Mother Daughter Paris Trip report (including 7 day RS Best of Paris)

The taxi was stressful. Our taxi driver used his horn a lot but eventually we were at our hotel at 8:38 a.m. He pointed out some Olympics related things, and their seat of government. I had heard so many times on videos that “Paris is very walkable,” but I wasn’t so sure after this drive because of how everyone was driving. There were two lanes marked but cars (including the taxi we were in) would just squeeze in beside the other two. I knew check in wasn’t until afternoon but the hotel would keep our luggage locked for us until then. Adrien at the hotel directed us to sit and relax until he retrieved my paperwork so I could pay for the extra nights. He brought a tray with chocolate croissants and coffee. my daughter was so excited to try coffee in France but it made her so shaky, she was onto hot chocolate every day after that. Adrien told us they had an early check out that morning and as soon as our room was ready we could go into it. We were not expecting that! my daughter took a nap, I showered. Finally I woke her up and she asked the time. I said 11:30. She asked, “p.m.?” no, a.m. But we shouldn’t let her sleep at all day, so we walked to the Invalides / Army museum to see Napoleon’s tomb and taxidermed horse. We started by looking at the special liberation exhibit. I didn’t know all of the names of prominent French people, but did recognize some of them. Then we went up to the concentration camp displays. They were very sad, of course. We met an older British couple. They seemed interested to talk a little. When I told them about my grandpa, right away the man said, “oh the screaming eagles!” and said he had recently met a high ranking WW2 officer but not too many veterans from WW2 are alive now.
We found Napoleon Bonaparte’s tomb, as well as monuments to his son, Napoleon II king of Rome. I don’t think my daughter appreciated my jokes about his not being potty trained when his dad made him king. Foch had a very decorated grave. We looked at military wagons, artillery, paintings of Napoleon, and of course his stuffed horse. I wanted to see Le Vizir, Napoleon’s Arabian horse and it didn’t disappoint, though I was really tired.
Finally it was time to move onto the Rodin museum. I thought being outside in the sunshine would be good for resetting our circadian rhythms. So we meandered around the sculpture garden, saw The Thinker, among others. Then went inside to see the rest of the museum, mostly sculptures but some paintings too, and a bust of Victor Hugo who wrote our main literature book for year 10 (Les Miserables).
For a very late lunch/early supper, we decided to walk to Aldi for meat and cheese and then to a bakery to ask for a baguette in French. Then we walked to the Eiffel tower and sat on a bench not far from it and enjoyed out little French lunch. The weather was lovely. We still had time to find the Seine River, about a 15 minute walk, and saw the Russian Orthodox church, which I later learned there was some resentment about what a good location it obtained. Finally we walked back to our hotel and went to bed relatively early.

