A Frau in Frankfurt: The Next Chapter of the Life of an Ex-Pat: Paris- Ooh-La-La and ARGH!!!!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Paris- Ooh-La-La and ARGH!!!!

We had planned to spend 2 days in the City of Light, but thanks to terrorist threats we decided to only press our luck 1 day. We took a hot, smelly, crowded, and delayed train from Disneyland Paris into the city. Let me tell you, French trains are NOT like Swiss trains. Ew.

But, I digress. Let me start by stating I LOVE Paris. I just get a happy feeling, an ooh-la-la feeling, a I-could-just-sit-at-a-cafe-and-people-watch-all-day feeling when I'm in Paris. Someday, I want to go to Paris and just absorb the Paris-ness of the city.

But, alas, this was my third time in the city and I have yet to just sit and absorb. This day was meant for warp-speed sight seeing. Get in all the highlights in less than 10 hours. I think we did a good job and the kids and senior citizens (sorry, but you guys do fit the age requirements of the term) did a great job of keeping up with me! I led them all around the city and didn't leave much time for meandering. We marched through neigborhoods, into Notre Dame, down the end of the Champs-Elysee, through the Jardins de Tullieries, and through 2 sections of the Louvre. The only breaks we took were during the Seine boat cruise, a quick lunch, and a stop to feed ducks in the Tulieries.

In the Louvre, the kids almost broke us adults down. They got their second wind and had Audio Guides. Actually, they were really cool Multi-Media guides that had video and pictures and games for kids to play hide-and-seek like games at exhibits. They were on a mission to listen to every commentary possible and to find the Mona Lisa. My favorite part of this visit was when Lainey was listening to the commentary about a Botticelli. When it was over, she pulled me to the painting and said "Mommy, this painting is about a guy who was in the Battle of Jelly". (Botticelli=Battle of Jelly to a not-quite-five-year-old's ears). After about 3 hours of trailing behind the kids, we finally begged and convinced them to leave the Louvre. I'm not sure if this proves that my kids are highly cultured children or that my mom, aunt, and I are highly un-cultured. Either way, we finally left the Louvre around 7pm and headed back to the train to go back to our hotel.

You'd think my story could end there, but not yet. This was a vacation with Delainey. Seeing as we were leaving the next day and she had yet to throw up or need to be seen in hospital, I should have realized something was still to come. As we were connecting trains to go back to our hotel in Disney passing through the turnstyle at the train station in Paris, at rush-hour, Lainey got her hand stuck in the turnstyle's sliding door.

She starts SCREAMING and I'm trying to pull her hand out and there are masses of people trying to get home from work pushing behind me.

Her hand is STUCK.

I'm afraid to pull too hard, I don't want to break it. She's still SCREAMING. I'm sweating, my mom and aunt are panicking, people behind us are yelling. Finally, after the longest hour (or 45 seconds) of my life, a man reaches in and yanks her hand out. I didn't know whether to hit him or thank him for interfering. He tells us to go see a policeman. Lainey is still crying and now shaking too. I find the police man who is apparently used to this sort of thing happening. He leads us to a bathroom and says "She'll be fine. Just run some cold water on it" and leaves us. Luckily Lainey can move her fingers and nothing seems to be broken or permanently damaged.

No vacation is complete without a health-scare from Delainey.

We managed to calm her down and get back to the Disney area. We took the kids to Rainforest Cafe for dinner (I know, how French!) and then we all crashed into bed.

Maybe my next trip to Paris will be more relaxing. Maybe not.

At the Trocadero overlooking the Eiffel Tower. We decided not to go up it this time due to terrorist threat evacuations earlier in the week. Aidan was bummed. He REALLY wanted to go to the top.