Churches and swingparks

We were all pretty tired after monday's efforts, so for today we tried to maximise Metro opportunities and keep it simple.

We metro'd up to the Ile de la Cite and walked around there a bit getting our bearings before we headed for Notre Dame. The kids were all suitably impressed by the grandeur and age of the place. It is amazing to think of how long it took to build, how long ago. We loved the stone carvings and the gargoyles.

From there we headed to join the slow moving queue into Sainte Chapelle. Suffice to say, the entrance system was a real sterotype of French beurocracy and a lack of care for the visitor!! Luckily, Sainte Chapelle is AMAZING and totally breathtaking. All the kids agreed that the painful queue was worth it to see the awesome stained glass and vaulted ceilings.

We wandered over to the left bank and ate our packed lunch by the Seine, next to the Pont Neuf. Then we meandered through the Latin Quarter (only interrupted by Ash stopping to wangle his father into buying him a Paris St Germaine football top)....we had planned to bus or train from here but it was a nice afternoon and we kept walking down through the Latin Quarter, past the Sorbonne and towards the Jardins du Luxembourg.

What a great park! We wandered through the beautiful grounds and past the pond, the kids kicked a ball around and then we meandered to the primo swing park. The kids got a good couple of hours of swinging on the flying fox with other naughty Aussies and Kiwi's who are missing school, and Bridie soon had a wee boy trailing after her - Ted - from the USA via London. Ted was keen for us all to go for Ice Creams and generally seemed to want to join our family :)

We did get some Ice creams, and crepes for Ash and Hannah,  and then continued our walk back through Montparnasse and home to the appartment, for a well deserved Burgundy.

Ash is quite keen on crepes and we did some research on monday night looking for the best crepes in Paris. Apparantly, Montparnasse is the home of the best crepes as all the Bretons got off the train here and set up shop. The best restaraunt (??) is called 'Josselin' and we walked past it on our way home, so are planning a wednesday night dinner there.....

Lyn