Wednesday April 2

We walked just a few minutes to meet a group going to Monet’s gardens. While planning for this trip, I didn’t want to walk 45 minutes to the train station and have to figure all of that our on our first full day so I paid for an unguided visit to Giverny for Monet’s house and gardens. The bus drive was interesting, especially as we approached Giverny. The guide directed our attention to a new bridge and also a bombed one from Normandy’s liberation (we had left the Paris area and were now in Normandy). They flew the American flag at Monet’s gardens. This was the 2nd day of the season that Monet’s gardens were open. Tulips, hyacinth, daffodils, and other flowers were blooming. It was too early for waterlilies, which I knew. But we enjoyed walking around the gardens and eventually walked through his house. I was glad that I had just recently read aloud a biography of Monet and we had been looking at his paintings quite a bit recently. It was fun to think of his children helping in his gardens. I bought some pink flower seeds from his garden. Then back to Paris. We saw the statue of liberty that is in the river as we approached Paris.
That afternoon I learned how frustrating Google Maps is in Paris. It should have been a 45 minute walk to Monet’s Marmottan museum, but Google maps kept recalculating and adjusting our route. We were not making much progress with all the changes, and all the difficulty even seeing the street names high up on some buildings. Finally, we were hot and stressed so I went to a restaurant and an employee helped me call a taxi to get us to the museum. I had originally planned on not using the Metro until our guide taught us, but after paying for the taxi ride and dealing with the traffic and such, I decided we would start using the Metro after we were done visiting the Marmottan.
My daughter especially enjoyed this museum, and even saw Napoleon I’s bed there and paintings of him. Downstairs we saw the largest collection of Monet paintings anywhere in the world. We saw familiar and unfamiliar ones and just took our time. Very few other people were there on this Wednesday afternoon. When it was time to leave, I asked the man at the front door which way to the Metro. Finally we found it, bought two Navigo easy passes and loaded them with 6 rides each. my daughter asked if we were going back to the hotel. I said no, we’re going to the Louvre. It would have been an hour walk (without getting off track) but it was a 20-some minute Metro ride. Before long we were at the Louvre! my daughter had the biggest smile! Right away my Amis du Louvre (friends of the Louvre) card that I bought for my daughter’s Christmas gift benefited us. We had no lines to wait anywhere, just went to the front of the line with our Louvre card. We enjoyed the Winged Victory of Samothrace, although after getting turned around and seeing her the 6th time, we enjoyed her a little less. We had very little line to see Mona and we both agreed she was bigger than we expected, after so many people talking about how small she is! We found Madonna of the Rabbit, both the original, and the study of it directly above. My daughter was so happy and excited. We walked around and kept seeing amazing art everywhere. After a few hours of this, they announced that the Louvre would be closing so we made our way to the Metro and rode back to the Metro stop nearest the hotel (close to the military school that Napoleon attended). We felt fine walking the 8 or so minutes back to the hotel after sunset. Paris is very lively city and so many people are still out late at night.

Thursday April 3

This was our full day at the Louvre, AKA the best day of my daughter’s life. We arrived right at 9:00 opening after a nice morning walk. We started with the Babylonian palace. It was amazing to see the dates and realize that Daniel very well likely walked through these doors. There was so much to see and not even crowds yet. This was our reward for not starting at the really popular sections. We especially enjoyed the statue of Ebih-II, high ranking dignitary of the city of Mari. He looked so sincere and in a way reminded us of one of our pet rabbits. We ended up visiting him on each of our subsequent visits. It didn’t matter which way we went; there was amazing art wherever we wandered. Eventually we were approaching a special display and I found one painting my daughter really was hoping to see. The night before I had asked a Louvre employee about another painting by this artist and they said it was on loan to a smaller Louvre museum in the north of France. So that was disappointing, however, that made this find even more exciting! Fortunately for me, there was a nice drawing of a hare across from the “vegetable head” man so I could look at that while my daughter looked the vegetable man. I really enjoyed the sculptures in the Louvre and we admired Michelangelo’s slaves quite awhile. I appreciated that we weren’t rushed since we had the entire day devoted to the Louvre. I hadn’t expected that we would stay the whole 9 hours but my daughter has very high stamina for art museums and we did stay the entire 9 hours. We did sit for a sandwich at the Louvre which was nothing special but kept us going until closing time. She managed to spend an entire hour in one room of Rubens paintings. I sat for awhile then ended up just walking around adjoining galleries. It was still light out so we walked back to the hotel and picked up hot sandwiches at a nearby boulangerie.

Friday April 4

The day started at the Louvre again, although we took a more scenic walk this morning, Just crossed the Seine River at Ponte Alma (the nearest bridge to our hotel) and walked along the river until we reached the Louvre. There was a Dutch gallery that was closed on Thursdays that I really wanted to see so I was glad we were going on multiple days. First we had to say good morning to my daughter’s vegetable head man. Before long we were admiring Vermeer’s Lace Maker and Astronomer, and many Rembrandt paintings, including a very atypical depiction of Bathsheba holding King David’s letter feeling very sad about her husband’s eminent death. We made it downstairs for the sphinx and the fortress part of the Louvre. We even had time to look at the Napoleon apartments. At noon my daughter had reached her art limit threshold, which I didn’t even know she had.
We walked to the Opera Garnier to visit with our timed tickets. It was quite opulent. I enjoyed the room full of opera scores from floor to ceiling. We were not terribly excited to see more art there. We really had both reached our art limit. They displayed costumes from operas and drawings of the costumes and sets. I was excited to see very large statues of Gluck and Handel.

