Day 41 - Nantes - Paris

Saturday, August 11th, 2018.

We took the OUIGO SNCF train from Nantes to Paris. It was a quick 2 ½ hours. I only had time to take a nap and no time to write. We took an Uber to our next home which, by the way, is the 10th, I think! We had to wait for a little bit for Lorette, a friend of our host that was in charge of giving us the key. After she gave us the keys, we went to buy groceries right away. We didn’t want to waste any precious time in Paris. When we came home we had a quick snack and then we took the metro directly to see the Eiffel tower. This was the first thing that the kids wanted to do. When we got there, we were shocked to see the lines just to get close to the Eiffel tower, and then you still have to make another line to climb up. Gregory was not excited at all, plus he had his swiss army knife so they were not going to let him in. He went to get a beer while we waited in line. We decided to climb the stairs instead of taking the elevator. It was worth the wait, the view was fantastic and the kids got an idea of what Paris looks like. We finally decided to come back after an hour and texted Gregory. We agreed to meet at the metro stop that we had taken to get there. I don’t know why I agreed to do that. If you know me, well, you know that I have no sense for directions so we made it to the wrong metro stop. After many texts, Gregory decided to come and find us, while we waited for him, Daniel and I went to Carrefour, a grocery store, to get a drink. When we came back, Gregory wasn’t there. He was waiting for us in another exit. No one told me there were so many metro exits! We took the metro and got out at the following stop and met him on the platform. I knew how to use the metro back in my days when I lived in Belgium, but we had just arrived and I wasn’t ready. Somehow, we figured it out and managed to meet with him.

After that, we walked through the Champs Elysees. It was great to know where we were and I wanted to say it was magical but the truth was that it was very crowded and we were hungry and we wanted to use the restroom. All the cafes and restaurants were full. It was a contrast to see young families from Syria asking for money in front of famous and expensive brands like Cartier or Louis Vuitton. Something just didn’t seem right.

We found a Monoprix and bought dinner. We walked to the end of the Champs Elysee to a nice park to have dinner and watch the people walk by. After that, we took the metro to see the Louvre. We waited there for a while for the sun to go down so we could see the pyramid illuminated. It was amazing to think how old was the castle in contrast with the modern pyramid! We took some nice pictures and then we were ready to go home. Gregory wanted to make one more stop to see Notre Dame at night. He insisted: “we are only one stop away” but we were exhausted from waking up early to take the train, the travel and all the walking we had done in less than half day. We went home and had no trouble falling asleep!


Train from Nantes to Paris

Ooh la la, the Eiffel Tower!


Amazing views


I love this picture (Lili)

People from all over the world!


The Arc de Triomphe


In the middle of the street

The pyramid

Palais de Louvre






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