On Sunday morning we realized we should have prepared better the night before. The restaurants and bakeries near where we were staying were all closed. We woke up late, and by the time we found something open it was close to noon. We walked towards Napoleon’s Tomb, since we knew it was not too far and figured there would be food there.
We stopped in front of Les Invalides, where Napolean’s Tomb and the Musée de l’Armée are located. The kids loved the building and gardens, so we ate a couple apples we found in our backpacks while the kids drew pictures in their journals.
All we found was a cafe in a museum, but it was the Cafe Angelina, home of amazing, super thick hot chocolate and pretty yummy pastries!
If you have never had Angelina’s, you should go to the real one by the Louvre. This is a small cafe inside the Musée de l’Armée and is mostly a to-go cafe. The chairs were soft and in the shade, it wasn’t crowded, and it felt very low-key so the kids sat on the ground around a low coffee table to eat. It is a bit pricey, but James loved the quiche and I really loved the ham and cream cheese on brioche. The kids declared it the best food ever (they said that a lot on this trip), although they did not like the super dark hot chocolate.
We had intended to go to Versailles to enjoy the gardens, but the kids were so excited about the cannons in the Musée de l’Armée, that we decided just to wander about the city. We spent about an hour sitting on cannons, comparing the designs of the cannons, listening to Chris explain how the cannons work, and enjoying the beautiful weather and beautiful cannons.
Marion mentioned that one of the cannons was so big that “you could shoot a baby out of that cannon!” So the kids took turns being shot out of the cannon.
When we were tired of playing with cannons we headed out the front of the museum and saw little bunny rabbits all over the front lawn! The kids were so excited that we sat and watched the bunnies for awhile. As we walked around, James discovered several rabbit holes and even left a present of a nice feather he had found for the bunnies to find later. Cannons and bunnies makes for a great day.
Look! More cannons!
We decided to walk to the Luxembourg Palace Gardens because I had read about them on a blog that said they were amazing. It turned out the be quite a long walk, but we found some fun things on the way. Here is a cute little park we found in front of a beautiful church. The stained glass was very nice and Elora enjoyed sitting in the park drawing while the little kids played.
We ended up finding a little grocery store where we got some drinks and snacks and then happened upon another little playground. I love all the little playgrounds! And the gardens are very beautiful and artistic in the way the flowers and plants are arranged. The kids enjoyed running about and playing, and there was a little carousel that the kids got to ride on. I’m not sure the carousel was worth the money, but the kids really wanted to try it out and since they had done a lot of walking I wanted them to get a little ride.
While walking around we found a beautiful bakery. The kind where everything is beautiful. Chris and I picked out just one pastry since they were kind of expensive, and the kids sat by the macaroons talking about how beautiful they were and how yummy they looked and how much they wanted one. When the lady working in the shop rang up our pastry, she bagged up six macaroons and gave them to us, explaining in French that they were a gift for the kids. It was so amazingly sweet of her, especially since we only bought one pastry. The kids were super excited to try them, and I have to say they were the most amazing macaroons. So delicious. The sweet lady in the shop and the macaroons were a huge highlight of the day for me. The pastry was amazing too.
The Luxembourg Gardens were very crowded, which left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. There are some beautiful grounds in Paris, and I didn’t feel like this garden was amazing. As we walked farther in I realized I have been there before, only in the morning when the grounds were empty, and they seemed very beautiful then, so maybe the crowds were what turned me off to the gardens. When we got to the little pond in the middle, we rented little sailboats for the kids. This was SO FUN! It was very inexpensive and we got two boats for the kids to sail. The wind sails them back and forth and the kids have a stick they can use to launch the boats when they get stuck along the side. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon, and made the long walk and the crowds worth it to see the kids enjoying sailing their boats.
We finally caught up with my sister that night for dinner. All the places we had planned on going for dinner were closed because the owners were on vacation, but we ended up finding a crepe restaurant that was pretty tasty. Mostly we just enjoyed hanging out with these great people! It was so fun to see the cousins hanging out and having a great time together. Day 2 was another success!