Onward to Napoleon’s Arc de Triomphe. On the way we saw a statue of Balzac. We climbed the 284 (mostly tight spiral) stairs and were at the top. I was glad my knees were surviving. I appreciated the map they had on the top so that we could identify the large buildings below. The Louvre was one of the bigger buildings in the city. No wonder we lost our way in there so many times. It was windy at the top but we stayed awhile taking pictures and just looking. I didn’t mind how high we were until my daughter said something about it. Inside the Arc they had a gift shop and I decided this would be a good place to get our other 3 children their mini Eiffel Towers they wanted so badly. I didn’t want to support the Africans selling on blankets illegally all over the city. my husband messaged that he would like a mini Arc de Triomphe. Then lots of stairs down, and then we paid our respects at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WWI, it was really a touching sight. We saw the decorated officer. Every evening a veteran ceremonially relights the torch. Then we used the pedestrian underpass to safely get under the one of the world’s busiest traffic circles. Then a mostly downhill walk to our hotel. This was a very full day of walking.

Saturday April 5

A week prior to this I set my alarm to buy tickets for the Catacombs exactly when they were released. So we were right at the beginning of the line after using the Metro to get very near this entry. Good thing, too, because they had a sign saying that they were sold out for the day. Several people walked up for tickets that day and were turned away. I was a little worried that this wouldn’t be respectful because I had seen a Youtube video of a man telling his boys about the catacombs and they were too excited to really be demonstrating that there were many many peoples’ remains here. But the tickets came with an audio-guide. Many stairs down and then about 18 spots with audio to listen to. I appreciated the Bible verses and other quotes in Latin throughout. The audio-guide said that this was the cathedral where all were equal because everyone dies. They had signs throughout to mark from which cemetery and the date these remains were exhumed. One night many years ago there was a clandestine concert in the catacombs with Requiems and Chopin’s Funeral March and such.

After the catacombs we visited the nearby and small Liberation Museum. It even had a camel saddle from World War 2! And a dress made to celebrate liberation and ration cards. There was a sign saying how many grams of meat people were allowed to get. By the last year, the French were only allowed a couple of ounces of meat if they were even still alive, of course.

We had a little walk to take my daughter to Creperie Josselin. We had sausage galettes (buckwheat savory “crepe” but they don’t call them crepes, they are galettes). Then split a nutella crepe with whipped cream for dessert. The server was very kind and we had a relaxing lunch outside. I went inside to pay and by the time I came out he already had another couple at the table so I couldn’t leave a tip at the table but I did hand him 2 Euros (appropriate tip for France where service is included) he thanked me quite sincerely and welcomed us to return.
We then walked to Musee’ Curie, honoring Pierre and Marie Curie also with information about their children. We saw Marie’s labs, instruments, the lead container used to hold the gram of radium that American women raised funds to buy for her when radium became too expensive for her to afford any to do more experiments. I was glad I had relatively recently read aloud a biography of Marie Curie to my sons. We saw radium watches (glow in the dark, great for soldiers). Overall, it was a very small museum and we waited about 30 minutes to be allowed in due to their 35 people at a time limit. But I was glad that people are interested enough in her to stand in line and go to her museum on a beautiful Saturday.

After that, we were not far from the Pantheon so we walked there. There was a pretty long line for people who didn’t have tickets so I quickly stepped aside and bought tickets on my phone and then immediately went to the front of the ticketed line and we got right in. The main level had some interesting statues and displays but we were more interested in the crypt below. my daughter’s highlight of the entire day was seeing Alexander Dumas’s and Victor Hugo’s graves, both of which were in the same little side room. There were several hallways with small rooms holding 3-4 graves in them. We especially noticed Louis Braille, Marie and Pierre Curie (with Polish flags in recent flower arrangements), Emile Zola, Dumas, and Hugo. Voltaire had a big memorial. We took a second look on the main level before leaving then took a few pictures outdoors, including one of us with a building that had the French motto on its facade: Liberté, égalité, fraternité. Then Metro back to the hotel for the evening.

