A bigger outing

Grandma: You said all the photos from your trip to Paris with Papa decades ago were
lost by the photo processing folks way back then. I've edited this picture, taken all of
4 hours ago, to look maybe a little like one that you'd have in an album from that trip!  :)

This morning we left Thouars and made the 4.5 hour drive to Paris. (There's a faster route using better highways, but the roundtrip tolls on that would be at least $60, so we took the most direct route possible without tolls.) Jesse is meeting with someone for HOPE this weekend here in Paris, and we decided we might as well make a small trip out of it for the entire family.

The drive itself was overall smooth sailing with a nice picnic en route but was bookended by anxiety: The first 45 minutes on the road involved an inauspicious, terrible meltdown on William's part so we all were a bit frayed from the start. Then upon our approach to our hotel in a mind-bogglingly confusing array of roads and traffic in the heart of La Defense, we (a) got incredibly, incredibly lost and (b) had the engine of our new little car overheat! Gah. Before (a) and (b) took place, we got within 20 feet of the hotel entrance but couldn't enter the drive from where we were, and—I exaggerate not—it took us a full hour to eventually get back to that spot. At one point we ended up in a tunnel so long that we feared we would pop up in another country altogether. But to all of our relief, we made it safe and sound in the end...before anyone had a potty accident (which grew to a legit concern as time waxed on, and not just for the kiddos!!)...and with the car back to rights too (although we're not quite sure what happened there...will of course be keeping an eagle eye on it).

After checking in and dropping off our things, we turned around and headed straight for the metro. We decided to spend the evening at the Eiffel Tower, of course!

None of us has ever been to Paris, so this was a magical first stop for all of us. We walked all around and enjoyed, then we headed off to find a pizza for dinner, which we toted back to the Champ de Mars under the Eiffel Tower to enjoy picnic-style. 

Soon evening gave way to dusk, which in turn gave way to dark.

We saw the tower light up and loved the sparkle effect that happens at the top of the hour.

We gave the carousel a miss for the night since we knew we'd be hard pressed to be back by 10 p.m. as it was, awfully late for the boys, but we'll hit up one or two tomorrow for sure. 

And as a last note: Both boys spent the 2 euros apiece that they had brought, with Jesse helping them haggle for their souvenirs! William got a tiny snow globe (haggled down from 3 euros) and Josiah got a little Eiffel tower (haggled down from 4 euros, plus a little keychain thrown in).  They were positively triumphant over their purchases and deals!