Paris Explorers: Part Two

The kids rallied in the morning and declared themselves ready to see the Mona Lisa. So, we set off for the Louvre.

Inside, we followed the throngs of people through the winding corridors – past dozens of other beautiful works of art given no thought or attention – before being ushered in small groups for a timed 20 second window to get “close” to her. Again, like the Eiffel Tower, the painting is even more protected now than when I saw her last. We couldn’t get closer than 20 feet from her and she is entirely encased in, what I assume to be, shatterproof glass – like the whole museum could topple down and that case will still stand.

The spectacle that is the line to see Mona Lisa.

After we saw the painting, we walked through a few other galleries before moving on…to the Louvre gift shop.

Here, Norah spotted a red beret and I said, “Oui! Of course we should buy that.” So, began her beret interlude, where I became her personal paparazzo and she found me super annoying as she simply tried to go about her sophisticated French day.

In the afternoon, we took a walk through the Luxembourg Garden where we rented the little wooden sailboats and chased them across the lagoon. The kids both really enjoyed this activity and I think it was great to have a little green space in our otherwise very urban weekend.

From here, we made a quick stop at the Arc Du Triomphe, just long enough for a selfie and for me to tell the kids Mermel Family Folklore about navigating our way out of Paris in a rental car in 1992.

Our last official Paris activity was a Seine River cruise on the Bateaux Mouches.

Gotta say, I earned one million mom bonus points for this one because I took us out of the way to stop at a patisserie on our way to the boat and we all ate tarts and macarons while taking in the sites of Paris at sunset. C’est si bon!

Ben said, “How have I lived this long without knowing about giant chocolate macarons?”

Norah declared this the best thing she ever ate.

And that, was that. We dreamed of fig tarts and tall towers and left early Sunday to return home to Amsterdam.