Sunday April 6

The first Sunday of every month the Cluny Museum is free so I wanted to get there right at opening time so we could visit before it was time for the organ prelude at St Sulpice. So we took the metro and got there really too early to be happy with waiting with as cool as it was, but there wasn’t really time to walk anywhere too far. We walked a little then just waited back at the museum. We got right in at 9:30. I was a little disappointed that the Roman baths were closed for the next several months. But we saw Jesus on a Donkey on wheels, statues of heads that were originally on the western facade of St Denis., binding of a Gospel Book, medieval game pieces and doll house toys. Then we arrived at the room I was most eager to see – the unicorn tapestries! I was so happy to see the rabbits on the tapestries, all alive and happy, especially after all the paintings dead rabbits I had to see at the Louvre. But we took our time enjoying these bunnies. I may have taken advice to stay away from girls with clipboards (young women who shove a clipboard against someone’s waist so that their partner can steal from below the clipboard) a little too seriously when I denied understanding a girl with an information sheet about the tapestries but we were on a fairly tight schedule and I had already watched many videos on these tapestries so I didn’t need her to explain them to us. Then it was time to walk to church.
We arrived at the Church of St Sulpice just before the organ prelude started. A lady fluent in English gave us an informational booklet about the church and said we could keep it as a souvenir. Then she asked if we wanted to stay for mass and seemed quite pleased when I said that we wanted to. So we found seats towards the front. Once the service started, I peeked at the paper of the man in front of us to try to figure out where they were. I was fairly unsuccessful following along since they definitely didn’t start at number one (I’m pretty sure it was number 16). Sometimes I could find the correct spot, though, and I was very thankful to read the Apostles’ Creed aloud in French with them when that point came. We had a point in the service to regard each other and they all seemed welcoming and gracious and it was special. There was a lot of incense, especially at the beginning, and I was glad we were on the edge, not the center and I was thinking I hope that none of the church officials get headaches easily. It was an hour and a half service and I did not understand it all but my daughter and I were both glad we went. (Later we found out that several of our tour mates were also there).

We had gelato for lunch. Then sat in Luxembourg gardens for a little while. I was happy to see ponies for the children to ride and many children pushing sailboats around with sticks. It seems that even though Paris is such a big city, they have good places for children to play in parks. We walked back to the hotel to have a little rest time before we met our tour group for our first meeting for our Rick Steves’ Best of Paris in 7 Days tour.
We met our tour guide Rolinka and got ready to make our weekly transportation pass (she made sure our photos were the correct size) and we chose our appetizer, main dish, and dessert for that evening. my daughter was eager to try snails. I chose French onion soup for my appetizer. We both had salmon for supper and I had crème brulee and my daughter had chocolate cake. We assembled our tour passes and all 23 of us went around introducing ourselves to the group (or one representative from each couple). I said that we were here because when I asked my daughter if she could go anywhere where would it be and it took her less than a second to say “Paris, for the Louvre!” Then Rolinka asked my daughter which painting she was looking forward to seeing the most at the Louvre. After my daughter said that we had already been there for 15 hours, everyone clapped for us. Then Rolinka asked what my daughter liked the most at the Louvre and my daughter said the Coronation of Napoleon. We had an overall very well traveled group. Many had taken multiple Rick Steves’ tours before this one. After a good dinner we walked back to the hotel and slept some before starting our first full tour day.

