April 17, 2017 - Gianna's 13th Birthday Trip to London - Day 6 And Tanya's Trip to London - Day 1: Elisa's Day in Paris & Facts about The Eiffel Tower AND Tanya's Easter Recap

Elisa's Daily Scoop
CURRENTLY TRAVELING IN:
PARIS, FRANCE

The City of Lights

Bonjour from Paris!

I can hardly believe that I'm chatting with you today from gay Paris!

This marks my fourth visit and the girls' second, to the City of Lights!

What can I say about Paris?  It's timeless, historic, romantic and full of amazing food.

We really did not have much time on this trip to make our visit to Paris very long - but given the chance, we all opted to squeeze in a quick day trip for a lovely  up-close view of the Eiffel Tower and some wonderful French food!

A RAINY DAY WHEN WE ARRIVED AT 12NOON - THE SUN CAME OUT FOR ONE HOUR - JUST ENOUGH TIME FOR US TO WALK AROUND THE EIFFEL TOWER!! (c) travelincouslns.com

Our day began VERY early, as we caught a cab for St. Pancras Train Station in London to catch our EuroStar train for Paris.

Gianna and I did NOT sleep well last night - in fact, we had to get up at 4:30AM and neither of us fell asleep until after 2AM!!

Jet lag is still here for us gals.  Fortunately, Kelsey fell out at around 10:30, so at least one of our trio had a reasonably good night sleep

We arrived at the train station at 6AM and I was surprised at how much the train station had changed since my last visit in 2010. In fact, the security was just like the airport now, requiring advanced arrival. Kinda sad to me.

In any case, we made it through successfully.  The Passport Control officer, who was clearly my junior by quite a bit, was looking at me quite intently when viewing my passport and then said "Do you know that you are not supposed to lie to the police?"  And as I peered toward him to inquire what he was referring to, I saw him pointing to my date of birth on my passport.  He said (looking directly into my eyes), "you look much, much younger" and gave me a smile. 

Wow - I have to tell you - that made my day!

With much time to spare before boarding our 8:15 train at 7:30, me and girls took silly pictures - well, mostly, it was Gianna snapping away.

GIANNA TAKING MORE UNFLATTERING PICTURES OF MOM (c) travelincousins.com

THE GIRLS BEING SILLY ON THE EUROSTAR (c) travelincousins.com

OUT COLD AFTER 20 MINUTES (c) travelincousins.com

Once we were on board, we were served a nice little continental breakfast, but soon after, we all found ourselves crashing and took a snooze throughout the ride.

The cabs were plentiful and we made it from Gare du Nord train station in Paris to our hotel in no time.  

And by the way - we are literally a block from the Eiffel Tower!!  It was raining when we arrived in Paris, but the weather report said  that it was supposed to be sunny at some point. We decided to grab a quick bite in the hotel restaurant, which was so smart, because after an hour or so of eating, it was as if the sunshine knew we were planning on walking up to the Eiffel Tower and as soon as we checked our bags (our room was not ready) and put on our jackets, we could see the sunshine begin to peer into the hotel lobby windows!!

Talk about luck!! And as fate would have it - the sun lasted just long enough for us to make our way all around the Eiffel Tower to take pictures from all angles before the sky turned overcast, gray and cloudy again!  Now, that is something and I was so very grateful.

While we were eating lunch and the girls were a bit cranky and Gianna went into a state of frustration and wouldn't even touch her caesar salad after discovering it had anchovies on it, I realized that we had anticipated warm Spring weather and did not bring enough sweaters. 

I was thinking - uh oh, big mistake - maybe i should not have come to Paris.  But, we forged along, played musical jackets, added a few t-shirt layers and headed outside into the chilly air, we began to make our way to the famed French tower.

And let me tell you, as soon as we could see it - right there in front of us - huge, beautiful, outstanding and iconic, all doubt left my mind!!

Such an awesome sight to be at the foot of this magnificent structure, that all of our moods changed.  And with that, we began taking picture after picture after picture. Switching from one camera to another, each of our cell phones; posing, laughing, and just so caught up in the fact that we were in Paris, at the Eiffel Tower!!

I was going for the record of taking the most pictures humanly possible for the Eiffel Tower!!

Here are some of them and I'll let them speak for themselves!!

