was about 4 PM and Michael still wanted to go to the Army Museum. I had looked up the Eiffel tower and it didn't say that it was for sure closed for the day (it was closed yesterday due to strikes) so I told the kids we have one more shot at trying to get to the summit. We stood around discussing for a while and we were having a hard time figuring out what to do. I had to convince Michael to give it a shot to go to the museum even though it was going to close at 6 PM. He thought it was going to close at 5:30 PM but I looked it up and closing was at 6 PM. Daniel wanted to go with him and the others were all undecided. Michael and Daniel had fun at the Army Museum. 

Finally, Andrew and Emily decided they would go with me. Emily figured if we couldn't get in at the Eiffel Tower, we could go to the Rodin Museum or something. Jonny didn't want to go with anybody and just wanted to go to the hotel but obviously that wasn't an option and he finally decided to go with us. We got Ubers and went our separate ways. 

When we got to the Eiffel Tower, Andrew and I needed to go to the bathroom. There was no line for the men but the line for the women was ridiculous but I needed to go because I didn't know how long we would be standing in line. Emily and Jonny went and got in line. Apparently, there are two lines. One is the one that we were in with the scammer tour guide on Tuesday, and then there was another one across the way diagonally and that's the one Emily got in.  She had Andrew wait in the other one that we had been in on Tuesday just in case she was wrong and they weren’t the same. When I finally got done in the bathroom, I joined Andrew and I realized there was no way we were getting through that line. It was more than double the size it had been on Tuesday. Before I got in the line, I asked one of the officials which line I should go to and that's the one he pointed to. After a while of realizing that wasn't going to work, I asked another official if the one Emily was in was the same line and he said it was. As soon as we walked up to the ticket window, the guy changed the sign and it said no tickets to the summit are available. We all stood there in shock. Andrew said something to the ticket guy and he says no, you're OK, you can get them. That was a huge relief! We quickly bought our tickets. They actually said Summit on them. Then we went through security one more time and got in the line for the elevator. We got off on the second floor and went straight to the summit line. It actually moved fairly quickly. There were a lot of pushy people. The ride up was amazing! It wasn't quite as freaky as I thought it would be but it was a little scary. 

We got up and had fun taking pictures and walking around. It was kind of crazy up there. I think they let too many people up. Now I see why they sometimes will pause letting people go up because it was so crowded. I couldn't resist buying some macarons. We laughed when we got the box and it said Pierre Herme on it. Those were the macarons we had tried when we first got here and they weren't that great. Oh well. 

We got in the line to go down. Emily wanted to stop on the first floor and I agreed so that's what we did. We walked around briefly and walked on the glass floor and took some pictures. 

Michael texted to say they just got back to the hotel from the Army Museum. I told him we needed to figure out somewhere we could meet for dinner because it didn't make sense for us to go all the way back to the hotel because our Arc de Triomphe tickets were for 9:30 PM. I gave Michael three options that Marvin had told us and he chose La Relais de l'Entrocote. We took an Uber over there and there was a line wrapped around the side of the building. I didn't even want to get out of the car. I requested an Uber ride and asked our driver if he could let us stay in the car and he could take us to Brasserie La Lorraine, which was another option that's near the Arc de Triomphe. We made it to La Lorraine a little bit before they did and we asked for an English menu and looked at it and asked if they had a table for six and they said it would be 20 to 25 minutes. The wait was even shorter than that, but I kind of wish we had gone somewhere else. It was a little fancier than what we needed and the food was nothing special. I liked my salmon but it wasn't cooked all the way, Daniel and Andrew didn't like their steaks, and the service was typical. They ignore you for a while. Then they come and take your order and bring the food somewhat quickly. However, Michael loved his octopus. It was weird at this place because there were plates in front of us and then after he took our order, he took away all the plates, I guess because we didn't order some big seafood thing to share or an appetizer. But then they brought us bread and we had no plates so we got crumbs everywhere. Anyway, they did bring us our food fairly quickly but they never checked on us. That's typical around here. They give you your food and then you have to ask for anything else you want and you have to flag somebody down. Anyway, we finished our food and I had to ask for more water and dessert. They had a dessert called floating island that sounded amazing so they brought us two of those and they were just OK. Andrew loved it and so did Jonny, but the meringue part was huge. 

Floating Island dessert

We got the bill paid and walked quickly over to the Arc de Triomphe. Emily and Jonny love this show and had fun seeing the signs as we walked around Paris. 

It was hard to figure out exactly how to get there because you can't just walk across the street because you would never make it without getting hit by a car. You have to go underneath the ground into this little pathway but it took us a little while to figure out where it was. It was scary because there were a number of military and police milling around, questioning people, and holding big guns. We were kind of freaked out but we did it anyway. As soon as we got to the place where you go up and into the Arc de Triomphe, there was a handwritten sign saying that the last entry was at 8:45 PM and that it closed at 9:30 PM. We were so upset because our reservation was for 9:30 PM. We had made it for late at night so we could be up there at the top when it was dark and see the beautiful lights of the city but those dreams were crushed. I guess they closed it early due to the potential riots. There were multiple armored vehicles and police vans. We went over to the Arc and walked around with other people who were just viewing it from the bottom. We got some pictures and Michael talked about some history with us. After a while, we figured we needed to get out of there. 

I wanted to get a picture from the street with the Arc in the background. We crossed the street and found another place to take a picture. Then we decided we needed to get the heck out of there. It was kind of getting scary. We saw a reporter doing live reporting right there by us. In fact, we were probably on some kind of French TV tonight. 

We decided to hail a taxi so we walked down a little bit further. We were able to find one pretty quickly so Emily and Jonny and I got in. Michael and the boys were able to get a van, ironically, but I guess the guy went the wrong way so it took them a little time to get to the hotel. We said good night to the kids and told them what time to be ready tomorrow and we all went and got ready for bed.