Paris 10 Ancien - Quartier Invalides

That title is way more dramatic than it was. It is just click bait. But. Read all the way to the bottom for some exclusive bonus content.

The day started off with a notification that our train from Bath to London was cancelled. We needed to get to London to make our train to Paris so there was just a tiny bit of worry from you know who.

But, when we looked closer, we found that only every second train to London was cancelled. Our original train was at 10:43 but we could catch a 10:13 train and our tickets would work for any train between today and Wednesday. So that was good to know. We headed off to the train station early just missing a 9:15 train and waited for our 10:13. Because we weren't using our original tickets, we didn't really have seats reserved on this train so there is aways the possibility all the seats would be ful and we would have to stand. But that was just useless worrying as there was lots of room and we had a pleasant trip to London. I had also built into the schedule a lengthy layover to make our Paris train so we had a good cushion to work with.

The next worry was... are the subways running in London. A lot of the lines were severely delayed due to speed restrictions on the lines and running fewer trains. For us, we caught our direct train to St. Pancras International. The train was a bit slower but it wasnt busy so it turned out not to be a big deal at all.

So... now we are 3 hours early for our Paris train. The boarding area was packed because many of the trains were delayed. Some by more than an hour. So after a quick lunch we got in the long security line to leave the UK and enter France, all the while wondering how late our train be and what that will mean to us finding our place. But again, there ended up being nothing to worry about. Our train arrived and left on time.... no problems other than some sub par wifi.

So, now we are in Paris. We figured out on the train what we had to do to get to our new place. There is one change we had to make. It turns out that Paris trains are not like London trains. You have a very finite window to get off the train and if the door starts closing, you can't stop it. So, as we were frantically trying to get off the crowded subway, sadly, we didn't all make it. I had to watch as the train drove away with my wife and Dylan. As I contemplated how we will continue the trip without them, she texted she got off at the next stop and she was going to come back. Whew.... another crisis averted. But.... she had left the station and her ticket wouldn't let he back in. And i had the only extra tickets in my pocket. So she decided to walk back to our station. But there are so many entrances she couldn't find the right one. After some trail and error we found each other once again, used 2 new tickets and continued on our journey.

We managed to find and access our place without much difficulty. The instructions were written in a way that even I could understand them.... so... let's just say there were pictures involved. We got the place organized for sleeping, got a pile of laundry going and then we decided to get some take away pizza amd head down to the Eiffle tower for a late night picnic. The walk was long but the views were magical. Then it was back to the apartment, do up some showers and settle down for the night.

It is going to be a hot one tomorrow so we will just play it by ear as to what we do. But it will just be nice to be in this city and experience the culture.

Oh... and putting your kids in French is really paying off. Caden ordered our pizza like a boss and carried on a short conversation with some passersby who wanted to know where we got our pizza from. It was all Greek to me. One person even apologized to me after seeing the blank expression on my face, saying something about... sorry you are so stupid (I am pretty sure that is what he said) .

And now for your bonus content. It literally took until we were walking back from the tower to hit our 10,000 steps. Ended the day at 15,749. So.. it was a very sitting intensive day.

Now... aren't you glad you stick around to the end? Well, maybe it isn't that exciting, but wait until you hear about the earth shattering realization and life altering decision we have to make tomorrow. Stay tuned....Read more