Anderson/Stanger Marathon - Part 3

And let the marathon continue bright and early Monday morning.

We were on the 8am train to Paris on Monday, December 31st.  Fortunately we were taking the train so we could all relax a little before arriving in Paris around noon.  We took the metro to Gare de l'Est and tried to figure out where our hotel was located in reference to the train station.  After standing there for a few minutes, Anthony says isn't that our hotel?  Yes, it was in fact just on the other side of the street and way to go!  After getting checked in we headed out to explore before going out for dinner at Ratatouille.  It was a great little restaurant that had us sitting in our own private little area on the second floor.  The food was fantastic and it was great to spend New Years Eve with family.  After dinner we dropped the kids off at the hotel and we headed to Champs-Élysées to ring in 2013.  The rain was coming down a little harder and we ended up getting wet, but hey we are in Paris ringing in the new year.  Unfortunately, it was underwhelming as there weren't any fireworks, no hooting and hollering and it was even hard to tell when the clock turned midnight.  We kind of went with it and just declared it was midnight before finding a subway and heading back towards the hotel.  We stopped at the bar next door for a drink to warm up and dry off before calling it a night.

The crew enjoying our New Year's Eve dinner.

Chelle and Randy - Happy New Year Sis!

Ron and Chelle trying to stay dry with Eiffel Tower in the background.

Ron and Chelle - Happy New Year!

The next day we purchased tickets for the hop on and hop off bus to take in all the sights of Paris.  We ate an early lunch at Subway since our preferred choice of Chipotle was closed : (  Hailey was in heaven as it is her favorite and loves when we leave Switzerland as we often come across a Subway.

Boo - they are closed : (

Ready for the Hop on/Hop off tour of Paris.

Andrew and Anthony - The Louvre

Andrew and Anthony - Arc de Triomphe

Chelle staying warm - Eiffel Tower

Even though most everything was closed we were able to see the major sites and get a great overview of Paris.  We finished off the first day of 2013 with dinner at Hard Rock Cafe.  Ron quickly embraced Europe and purchased a scarf : )  Randy thought Ron looked so cool with his scarf that he followed suite.

The men sporting their new scarves!

Aaron, Lizzy, Chelle, Anthony, and Andrew

The next day we were up and checked out early so we could get a better view of some of the sites.  Our first stop was Notre Dame before heading to the Louvre for a private tour geared towards family.  This has become our way of keeping the kids engaged and hopefully interested.  We had two guides, one for the Anderson/Stanger's and one for us.  We learned about the history of the building and saw the original foundation from the Louvre, which was a castle until it was destroyed for something bigger and better.  We saw Egyptian artifacts, statues of Greek goddesses, which Sydney was quite knowledgable about thank to the Rick Riordan Heroes of Olympus series she read.  We finished with another view of Mona Lisa and a large display of Napoleon paintings.

 Stanger kids make it to Mona Lisa - are their expressions one of speechless or not impressed???

The crew outside The Louvre

One more of everyone with The Eiffel Tower.

After our tour was finished at the Louvre we took the bus over to the Eiffel Tower.  The kids and I have been to the Eiffel tower several times, but this will be our first time heading up to the top.  Of all the days we have been in Paris, this was the best weather we had so while it was a little chilly, we were dry!  Randy and I were separated from the rest of the group and I was hoping they had all our kids.  We finally saw them as we were making our way down the stairs and they were heading through the turnstile for the elevator.  I am not sure what had gotten into my, but I totally squeezed through a beam to cut into line to join everyone else.  Randy had to actually crawl through the space to follow my very rebellious lead.  I wonder if the Swiss non-queuing has rubbed off on me???  The Swiss are very orderly, but for whatever reason they don't queue and it ends up being more of herding and/or pushing process.  It was a bit of an eye opener for Ron and Chelle when we went skiing.  I guess we are getting immune and just go with the flow.

Andrew, Aaron, and Chelle at the top of The Eiffel Tower.

Chelle and Sydney taking in the view from the top.

Sydney and Hailey

Lizzy, Chelle, Ron, Anthony, and Andrew

After the Eiffel tower we headed back to the hotel after making a much desired pit stop at Chipotle for a very early dinner.  There was no way I was going to leave Paris without getting my Chipotle fix as who knows how long it will be before I get to go again!  We arrived back in Lausanne and curled up in bed before getting up on Thursday, January 3rd for their last full day in Switzerland and the last leg of their marathon, which will be concluded in the next post.