Oh man, was this day packed. It started early when Cheryl went out for her first Parisian run while Zoe slept in nice and late.
Actually, it wasn't that late, but it was later then Cheryl and me. When Cheryl returned from her run, I left to go to the Military Museum by myself. This was a good thing because a) the two of them would have been bored out of their minds and b) they got to take it easy and head out to Luxembourg Gardens at their leisure. The museum was great. Napoleon's Tomb alone was worth the trip but they also had some other, really interesting historical artifacts, as well as giant cannons!
Thankfully, I made it to Luxembourg Gardens just in time to rent a boat with Zoe. I think we swapped halfway through, because the New Zealand boat just couldn't keep up with Spain, but that didn't bother me. We both enjoyed running around and prodding our boats back in to the wind.
After the boats were returned, we hopped on the Metro, made a transfer or two, and arrived in Bercy. This is where you will find the Fairground Arts Museum. Located in old wine storage warehouses, this museum houses a private collection of items from old fairs from across Europe. There was all sorts of stuff like unicorn costumes, old carousels, skee ball's grandfather, and an old carnival style horse racing game that Zoe got to play.
Our tour guide was awesome, too. There were a number of us who didn't realize that we had booked tickets for a French tour, but he was great at translating for us so we could learn things like, all carousels in Europe spin counter-clockwise, except those in the UK, which spin clockwise. Bet you didn't know that! There was also a great series of those things where you stick you head through and take a picture. I have no idea what they're called, but these ones were classic.
Oh, just make sure you don't tell Zoe you saw her in the baby one. For some reason she wanted me to delete the picture, even though she is making the most perfect face for the cutout. Even after all of that good stuff, the best thing was still at the end. It was a pedal powered bike carousel. We all got on it, with children in the baskets, and pedaled this thing up to speed. It went really fast and was super fun. It is impossible to describe the sensation, but you should definitely to and check it out for yourself.
They saved the best for last, and when the bike carousel ride was over, so was our tour. We made our way across the river to scout out a photobooth that, sadly, was no longer there. After stopping at Burger King to feed Zoe, we kept going further down to see if we could find another photobooth. We did find this second booth; however, it was digital, so kind of a bust. It did give you an option to print it color, and arranged the pictures horizontally instead of vertically, so that was neat.
After that, Zoe wanted to keep climbing the stairs of this riverfront area, which we were happy to oblige. When we got to the top, we arrived at an amazing roof deck bar area. We settled in front of the DJ, ordered a couple of drinks and some fries and enjoyed the rest of our night out. There was some dancing with a Burger Queen crown over the face, shared drinks, a little bit of phone TV watching, and quite a bit of crazy dancing.
Needless to say, it was a lot of fun. We got home around 9:15pm and Cheryl went to bed about 15 minutes later. Zoe and I stayed up for about another hour watching more French TV before going to bed, too. And that concludes day four. Of course you can check out Flickr to see all of the pictures from the day, but be sure to come back for day five!
Actually, it wasn't that late, but it was later then Cheryl and me. When Cheryl returned from her run, I left to go to the Military Museum by myself. This was a good thing because a) the two of them would have been bored out of their minds and b) they got to take it easy and head out to Luxembourg Gardens at their leisure. The museum was great. Napoleon's Tomb alone was worth the trip but they also had some other, really interesting historical artifacts, as well as giant cannons!
Thankfully, I made it to Luxembourg Gardens just in time to rent a boat with Zoe. I think we swapped halfway through, because the New Zealand boat just couldn't keep up with Spain, but that didn't bother me. We both enjoyed running around and prodding our boats back in to the wind.
After the boats were returned, we hopped on the Metro, made a transfer or two, and arrived in Bercy. This is where you will find the Fairground Arts Museum. Located in old wine storage warehouses, this museum houses a private collection of items from old fairs from across Europe. There was all sorts of stuff like unicorn costumes, old carousels, skee ball's grandfather, and an old carnival style horse racing game that Zoe got to play.
Our tour guide was awesome, too. There were a number of us who didn't realize that we had booked tickets for a French tour, but he was great at translating for us so we could learn things like, all carousels in Europe spin counter-clockwise, except those in the UK, which spin clockwise. Bet you didn't know that! There was also a great series of those things where you stick you head through and take a picture. I have no idea what they're called, but these ones were classic.
Oh, just make sure you don't tell Zoe you saw her in the baby one. For some reason she wanted me to delete the picture, even though she is making the most perfect face for the cutout. Even after all of that good stuff, the best thing was still at the end. It was a pedal powered bike carousel. We all got on it, with children in the baskets, and pedaled this thing up to speed. It went really fast and was super fun. It is impossible to describe the sensation, but you should definitely to and check it out for yourself.
They saved the best for last, and when the bike carousel ride was over, so was our tour. We made our way across the river to scout out a photobooth that, sadly, was no longer there. After stopping at Burger King to feed Zoe, we kept going further down to see if we could find another photobooth. We did find this second booth; however, it was digital, so kind of a bust. It did give you an option to print it color, and arranged the pictures horizontally instead of vertically, so that was neat.
After that, Zoe wanted to keep climbing the stairs of this riverfront area, which we were happy to oblige. When we got to the top, we arrived at an amazing roof deck bar area. We settled in front of the DJ, ordered a couple of drinks and some fries and enjoyed the rest of our night out. There was some dancing with a Burger Queen crown over the face, shared drinks, a little bit of phone TV watching, and quite a bit of crazy dancing.
Needless to say, it was a lot of fun. We got home around 9:15pm and Cheryl went to bed about 15 minutes later. Zoe and I stayed up for about another hour watching more French TV before going to bed, too. And that concludes day four. Of course you can check out Flickr to see all of the pictures from the day, but be sure to come back for day five!
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