Monday April 7

We started with a walk to the Metro and Rolinka gave a lesson on using it. I had figured most of this out already on my own or with videos but it did clarify some things. We started on Ile de la Cite’ and saw the exterior of Notre Dame. Sainte-Chapelle had very long lines, but Rolinka found a security guard and directed 3 of the tour group “with the best smiles” to stand in the front. She managed to get us in soon afterward. The guard wanted to know which states we were from. When one man said Texas, he said “Oh, cowboys and petrol!” I could have stayed at Sainte-Chapelle much longer just studying the stained glass but I was excited to at least find a few Noah panels and some of the prophets. Fortunately, it was a sunny day so it was especially nice to see the stained glass.
Then we walked through the Latin Quarter. Rolinka explained medieval roads and Hausmann construction throughout the city. After our group activities I bought sandwiches that my daughter and I ate at Luxembourg gardens. We enjoyed the spring flowers and the Medicis fountain and a statue of liberty. I told my daughter that morning that she could just bring her Kindle and read at the gardens and relax. But after a few minutes of sitting, I suggested that we were only 20 minutes from the Louvre and we could visit once more before it closed at 6 (it would be closed entirely on Tuesday). I didn’t have to ask her twice. On the way, we stopped at the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and looked at the stained glass, the monuments, including one to a 17th century Polish king, and memorials for the people from that church who died in the world wars. While we were there the organist was practicing and we just sat and listened for a good 15-20 minutes. Then we finished our walk to the Louvre.

This was a shorter Louvre visit but we saw some of our favorites from earlier visits, looked more carefully at the crown jewels, the apartments, and some ancient Egyptian art. We walked back through the Tuleries gardens and past the Obelisk, at Place de Concorde. My phone started freezing earlier in the trip but it was getting more frequent and longer by now. I deleted any apps that I could but I really wanted to keep City Mapper because it was so useful in getting around. By the time we walked back to our hotel, our feet were tired and we were too tired to pick up a sandwich. We ended up having cold lemon water, almonds, and pound cake at the hotel breakfast area.

Tuesday April 8
This morning Rolinka led us on a walk through Montemarte. It was very interesting to see where Picasso, Renoir, and Van Gogh lived and hear stories from both Rolinka’s time (she had owned an apartment very near where we were) and the artists’. Rolinka said it was time that we have a language lesson so she was going to take us to a cafe’ where the waitress only spoke French. So she helped us rehearse asking for hot chocolate or coffee. Once she was satisfied with our progress, we walked upstairs and sat down at tables with a plates of pain au chocolat. Then soon after, our waitress came, and it was none other than Rolinka! We told her in French what we wanted to drink and then relaxed a bit with our tour mates and got a bathroom break. Later, we saw the man who got caught walking through the wall (Rolinka told his story), and ended our walk at Sacre Couer. It looked crowded for going in so my daughter and I took the funicular down with two other ladies from our tour. Then we had a short walk to Notre Dame. I had confused my tour days at midnight when it was time to book tickets and got them for this afternoon instead of Monday but it worked out just fine. I wanted to take our time there and also to buy a gift for my neighbor friend. Notre Dame is so beautiful and clean. Though it was full of visitors, it was also peaceful. After we spent about 45 minutes there, we found Point Zero and I took pictures of my daughter there. We were right by the archeological crypt but didn’t have the energy to stop there. I used Citymapper to get us back and it directed us to take the underground train, so that’s what we did! It went fine. Finally we were back to the hotel and I just wanted to rest before our group dinner and Seine River cruise.
Just before dinner, Rolinka had us meet in the hotel breakfast area for a geography lesson. She said she can’t call an expense legitimate if it’s just wine and cheese, but geography and cultural lesson is quite reimbursable. So she had a map of France and taught us about grapes and the soil and weather. It was a relaxing time and I ate nice grape tomatoes and blueberries.
We had a delicious dinner. my daughter and I both chose hardboiled eggs on salad for appetizer, sea bass with ratatouille, and all the ladies received a sort of berry sorbet on top of a white sticky crème (it was very good). Rolinka was hoping we could make it for an 8:00 cruise so that the sun would be setting while we were out, but we hadn’t received desserts yet and it was nearly time to go. But all of us agreed to eat quickly and do our bathroom breaks while we waited.
We walked to the Ponte de Alma area and made it! Rolinka charmed the security man once again, and we got to board first so that we were on the river side (she advised us that this would be the best side to see). She explained the bridges, the place where they will bring in sand from beaches for the summer Paris Plages, where people like to dance in the evenings, and we saw Notre Dame, Saint-Chapelle, and the Louvre again. It was such a beautiful evening. Then just as we were finishing, the Eiffel Tower began its 5 minute sparkle (starting at 9:00 p.m.). It was a very special moment.

