[TBD]: 40th Birthday Trip - Day 10 (Paris France) - Army Museum and Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe

This morning AA went to the bakery himself and successfully got the correct croissants/pastries for breakfast, we also had an apple, new mystery cheese that Lola picked up from the store, and peppermint tea. Lola also had her peanut butter on a rice cake and we all had some boiled eggs. DD was a little slow this morning, so didn't really join us for breakfast but tasted the cheese and had a bite of croissant.

Lola has been helping T brush his teeth!

Off to the metro to get to the Army Museum. We had tickets between 10-12am (and left around 9:30 like planned). Everyone was in a much better mood today.

We arrived at the Army Museum, and didn't really know what to expect. The place was huge, and by 1:30 we realized we weren't going to make it through the whole thing. T and B loved it. There was so much about Napoleon I, as well as so much armour, swords, guns, and artifacts.

It was a little overwhelming by the amount of things in there. We had to skip the world war section as we ran out of time. The Tomb of Napoleon was Lola's favorite part, as well as the rooms full of "left over" armour, swords and guns that the don't have room to display, but you still get to look at them. There was just so much, but some of the hightlights are below:

Napoleans Watch (top Left)

Bullet that went through Napoleans ankle

Armor with a hole right through it.

Napoleon's horse

napoleans tomb

Pretty Pillars in the Tomb

outside the tomb

WW1 Tank

Kid Armour

Auxillary items in the back room with windows.

Samurai Suits

I think we will survive!

the grounds

We ran out of time to see all the rooms as we had a reservation for the Eiffel Tower at 3:30...and we hadn't eaten lunch yet (and there was no food at the museum).

So we left without seeing the World War stuff and headed to the Eiffel Tower by foot, looking for a place that would fit 6 of us (inside) as it was still pretty rainy and cold. We finally settled on Marcelle. We waited a long time to order as there seemed to be one lady doing everything. Finally ordered and there was 5 Tuna melts and one gluten free dairy free avocado smash! We also had some chai teas and AA had a double espresso. We were all a little hangry as it was already 2pm.

The second waitress, B and T's cousin look a like in about 15 years.

We did pretty good for timing and arrived at the Eiffel Tower at about 3:05 pm for our security check and entrance. It wasn’t as busy as it could have been so we didn’t really wait in any lines through the process.

Although all the adults have seen the tower before only MBMell has been up it… but she walked to the platform last time and we took the elevator all the way to the top this time.

Although raining it was a really cool experience: Lola didn’t really enjoy the first elevator that was slanted but loved the experience.

This was the only thing on her birthday wish list besides going to Disneyland Paris (coming later).

We went up to the top and enjoyed the sky line even though rainy and not clear. The building we had been to were pointed out from all 4 directions. At the 2nd floor you have to get off the first elevator and get onto the next one. We went to both viewing decks at the top. B hasn’t done the best on towers in the past but she did awesome this time. She did make some comments but handled it like a champ. At the top you are about 276 m above. On the lower level at the top there were towers to compare the size. This was definitely not the tallest tower we had been on but the one in Tokyo was almost exactly the same.

After we walked around and looked at all the towers we waited in a decently long elevator line to get down. We got down to the 2nd Floor viewing platfrom which is 116m from the ground. We walked on the floor we didn't do before and then decided to take the stairs. It was a great way to get down, and neat to see.

We got to the 1st floor and walked around, that platform is 57m above the ground, and that view was also pretty neat. There were also "glass floor" sections and a gift shop. We toured around, B and T had Macrons, Lola had her blueberry banana bread she got at Marcele's and we got a few waters.

We then walked the stairs to the bottom. We headed towards the olympic rings we saw from above to get a few photos. After the tower we headed to the Arc de Triomphe. We got to the metro and on our walk decided this would be a great place to come back to see the tower at night.

We got to the Arc, and there was a ceremony happening, so we didn't get to see the whole thing. but still neat to take a tunnel under the road to get through the crazy roundabout to middle. We walked as far as we were allowed around to see each side, and then watched a little of the ceremony before heading back in the tunnel.

We then headed by foot to a Greek restaurant that both AA and Lola found at the same time. It was about a 10 minute walk but not too bad. We were the only ones there at the beginning but it got pretty busy as we were leaving, seemed like a daughter was the waitress and the dad was the chef in the basement of the restaurant.

DD and T ordered the chef's choice of a Pita Burger, B ordered the adult meatballs in tomato sauce, AA the pork slouvaki, MBM the Beef Skewer and Lola the Mixed Grill (Lamb, Pork, Beef, Chicken). We all enjoyed our meals, and DD had a heck of a time eating his burger.

We headed to the metro to get to the one station to see the Eiffel tower, The kids were sure excited to see it lit up at night. Back in the Metro and back to our place to get the kids to bed.

We definitely had fun taking some photos today. The boys found a "conveince" store to buy some beer as we didn't make it back by 8 pm.

MBM promised she would play a game with us tonight, so we played one round of Monopoly Deal and then she went to bed (after AA won). So it was rematch of Cribbage for the 3 of us. Lola won again.