Kiwi Roaming

We absolutely loved seeing Paris through the eyes of a 16 year old who was there for her first time and with so many expectations of the visit. Milla loved speaking english and hearing kiwi accents for the first time in months. She also loved everything we saw and did.

We started our day by wandering through a local market eating our first croissant for the day, which we thoroughly enjoyed. At the end of the market we emerged in a gorgeous Parisian square full of cafes and selected the cutest one for breakfast.

Breakfast in France – I don’t think I have mentioned cafe’s and restaurants in France offer menu deals for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner. A subset of their menu for a fixed price, at Cafe Odessa we opted for 2 x €12 deals which included a juice, hot drink, croissant and bread with jam (think half a baguette) to share. Very delicious and what a Parisian way to start the day!

Apparently 40+ Million people visit Paris a year, well we think they were all there on this Saturday. 4 weeks ago Steve and I had enjoyed a lovely few days with Rachel and Gordon where we walked straight into venues, no queues, didn’t have to wrestle our way along sidewalks or fight to get into shops or cafes. Well this day with Milla was completely different, Paris was slammed, it was crazy and at times overwhelming.

We headed on a fab walk – through Saint Germain, into the Latin Quarter, fought our way to get to see Notre-Dame where the queue was hours long, then did the same to visit the Louvre pyramids before walking through Jardine des Tulleries where we stopped for a snack and people watched for a wee break. Then up Champs-Élysées which was wall to wall people. Needing a loo stop Milla went into a McDonalds to find a queue of 25+ people so we ended up in an English pub where we bought lunch – no not Parisian food but good pub grub and the toilets were clean.

Next we went to the Arc de triomphe where the queue was also hours long so we enjoyed looking from the outside, it really is enormous. We decided to uber back to the hotel for a wee break / nap before heading out again. Our driver was from Nepal and fascinating to chat with, like the waiter at breakfast he was impressed with Milla’s French and chatted with her in both languages. We were dropped off at a Pandora and I also dragged Steve into a couple of shops to buy us both belts – I haven’t mentioned it’s cold in Paris, 15-18C so we are wearing shoes and long pants and both of us are finding our pants a little large.

Evening fell and it was time to head up to see the Eiffel Tower, we had seen glimpses all day and Milla was becoming increasingly excited so it was amazing when we walked out of our hotel, around the corner and there it was! and had been there all the time. A quick 3km uber ride and we made it for the lights twinkling on the hour. Again thousands of people were out to enjoy the lights. We went through security to take a closer look from below the tower where a boy came up to Milla asking for her snapchat account – wow what an experience and so cute.

Milla’s Paris list had included trying escargot and mine had included a good French Onion soup – we got got to enjoy these at Amazonia so yum. I should mention Milla’s list also included buying things – she had money from both of her grandmothers to spend so we had looked at plenty of jewellery options during the day, and she also wanted to buy gifts for friends and whānau too, so we probably visited 50 odd tourist tat shops during the day and found another one while waiting for our uber back to the hotel.

A very busy and satisfying first day in Paris for Milla I think.