Soon there was a man trying to sell sparkling Eiffel Towers, for 10 Euro, then for 1 “American Dollar!” or 10 dollars, and he kept on saying different things. One lady from our group bought one. Then we had a nice walk back to our hotel.
Wednesday April 9
As a group, we took the Metro to the Marais district. We had an American guide whose husband is French. She did a good job of explaining the history, we stopped at a church that had been bombed, Place de Vosges, a park, so many beautiful gardens, and the Shoah Memorial. We saw a memorial to people who saved Jews during World War 2, and also the first monument to acknowledge that the Vichy had been arresting Jews as well as the Nazis. When our group walk was done, Rolinka showed us options for lunch. My daughter and I got pastrami sandwiches to go from a Jewish shop and then just as we were exiting, the man working there handed me two pieces of layered cake. Rolinka showed me a small park in which we could eat our lunch. Then we walked to the Carnavalet Museum (Paris history museum) and spent some time there, though it could have been longer. After that, we were close to Victor Hugo’s house so we stopped in there. I especially enjoyed original drawings from Les Miserables, including a very sweet one of Cossette carrying water and Jean Val-Jean helping her. Then we just needed rest time, and we had been advised to rest before our evening Louvre visit, so we took the Metro back to the hotel and rested a little.
I had told Rolinka the day before that we would be leaving the Louvre early so that we could attend a St Matthew’s Passion (JS Bach) concert for which I bought tickets back in November (back when the itinerary had the Louvre scheduled for Wednesday afternoon). She was very understanding and helped confirm what Metro line to take to the concert and how much time to give ourselves. The Louvre guide was very good, but I felt like I was going through the spin cycle of the washing machine, it just all went so fast! She sure knew her way around the building and was being very efficient at giving a highlights tour. Finally, it was 6:30 so I told Rolinka we were heading out. She said she thought we would have already left. That got me into fast gear to get to the Metro! We sped walked to the exit then ran to the Metro, just catching the train by a few seconds. Then once we got off it was an 8 minute walk. Well, we got to the theatre early enough and once we got upstairs and found our doors, I opened them and a man inside shooed us away saying the doors weren’t open yet. So I apologized, and then about 20 seconds later he opened them! It was 7:00 and the performance started at 7:30. It was a beautiful theatre.
I had purchased the 2nd best category of seats and we were in the front row of the balcony. We heard the cellist warming up and eventually others joined him. By the time it started, most people had found their seats and it was full. Then the music started and it was all so beautiful. It begins with Jesus announcing his death, and being anointed at Bethany. This is all in German, but they had French and English subtitles on a screen. At one point the choir tells Pilate to let His blood be on themselves and on their children. At the end, Jesus is in the grave and women are singing a lullaby “sleep my Jesus” essentially. I was so tired, and the chairs were so comfortable, it was hard not to sleep as well. But soon the oratorio was done and after much applause, my daughter and I finally left to walk back at nearly 11:00 p.m. When I saw how close to 11:00 we were, I decided to just wait on the Ponte de Alma bridge a couple of minutes so we could watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle. We enjoyed that a few minutes then continued our walk.

Amazingly, some restaurants still had their lights on, although most were cleaning up, not serving food. I had been nervous about booking this concert knowing that it was over 3 hours long, and that it would be dark out when we left so I was very relieved to see how many people were out and that it felt fine being out that late. We had granola or Lara bars for a late supper and then fell asleep.

