Saturday was my last day in Paris, regrettably. :0( The one nice thing though was that Owen had a free day to do as he pleased (no seminars) so we got to spend the day together, which was really nice. :0)

The idea of going to Versailles was brought up the night before, but we decided we'd rather stay in Paris instead of doing a day trip. So we headed off to the D'Arc for some pics. Of course Natasha was as un-cooperative as ever to let us hold her and take a photo so we ended up with a twisty toddler instead.
We walked down the Champs D'Elysee, had some breakfast and then headed to the Eiffel Tower. I had been in Paris for a week and had not went, waiting for Saturday so that Owen and I could go together. He has seen it numerous times, but I had not. I will say I was not disappointed. The park/greenery surrounding the Tower is beautiful. There were many couples, families and children running around enjoying the summer day or just laying on the ground relaxing. I could have spent the entire day there enjoying the sun.

Natasha was impatient though after a little over an hour and we were suppose to meet up with Sannie to return her stroller so we headed off to the Metro. We went back towards our hotel, hit the mall to exchange Owen's watch for one not as big/bulky, ate some lunch and then went to the hotel. Owen napped, Natasha did not (she napped for 45 mins while we were out) and then we went to meet Sannie to give her back her stroller.

After we met her, we went back to the Eiffel Tower where we went down to the Sein for our River Cruise. Natasha hated most of it (tired) but I found it enjoyable. Plus at this point in our vacation I was getting use to the daily tantrums so was able to block her out fairly well. hehe Yes I'm a horrible mother.

We had tickets to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, but bc of Natasha's mood, we decided to veto going up and just had back to the hotel. I needed to pack, Tash needed to go to bed and Owen was cranky from Natasha being cranky. :p

Sadly that was my last day in Paris. I left Sunday morning at 8am and spend a super long day travelling back to Alberta.



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We got a late start to our day yesterday and it did not bode well with Nastasha. Since arriving in Paris I am up by 7.30/8am and we are out the door by 9am at the latest. Yesterday though we were meeting Sannie again at 1.30 to do some shopping and since the only thing on the agenda for the day was to see D'Arc Triomphe, I had some time to kill in the morning.

We left around 11, earlier then I planned as Natasha was getting ansy in the room and driving me crazy. I braved the Metro once again and went to Charles De Gaulle Etoile to see the D'Arc. I asked Sannie if I had to walk anywhere once I got off the Metro and she assured me that there was no way I could miss the Triomphe and she was right. :p

We went up the stairs and right there was the D'Arc. It was HUGE (not that I expected any less) and quite an impressive monument. I walked around the traffic circle taking pictures before I noticed the entrance to go under the street to come up in the centre of it. I thought it would be neat to see it up close so headed over. Again, not stroller friendly. You go down a flight of stairs to get to the underground walkway and IF you want to take an elevator up one floor (which is barely even a full floor) they charge you 5.50 Euro. There are no ramps for wheelchairs or strollers so I'm assuming even though it says "Wheelchair accessable" they mean "For 5.50 Euro we are wheelchair accessable" :p

So feeling more and more like a pack mule I treked up more stairs (getting pushed a couple of times by other tourists) to get inside the D'Arc. I'll admit while it was 'neat' I liked my view from across the street much better.

I left after walking around briefly (really there is not that much to see) and then walked down Champs Elysee to go to the Franklin Metro to meet Sannie for some shopping. It was a nice few hours of shopping (We only lost Natasha once, oops!) before we sat down at the cafe for a Hot Chocolate (yogurt for Natasha) before we left and I came back to the Hotel.

I did not stop in many shops as I was running a bit late to meet Sannie and knew Owen and I'd be back together on Saturday and have more time.


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