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A FEW YARDS FROM OUR HOTEL - WE SEE THE EIFFEL TOWER IN FRONT OF US! (c) travelincousins.com

A LITTLE CLOSER (c) travelincousins.com

WE ARE HERE!! (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

YAY - WE ARE IN PARIS AT THE EIFFEL TOWER! (c) travelincousins.com

YAY! (c) travelincousins.com

KELSEY SMILING TO BE IN PARIS (c) travelincousins.com

TAKING AN EIFFEL TOWER SELFIE (c) travelincousins.com

CHECKING OUT THE SELFIE (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

ME & MY GIRLS IN THE PARIS SUNSHINE (c) travelincousins.com

GIANNA DOING SOME CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

SNAPPING AWAY (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

GIANNA JUST TAKING IT ALL IN (c) travelincousins.com

GIANNA PHOTO BOMBING (c) travelincousins.com

SCENIC PARK (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

WALKING THE PATH AROUND THE EIFFEL TOWER (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

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CAROUSEL ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE TOWER (c) travelincousins.com

I will say, it made me rather depressed to see the protective fencing all around the tower. I remember when you could just walk right underneath, with no security.  So sad how times have changed. 

We opted not to go inside the plaza and to go to the top. I had done it once and the girls were not wanting to wait on lines.  I didn't blame them  - it was so much more enjoyable to walk all around the tower and take in its magnificence from all angles.  

There is also the beautiful park encompassing the Tower with the overhanging trees, flowers, paths and water that make it so picturesque.

Across the street is the carousel, for which we snapped a few photos.

(c) travelincousins.com

Not happy about the new security (c) travelincousins.com

Heightened security around the Eiffel Tower - so sad (c) travelincousins.com

The only thing better than being at the Eiffel Tower today with my girls would be to enjoy this most romantic iconic wonder with a special someone - ah, one day!

I managed to Vlog upon my arrival at the Eiffel Tower.  Kelsey will be doing her editing magic and I'll add the video as soon as I can!!

As for tonight - we'll be having dinner across the street from our hotel - crèpes are definitely on the agenda!!  Then we'll take an evening stroll to the wondrous Tower again and take some night shots!!
I'll share these with you tomorrow!

It's true what they say...PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA!!!

-E
xoxo

Tanya's Daily Scoop
NEXT TRIP DEPARTING: TODAY

An Easter Recap and off to the airport!

Well well well - the day has come and we are about to be on our way to meet Elisa and the girls in London!

How exciting right?!

I'm gonna miss my flowers (c)travelinscousins.com

Well as I type this, my kiddos are actually still sound asleep and I'm dreading the next day or so of dealing with Dominic having Jet-Lag.

I think Cosette just happens to handle it better (most of the time) and I push on through not allowing it to effect me at all...until I arrive back home - no use in wasting any time while on vacation!

But of course every "chance" that we get to squeeze in a nap or a few zzz's will be taken to counteract the 8 hour time difference!

I just hope that my 2 take my advice and SLEEP for a good portion of our 10.5 hour flight.

DID YOU KNOW: Drowsy travelers tend to not have much fun and aren't much fun to lug around in all the sightseeing that I/we have planned!! LOLOL

But they are troopers and know their mother well. So they will fight being exhausted for the sake of their Mommy!

Speaking of being tired - I was kinda pooped by the end of yesterday.

We had a fabulous and fabulously busy Easter with the fam bam. Check out our Easter in pics...

A FAMILY EASTER PHOTO ALBUM

Of course when you have little ones around - the day starts with getting Easter Baskets!

And even the big kids around here get Easter baskets!

Someone is curious! (c)travelinscousins.com

Checking out there goodies (c)travelinscousins.com

Big kid baskets (c)travelinscousins.com

My beautiful girlies (c)travelinscousins.com

Then it was a MAD DASH to go on an Easter Egg Hunt!!

Running out of the house to find the hidden Easter eggs (c)travelinscousins.com

Darting and dashing (c)travelinscousins.com

She found one! (c)travelinscousins.com

Still on the hunt (c)travelinscousins.com

On the hunt! (c)travelinscousins.com

Vegan gummy worms! (c)travelinscousins.com

Candy candy candy! (c)travelinscousins.com

Me and my gal! (c)travelinscousins.com

My big kiddos (c)travelinscousins.com

Silly kids! (c)travelinscousins.com

My and my boy! (c)travelinscousins.com

How many kids are in the picture? (c)travelinscousins.com

Pure love (c)travelinscousins.com

Brigitte got a basket too! (c)travelinscousins.com

What's in Brigitte's basket - everyone wants to know! (c)travelinscousins.com

Jet, Andrew, and Chaplin (c)travelinscousins.com

The cousins! (c)travelinscousins.com

Me and my guy! (c)travelinscousins.com

Ladies only! (c)travelinscousins.com

The Fam Bam! (c)travelinscousins.com

With Dave C. (c)travelinscousins.com

With Dave B. (c)travelinscousins.com

Liz and Mika (c)travelinscousins.com

Brigitte and Houston (c)travelinscousins.com

Lovin' my little Chaplin (c)travelinscousins.com

After all of the festivities and candy at home, it was time to take it on the road and off to lunch we went!

