We got up Thursday and met up with Isabelle to tour the Louvre! Our travel planner had also set up a scavenger hunt with another company which…was not good. We gave it a good try but the kids just weren’t interested in racing through the Louvre to try and find specific paintings or take silly pictures. We much preferred to wander with Isabelle’s guidance and have her tell us all sorts of interesting facts and information about various pieces. She was a treasure trove of knowledge – she studied at the Sorbonne and 4 years at the Louvre after all!

One of the few stupid scavenger hunt pics we had to take…I was a good sport!

This is kinda how we all felt about the scavenger hunt! ha!

We did have just enough fun checking out all of the cool art!

Of course Maxwell took all kinds of great photos!

A favorite painting of all of ours – two sided!

We finally made our way to the Mona Lisa…with everyone else.

But when you’re little and determined you can get up to the front!

After that much culture, the kids needed to take the sophistication down a notch so opted for some McDonalds for lunch! They deserved it!

More to come tomorrow!

After getting back into Paris from Versailles, we headed over to the Musée de l’Orangerie – another place on my “must do”. I remember seeing Monet’s Water Lilies in college and couldn’t get over how massive they were and definitely wanted to go back. They did not disappoint!

I do think the kids enjoyed it too and maybe even had a little fun trying to get a panoramic photo! ha!

We then took our time walking back to the hotel through the gardens of the Louvre and around the museum. Photo ops everywhere!

After that, Robert and Spencer headed back to find some refreshments while the rest of us walked to the Left Bank to explore Le Bon Marche! Fun for all!

That night we got all dressed up….

and went to dinner at Gigi…and it was spectacular! Top 5 meal for sure!

Lobster pasta was a hit with everyone!

The views from the restaurant’s patio weren’t bad either!

The best day! The best night!

Magnifique!

Wednesday morning we enjoyed the hotel breakfast like every morning – crepes and croissants!

We then met Isabelle to drive out to Versailles for the day. We got there a little early so toured the local markets for a bit…

We then went over to the chateau to wait for our tour time. While we were waiting, an alarm inside the building went off and within a new minutes, the entire chateau had to be evacuated. Not good! Hundreds of people filing out of the building! They said they would “hope” to have it reopened in 1 to 2 hours. Womp womp. Thankfully, we had Isabelle! Because of her we still ended up having the very best day and getting to see it all! We hopped back in the van and she took us around the explore the gardens…and they were spectacular!

This pic! By Maxwell! Amazing!

After walking all around the gardens, the Chateau still wasn’t back open so we went over the tour the “back house” that was built for the King’s mistress and later where Marie Antoinette lived. It was beautiful! Again, photos by Maxwell!

When we finished there we were running out of time but, hooray! The chateau re-opened! We quickly grabbed some lunch at the Angelina cafe  – which looked like a sandwich for some and an eclair for others…

and headed to the chateau. There was an enormous line of visitors waiting to get back in but, because we were part of a “group” tour with Isabelle, we got to skip that whole line. And because we got to get right on in, we got to explore the chateau with very few others inside. Isabelle said it’s never that empty when she takes people through. Things all worked out just fine!

The hall of mirrors!

Notice the emergency vehicle still parked outside!

A fantastic day all around and a bucket list experience for me! We headed back to Paris around 2:00 and still had the afternoon to explore! More to come!

Our first full day in Paris did not disappoint! Some slept better than others (I was on the no sleeping side!) but that didn’t stop us from clocking 25K steps and almost 12 miles over the course of the day! Yep, we covered a lot of ground and saw a lot of sites thanks to our awesome tour guide, Isabelle. She led us around the city and gave us all the interesting facts about the cool things we saw. She was wonderful which was great because we spent 3 full days with her! We met up with her on Tuesday morning and walked through the grounds of the Louvre and then headed towards the Champs Elysees…

There we saw some true Parisian sites!

Ok, maybe not the most historic sites but we did enjoy all the Christmas decorations!

We finally made it to the Arc de Triumph and it was so cool to see – the scale is impressive!

Also, any cool photo that I show here was taken by Maxwell! He turned out to be quite the photog on this trip!

We them made out way across the city with a quick stop for a coke and a crepe!

We then made our way to the Eiffel Tower!

We then walked more and ended up at Hôtel des Invalides where Napoleon’s tomb is. Again, it was impressive!

We then said goodbye to Isabelle for the day and headed back to a neat museum she had pointed out. It was the personal apartment of the man who made a lot of the furniture for the king. Yet again, impressive is all I can say!

After a lot of culture, we thought the kids needed a little retail therapy so went and made some custom hoodies at Nike! Très chic!

It started raining just as we were heading back to the hotel so we decided to call it a night and ordered room service. It was a good decision after a very fun and very full day! I was so proud of my little tourists walking all over the city with no complaints! First full day was Très bien!