Kien's tales: Kien's big adventure

We went to the church and took a picture of the church and a picture of the inside of it which was stain glass windows.











I ran around and took pictures of flowers outside of the church at a small park across the road.





Then I took pictures of gargoyles while walking on the street and more gargoyles.





I love the picture of the Eiffel Tower with fireworks.



We went to an arch and took pictures of the arch. If you zoom in you see he is naked. Then I took a picture of daddy and mummy.







I found all of the chestnuts under a lot of trees. Daddy decided to roast them and he set the oven on too high. They exploded.



Story and photos by Kien.

Arc de Triomphe et the Champs-Élysées

Yesterday was our last full day in Paris and we headed off mid morning and had breakfast at a cafe overlooking the Seine. We certainly paid for that privilege, because we each had the most expensive cafe au lait and croissant I've ever paid for!

We then caught the metro to the Arc de Triomphe.










After lazing around in the sun we walked the length of the Champs-Élysées adorned with high end shops with ridiculous price tags.





We stopped into the Citroen store. It was a cool building with some pretty neat cars on display.







Back home again via the Seine, and admiring the array of locks on one of the bridges.









Kien had lots of fun hunting for and picking up chestnuts whilst walking along the eastern end of the Champs, so we decided to roast them. Jef looked up the process of achieving this, but unfortunately instead of dialing in 205C he had cranked it to 250C. Exploding chestnuts make very loud bangs, and lots of mess. But it was an awesome experience.

No hunchbacks here

We've been very fortunate with the weather here. We've had sunshine the entire time, and even though it's been cold in the mornings and evenings it's been rather pleasant.

The Notre Dame is just a km from our apartment, and we walked there via the Seine.





We were impressed by the cathedral. It's considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. Having been to St Peters I thought that would taint my view on other cathedrals, but the Notre Dame is definitely unique and amazing.













We all talked in hushed tones inside. There were lots of people taking mass and praying.













The queue was way too long to go up to the tower, and we knew Kien wouldn't be able to handle standing around for ages, so we went across the street to the park where Kien was able to run around and take pictures. He is really enjoying taking pictures and is rather thoughtful at composing his shots. He verbalises the whole process, which is interesting for me to hear what is doing on in his little head.

Over the rooftops of Paris

We decided to spend another 2 nights in Paris so had to quickly organise some more accommodation. We moved from Montorgeuil to a wonderful top floor apartment in Saint Germain overlooking the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and across the rooftops to the top of the Eiffel Tower. This is such a cute place. It is so old there is even a wardrobe right outside our door that has a squat loo! Thankfully they've put a proper toilet inside.

It's like living in an attic, with lots of books, lots of light, and you have to duck to walk around the side corridor to get to the bathroom - through the kitchen.

We watched the beautiful sunset, and saw the tower light up with its search beam.