Thursday April 10
One reason I wasn’t sure about buying tickets to the concert was that Thursday was our full day at Versailles but I ended up sleeping solidly, even if it was a shorter night. As a group, we took the train to Versailles. When I read the tour description, I didn’t know how I’d feel about coming back on our own from Versailles, but it ended up being quite easy. It was an exceptionally bright sunny day. We had a good tour inside the palace. Yes, some rooms were crowded, but not as bad as it could have been. We saw various art and furniture, walked though the hall of mirrors, and saw the place where the Treaty of Versailles was signed. We admired the copy of the Coronation of Napoleon (that my daughter had especially enjoyed at the Louvre). After that, we were free to explore the gardens, Grand Trianon, Petit Trianon and, our favorite, The Queen’s Hamlet. We were already delighted with the hamlet and the tranquility there as well as the beautiful blossoms on the trees when things suddenly became even more delightful – we found rabbits! There was an enclosure with 5 (presumably does) together and one (presumably buck) on his own. We watched them quite awhile. Then we pet a pony, watched the goats interact with the rooster. There were ducks, ducklings, and pot bellied pigs. We took our time there and just enjoyed the afternoon. Finally, we started the long walk back out of the gardens and on to the train station. We met an older couple from Kansas and my daughter kept up a good conversation with the lady, who was a retired high school teacher. They seemed surprised that she enjoys history so much. Finally it was time to get off at our stop. The problem was that the (likely American) at the doors didn’t listen or understand when I asked him to open the door, so we had to stay on the next stop. I was not pleased, but we walked back from the Invalides stop to our hotel, it was just a lot of walking. We were both tired but I didn’t feel like eating another Lara bar for supper. Finally, my daughter agreed to walk next door to have supper at a bistro. We shared a charcuterie board for appetizer then my daughter had shell fish and I had duck with sweet potato souffle. It was all good and we were too full for dessert. We saw several people from our tour during supper since we were dining outside and some stopped to say hi. Our time was wrapping up but it had been a very good vacation.

Friday April 11
We started with a Metro ride near d’Orsay but the museum had changed our original tickets because they wanted school children to have the earliest spots. Rolinka led us on a little area walk and then finally we go to the museum to have a guided tour with an older extremely good guide. She did not mind telling people in the museum to be quiet or to step aside. She explained history and art very clearly, although it was painful to walk past so much familiar art (like Whistler’s Mother) and not have time to really look at it. I had booked 1:00 Orangerie museum tickets so we couldn’t stay after the tour was over, so I was regretful about that, but there wasn’t anything to do. Many of our tour mates were disappointed that they couldn’t see the Orangerie but I had booked our tickets the first of February. It was a short walk to the Orangerie and our primary interest there was the 2 rooms of Monet’s Waterlilies. I did enjoy them, but it would have been nicer if people had respected the signs that said to enjoy the paintings as Monet had intended them, in silence.

It was full of teenage girls contorting their bodies just so for photos, as if they were the most beautiful thing in the room (they weren’t, the Waterlilies were much nicer). Fortunately many of them didn’t notice the second waterlily room, or they had already gotten enough for the social media accounts in the first room. We sat there awhile and eventually made it to the rest of the museum, but much of it was modern and we didn’t enjoy it as much.
That morning, two of our tour mates said that they didn’t have any plans that afternoon. The man had been taking photos the whole tour, and he and my daughter were the only ones who had brought cameras. A few days earlier, I showed him a photo my dad gave me of my grandpa and his company in front of the Eiffel Tower. I really couldn’t figure out which side it was from, but he used Google street view to figure it out. So he and his wife met us at Place du Trocadero that afternoon. It was a very sunny day so the lighting was not good, but we did the best we could. It was the one thing my dad asked for, so I really wanted to do this. After that, we walked back to the hotel to let my daughter rest. I stepped out for a little bit to buy a little thank you gift for our tour mates who had taken our pictures. Then soon it was time to meet our group again.
The hotel wanted to thank us with champagne or orange juice and we met the hotel’s next generation (little baby son, grandson of the founders). Then we walked to Pasco for our farewell dinner. my daughter and I sat with the couple that had taken our pictures and we had a nice conversation. My daughter had fun discussing Napoleon Bonaparte and literature. They were both well-read and she had homeschooled their two children quite a few years. I had white asparagus, my daughter had an egg on top of mushrooms for appetizers. I had salmon and she had risotto for our entree, then we both had a citrus cheesecake. Then as we left the hotel, we saw the full moon over Napoleon’s dome. It did not fail that every single day of vacation there was at least one mention of Napoleon Bonaparte, much to my daughter’s delight. Once we walked back to the hotel we returned our audiosystems and said our final goodbyes. Once we got back to the hotel, I messaged my husband good night and that I’d be getting up for the day before he went to bed.

