Five days in Paris

We spent a whole day getting ourselves to Paris.  We launched the day at 7:30 am with the 4 hour drive north to drop off Sabina and Collin in Jerusalem, then the drive to Tel Aviv's airport, then the extra large security buffer for flights out of Israel, then the 4 hour flight to Paris, then the cab ride to our rental apartment...to end the day crawling in to bed by about 11:30pm. Amy arrived hours before us and had us nicely settled in with breakfast supplies and metro tickets ready to start our first day in Paris.  And so it began...

DAY 1 - Thurs

We woke earlier than expected and decided to dash out (literally running) to the Tour Eiffel.  Hoping an early jump on the stairs line might mean we could beat the mad, summer+independence holiday weekend rush.  It worked. By 9:30am we were on the 3rd terrace!  We crossed the river for the landmark view from the Trocadero, walked to the mini- statue of liberty and finished the day with a visit to le Musee d'Orsay.

DAY 2 - Fri

L'Orangerie museum, Champs Élysées, l'Arc du Triumph, and Le Musee Marmottan.  Oh, wait, and Eleanor and Mike made a special excursion into Le Louvre after dinner to glimpse the Mona Lisa (thanks to the Magic Treehouse series for contextualizing cultural artifacts like the Mona Lisa!).

DAY 3 - Sat

Today we took the train from Paris to Vernon; from there we biked the short distance to Giverny with a tour group, stopping along the way at the market for supplies and then on the banks of the Seine for a picnic.  We didn't have as much time on Monet's property as I'd like, but oh well.

DAY 4 - Sun

July 14 is Independence Day in France, and like us on the 4th, the French picnic and do fireworks.  We spent the day much the way a French family would, walking around the city taking in the festivities as we found them.

DAY 5 - Mon 

We stuff our bags into lockers at the train station, and spend the day wandering around Paris before catching our overnight, couchette class, train to Munich.