PARIS!!

We made it! We stopped in Disneyland and only got €5 discount even though we had got there at 5pm (they charge per day so a new day starts at 10am in the morning) but our park for the night app had failed us so we decided to go straight to Disneyland as the kids were getting fed up and we had no idea where else to go. The car park is expensive BUT it is in Disneyland itself, has great transport links into Paris, and has shower and toilet facilities, the only thing it was lacking really was electric hookup- more on this later.

The following day we decided to go and make our little girls dream a reality and take her to the Eiffel Tower- she’s been obsessed ever since myself and my husband came back from Paris last year and bought her a snow globe with the Eiffel Tower inside.

The sun was shining and all looked good as we made our way to the train station which is situated just outside the parks but then that’s where the ‘good’ stopped for now. We boarded our train to Paris only for it to stop way before our destination; the train was terminating here and we had no idea where we were or what to do next as everything was in French and unfortunately our French is basic (I never learnt French at school). We soon realised that no more trains were coming and decided to do our best to find out what was going on- well a lovely man helped us once we got outside and it turns out that the trains don’t run as they usually do at the weekends due to rail works! Brilliant! Just what we needed- who on earth stops train routes on the busiest days of the week! We had to walk to the station that was sign posted and wait for the next train only for it to stop and we had to get off again! This time we had to wait for a bus to take us into the city. By this point we were well and truly fed up and hoping this journey will be worth it and live up to our little girls expectations.

Well all was good again when our little girl shouted out with glee because she could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance and grew more and more excited the closer we got to it. We decided to get off and walk along the river Seine so she could take it all as we walked towards it with the sun baking us which each step. It looked better since the last time we saw it as the renovations they were doing around the outskirts of it was now complete- it now has a glass wall all around it’s base with two beautiful water walk ways inside. It looked amazing and best of all the queues to get inside were small now where as last time it took us about 2 hours just to get in! Our little girl looked up underneath this huge dream of hers and stared in amazement at how humongous it actually is compared to our replica model we brought back a year ago. Well we were going to go up it but HOW was a decision we left to our girl and of course she chose to climb instead of taking the lift- an achievement I managed myself a year ago when I was 5months pregnant! After explaining just how many steps there were she was still adamant that she wanted to climb so we got into the queue, which surprisingly was longer than the lift queue this time. It was going to be hard work- my husband had our son in the baby carrier on his back and I had our rucksack with supplies and our GB Pockit plus pushchair that we had put a strap around when compact so I could carry it across my body. It’s a light pushchair but still it’s bloody heavy when it’s digging into your shoulder and you’re climbing 674 steps with it BUT we were determined!

It WAS hard work but not as hard as we’d imagined it to be- I had to hold the pushchair in both hands at times as the digging got a bit too much at times but my god we were absolutely amazed at how well our little girl did! She climbed all the way to the second floor with only a brief stop on the first floor to take in the view before ascending yet again without moaning once! She was loving it! Our little boy was just as good as he had a great view so his head was on the swivel all the time not leaving much chance for him to get bored- apart from the queues, where he would moan and cling onto something without you knowing until you’re about to move again but can’t because you feel a force holding you back- that force would be our son! However, with the help of lovely strangers making funny faces at him and talking to him he soon let go. It took us no time at all to make it all the way to the top where we soaked in the wonderful view of Paris before making our long descent. Exhausted from our non stop travels, we decided to sit outside on the grass around the perimeter and let our son roam around for a bit so he could burn off some energy. We then made our way around the other side towards the fountain where myself and our little girl dipped our feet in the cold water of the fountain itself. Not long afterwards we all got hungry and found somewhere to eat before making our way back to the tower again to show our little girl ‘the magic’. We were unsure if we’d get there on time when we just made it onto one the the bridges near the tower bang on at 10pm when it happened. The tower sparkled! “Wow, mummy, Daddy look it’s sparkling, it’s sparkling!” She exclaimed with sheer excitement. She was well and truly excited, even more so than before but I thought that would happen anyway as our little girl goes made for anything sparkly but this was definitely a sight to see- she was dancing and singing with a massive grin on her face that I just had to record her reaction. It was very late and we still had to get back but we couldn’t have let her miss this for the world and her reaction was priceless!

As you could imagine, making our way back to the park was a nightmare- we had no idea where to catch the bus from so we walked it all the way to the metro station with my son on my back and our tired little daughter in the pushchair who both soon fell fast asleep. Well all was going well until the last train back where our son woke up and decided to scream the entire train journey and nothing we did could quieten him much to our embarrassment until we arrived back to the park and he heard the music from the walkway. Our little boy loves music and for some strange reason it calms him and usually sends him off to sleep if he’s tired. Well we were back in the motorhome and the day was finally over and as much as I loved it I was also glad to see the end of it! Now it was time to lovingly welcome sleep before getting up and going into Disneyland.