Lunch was super yummy, but I couldn't believe how much I adored my DESSERT!!!

I want to eat it all! (c)travelinscousins.com

This vegan Meringe dessert was amazing! (c)travelinscousins.com

Lunch time! (c)travelinscousins.com

We didn't end up with enough time to go to the gardens, so we went to the book store and then headed back home where I found something that the Easter bunny had even left for ME...

My basket! (c)travelinscousins.com

All my goodies! (c)travelinscousins.com

These earrings are gonna look great in Hawaii! (c)travelinscousins.com

Dinner was also super delish and a big family event but without pictures. And that was our lovely Easter 2017! 

Now before I head out, let's talk a bit about Paris and the Eiffel Tower...


10 VERY interesting FACTS about the Eiffel Tower

1. Gustave Eiffel DID NOT design the Eiffel tower.
But one of his employees—engineer Maurice Koechlin—did. In fact, Eiffel rejected Koechlin’s original sketches, calling them too minimalist and requesting a little more oomph. After approving Koechlin’s final design in 1884, Eiffel started shopping his company’s masterpiece around.

2.  Eiffel originally pitched his tower to the city of Barcelona, Spain. They rejected it, worried it would be an unwieldy eyesore!

3.  Eiffel had a hand in the Statue of Liberty.
In 1879, the man tapped to design the interior of Liberty Enlightening The World (as she is formally named) passed away. Eiffel was hired to replace him, designing a flexible metal skeleton for the Statue of Liberty that keeps her standing to this day. In a way, that makes Lady Liberty and the Eiffel Tower half-sisters. (Here are some other mind-blowing facts about the Statue of Liberty.)

4. Paris didn’t love the Tower at first.
Not everyone, at least. As soon as Eiffel’s plans went public, a grumble of 300 Paris luminaries signed a petition protesting the monolith’s construction, calling it “useless and monstrous,” a “stupefying folly,” and an “odious column of bolted metal.” Even after the monument was completed two years later, writer Guy de Maupassant made a point to eat lunch every day at the cafe directly below it—the only spot in Paris where he could not see the Eiffel Tower.

5. It used to be yellow.
The Eiffel Tower wasn’t born with that perfect bronzed tan; it has been repainted 18 times, roughly once every seven years (other colors the Tower has worn include red-brown, yellow-ochre, and chestnut brown). How much paint is that? About sixty tons to cover the Tower’s surface, plus 50 kilometers of cords and five acres of netting.

6. Eiffel built a secret apartment for himself.
Located on the third level of the tower, 1,000 feet in the air, Eiffel’s cozy apartment was built with rustic wooden furniture, a grand piano, and all the cutting-edge lab equipment of the day. He used the space to host visiting notables like Thomas Edison—but today, you can tour it yourself, and tip your hat to the life-sized mannequin re-creations of Eiffel and his guests.

7. Hitler tried to demolish it. This man disobeyed him.
As the Allies neared Paris to liberate it in August, 1944, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz to raze the Eiffel Tower along with the rest of the city. Luckily, as a quick glance at the Paris skyline will show you, Von Choltitz disobeyed the order, having too much appreciation for the city and believing, finally, that the Fuhrer had gone mad.
8. Under King Louis XIV Paris was extended to Le Marais and Les Invalides and the Royal residence was moved from The Louvre to the ornate Versailles Palace near Paris.  

9. One con man managed to “sell” the Eiffel Tower… twice.
Legendary con artist Victor Lustig had a knack for making strangers trust him. So much so that in the 1920s Lustig convinced two separate investors to buy the Eiffel Tower from him, which he claimed was being sold off for scrap metal. Lustig claimed a $70,000 bribe from his first victim, but was never caught or punished; the poor sap was too ashamed to report his losses.

10. And one woman married it!
In 2007, American archer Erika Labrie held a commitment ceremony with the Eiffel Tower, claiming it as her spouse and changing her name to Erika Eiffel. When a documentary about her unconventional romance was met with scorn and cruelty, Erika found solace in a new relationship—with the Berlin wall.

PLUS one extra for good luck...
DID YOU KNOW: The Eiffel Tower celebrated its 128th birthday on March 15th, 2017. 

Okay folks, time is getting away from me and I have a plane to catch!

See ya in London,
​-T