Thomas arrive à Paris

Thomas is here! He came in Sunday morning, looking tired but happy to be alive after flying from Salt Lake to Cincinnati and Cincinnati to here. I met him at Charles de Gaulle (his trip through customs was blissfully quick) and we took the RER back to the St. Michel/Notre Dame RER stop. He was suitably awestruck as he emerged from the Metro with the Seine on his left, the Latin Quarter on his right, Notre Dame directly behind him, and our apartment dead ahead.

 After feeding him a sure-to-please French breakfast of croissants and pain au chocolat, we took him to see Notre Dame. They were right in the middle of high mass when we got there, the organ was playing, and the air was thick with incense. You couldn't ask for a better introduction to French Catholicism. He promptly ran down most of the rest of his iPod battery taking pictures of every detail of the cathedral, then had to pace himself for the rest of the day.

After the cathedral we took the Metro to Trocadero and saw the Eiffel Tower. I have never known anyone to be disappointed in the Eiffel Tower. No one has ever said to me, "You know, I imagined it to be bigger." Or if they did, they were talking about the one in Vegas.

We also bought Thomas his first crèpe with Nutella. He ate it, then said, "Mom, you could make these at home, no problem."

The Arc de Triomphe was next. It was a treat, because Evelyn and I still hadn't climbed to the top.

It may be the best view in Paris, partly because it includes the Eiffel Tower.

By this time Thomas was beginning to feel that he was living through the longest day of his life. But we still had miles to go before he could sleep. We walked him all the way down the Champs Elysées (allowing him to make a professionally-motivated tour of McDonald's), through the Christmas Village (which was packed shoulder-to-shoulder), across the Tuileries, and through the Louvre before he collapsed on our couch about 6:30. He downed a bacon and egg bagel from the Smith's Bakery and was snoring deeply within minutes.

We started the day Monday with a trip up the Eiffel Tower. It may be the best view of Paris, partly because it doesn't include the Eiffel Tower. It was cloudy and cold, but that didn't take away any of the joy of being atop the world's most famous landmark looking out across the world's most beautiful city.








After Eiffel, we took our boy to the Louvre. Of course we only scratched the surface, but Thomas loves everything and was happy to see what we saw. We told ourselves we would come back on Wednesday after we get back from Versailles, but we'll see what our feet say. Here are a few of our favorite sights from today:

Tonight we had dinner in the Cafe de Nesle, the little restaurant by our house. Thomas had onion soup, steak and green beans, and crème brulée, a suitably Gallic way to end a great day in Paris.