Weekly Wackies - Week 4-5

- Walking in Paris is easy and rewarding. Shops and beautiful buildings and landscaping make the walk seem short. There are more and more days here where we don't get on a single vehicle.

- The stroller is a life-saver. Most streets are very stroller friendly, other than occasional stairs, especially in metro stations. We have used it for naps, booting it quickly between attractions, glorified shopping cart, jackets hanger, plus more.

- Packing light is a big difference. Our family with 2 young kids had 2 bags to take on the train. We saw another family with only a baby about Isaac's age who brought 9 bags, complete with play pen, bugaboo in its fashionable cover, etc. Poor dad was sweating bullets.

- Fete de la Musique in Paris was yesterday (summer solstice). The city comes alive with music. Amateur musicians come out and play too. Our grocer at the Marche went busking on metro after selling us carrots. Isaac enjoyed the Polynesian dance at Luxembourg Gardens, and the band below our apartment.

- There is reason why rain gutters are bigger in Paris. Yes, it rains a lot.

- Baby formula comes in "Pain au Chocolat" flavor. Nestle makes vanilla baby cereal that tastes good enough for adults to eat. Alas, it is still not enough to entice Isaac back to baby food. He prefers croissants, foie gras, and orange duck.

Review on the Run: Eiffel Tower (4 of 5)

The cousins from Cardiff have joined us in Paris for 5 days so the first sight we saw was the Eiffel Tower!

Eiffel Tower (4 of 5)
The world famous landmark was built in 1889 as part of the World Fair in Paris.  The designer was Gustave Eiffel who beat out many other designs that included a giant guillotine (how cheezy!).  It's funny, but we've waited so long to see this and have seen it from afar from every other location in Paris that it felt a little anti-climactic finally coming here.  From an Engineering standpoint it was so well designed that it weighs no more than 64 lbs per square inch at its base.  From a Project Management standpoint, 300 men took only 2 years to build for only 1.5M Francs - a total they they almost recovered from the 1889 World Fair sales alone.  Today there are roughly 7M people that visit the Tower - so it is crowded.  If you don't happen to do advance online bookings (which you usually have to do one month in advance) which gets you an exact time slot of entry, then the best time to go is either first thing in the morning or last thing at night.  The tower opened at 9:30am, we started to line up at 9:15am and was up the tower by 9:45am.  We've heard line-ups during prime time (11am-4pm) can be up to 1 hours long and the Museum Pass is not accepted here.  There are 3 levels in the Tower (1, 2, and the top).  I'd recommend only getting a ticket to the 2nd level, especially with kids.  The summit can only hold 65 people at a given time and can be nothing but wind up there.  The views are better from the 2nd level where the monuments are closer and more recognizable.  You can take the stairs if you wish.  It is ~350 to Level 1, ~650 to Level 2, and ~1650 to the summit.  If you really want to take the stairs, take the elevator up, and the stairs down - much easier on the kids... and the quads.  Is it worth the trouble?  Of course!  So why only 4 of 5?  I find the Eiffel tower is best enjoyed from afar (from Trocadero or similiar) where you can actually see the tower.  Although the views of Paris are better from the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame, you simply cannot have a stay in Paris without seeing this tower up close.