By the time we got to our hotel in Paris, it was pretty late. We got sushi (still enjoying the chance to eat non-Italian food) and we to bed.
The next morning, Audrey, Hayley and I woke up early and headed out to find a bakery and our first French croissants.
After we regrouped with the others, we spent the morning exploring the 11th arrondissement.
Audrey was desperate to find a playground so we bought bread and cheese and had a picnic lunch in a nearby park.
We headed back to the hotel in the afternoon for a break from the heat. We had a great meal at Bistro Paul Bert - a great little bistro near our hotel that we only later realised featured in an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s ‘The Layover’ series (go to 14:30). This wouldn’t be the only time we accidentally crossed paths with the celebrity chef.
After dinner Hayley and I rented e-bikes and the others grabbed an Uber and we headed back to the hotel.
The next morning I went for an early run along the river, past Notre-Dame, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.
I got back to the hotel only to leave again to head back to the Tower with the others.
We made it through the multiple lines and multiple security checks to the beginning of the stairs up to the second level.
It was worth the effort.
We spent the rest of the day seeing some of the highlights of the city, ending up at the Moulin Rouge and Monmarte before heading back to the hotel for a rest before dinner.
That night we went to another old-school bistro - Bowfinger. We insisted that the kids try snails.
And experience flaming deserts.
The next morning, Mandi, Hayley and I rented bikes again and went to see Notre-Dame. Most of the area is blocked off as a result of the fire, but there’s already a lot of restoration in progress.
After that, we all headed to the Louvre. Hayley really wanted to see the Mona Lisa, so we mentally prepared ourselves and followed the crowds up to its temporary location.
Once we got to the room it was in, the vibe was really strange - lots of people pushing and trying to take selfies while the stressed-out guards tried to keep people moving.
After over an hour of getting to the painting, the guards limit each person to about 30 seconds in front of it at a distance of about 5 meters.
And then it was over. We decided we needed cakes to recover.
On the way out we came across an amazing busker.
And some other colourful locals.
We spent the rest of the day eating and exploring. The next morning I went to Peugeot to collect the car we were leasing for the next couple of months. Due to a miscommunication (which I later worked out was 100% my fault) we ended with a much smaller car than we’d planned. I spent a very anxious 30 minutes driving back to our hotel, convinced that our luggage wouldn’t fit.
Amazingly it did.
Just.
We had originally planned to drive straight to Switzerland and then to Venice, getting back to Siena the day before School started. Fortunately, we realised this plan was a bit ambitious, so we decided to skip Venice and stretch the drive out longer. That gave us the opportunity to spend more time in France.
As it turned out, a good friend of mine grew up in a Kaysersberg - a village in Alsace that was right along out route. We booked a night there and headed off. As we got close we started to see why it was voted the ‘Favourite Village in France’ in 2017 (thanks Julien!).
When we arrived we very quickly came to the same conclusion as the voters.
We had a terrific dinner at a traditional restaurant run by a Michelin-starred chef, that we sadly found out was the last place Anthony Bourdain ate at before he died.
The next morning I got up early to walk around town and grab a croissant.
We would have loved to stay longer but had a lot of driving ahead of us. I really wanted to stop at Le Linge - the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War.
We left Le Linge and had a pretty uneventful drive to the Swiss border, where Hayley insisted on getting out so she could stand with a foot in each country.
And then we were in Switzerland.