Saturday April 12
I had requested (I think Arnaud at the hotel) to arrange a 6:50 taxi pick up. He questioned 6:50 versus just 7:00, but I said I’d feel better with 6:50. So we got to the lobby by 6:40 and had a quick pastry and coffee for me while we waited. Finally at 6:53 our taxi was in the street. I confirmed that we were going to the airport and that the price was correct and then it was a slightly less stressful taxi ride to the airport than it had been when we arrived. We said our final goodbye to the Eiffel Tower and the Seine River. It had been such a good time, it was a little sad to leave, although I was ready to see the rest of my family and the rabbits. It took about an hour to get through security, no bags to check, and a relatively easy time getting to our gate. We had time for a couple of bathroom breaks and a little walking around. Finally we boarded and watched some movies on the way back. I think I nodded off a few minutes during Roman Holiday. They gave us water so many times on the flight! As well as lunch and dinner. We arrived safely in Minneapolis St Paul airfield. I was worried about my phone not working because I really wanted to use mobile passport control, but it worked fine. We got through the line fine. The man asked what I was bringing back, and I said 3 mini Eiffel Towers and an Arc de Triomphe for my family that didn’t get to go. I don’t know what he thought of that. Then an easy time through TSA and a volunteer asked if we had any questions. So I asked about paper boarding passes since I wanted to change my SIM card and didn’t know how my phone would behave.

So he directed us to just go to a Delta help desk. After that, we walked awhile to our gate and waited an hour, walked around looking at artwork from an airline contest and a little Scandinavian shop (Canoe Tuck Me In pajamas with a Moose was probably the most memorable thing there, and a lot of birds with hats in drawings). Finally we got on our small plane to Omaha. We were fortunate it wasn’t full because we didn’t have to check our bags. I was ready to see the rest of my family! It was a very short flight, and turbulent and my ears really were not feeling well from it all. Finally we landed, and found my husband in the parking garage, surprising him by being a little early. We were very happy to be home and see family and rabbits.

I know this was very long! Thank you for reading any of it! We had a wonderful time and are so thankful we had this opportunity.

I'll simply say what a marvelous trip with your daughter; and how wonderful that you got to create an opportunity and share in the "best day of your 15 year old daughter's life!" Bravo!

Wonderful report! We were on the tour before you and your stamina astounds me! Thanks!

What a wonderful trip and such a special time with your daughter. I must say I was quite taken by your daughter’s interest in and endurance for art museums. How did she develop such a keen interest?

Hi, pbscd, it sounds like we were there around the same time! So fun! What a wonderful trip you and your daughter must have had! I'm sure she will have so much fun regaling her school mates with tales of Paris and what she did. Memories for a lifetime!

Very cool, some meaningful time with the kid - and lots of memories.
My kid (same age) is now off for a whirlwind school tour of Europe... I'm sure she will like it, but I wish I could tag along (and ideally come up with our own itinerary, like you guys did)...

Thank you, KD! We had such a good time together!

ncangelose - thank you! I hope you had a wonderful trip as well! Did we see each other at breakfast?

BethFL - we started so young looking at pictures. Her first art museum visit was the Art Institute in Chicago when she was 14 months old and she was signing bunny and such. But we homeschool, and every week we look at a different painting (we study 10-12 per artist and I typically read aloud an artist biography to my children too) and then the prints stay on our fireplace for the term) and she just really loves art. Last year, at Uffizi she spent 20 + minutes just studying the Birth of Venus but I was still surprised we could spend 19-20 of our vacation hours at the Louvre, to say nothing of the other art museums we visited! But she was so happy and she is not the most demonstrative person in the world, so to see her big smile was worth it. (I emailed my mom photos from the Louvre after we got back from our first visit and she said she'd never seen my daughter so happy before).

Mardee- yes, I was thinking that when I read your trip report! What fantastic weather! I bought umbrellas and packed them just in case, but it was so nice to not need them.

PerilsofP - I hope your child enjoys her trip as well! But yes, I am not taking for granted that we got to do this together. We're both very thankful.