Buying the Hop-On-Hop-Off BatoBus day-pass felt like some kind of a defeat. I'm the kind of traveler who hates to feel like a tourist and generally focus on experiencing the places I visit to appreciate and understand life there. Nothing feels more like a tourist than an actual sightseeing program. But traveling with kids means many moment of letting go in favor of doing what works. What I realized today is that in my heart of hearts – on my fourth sojourn in Paris – am not a tourist, but my children are.
For the first time in their lives, Sennen and Ailyn have an image and preconceived ideas about somewhere they're traveling and they want to sightsee – at least to some degree.
We started with Notre Dame. I wanted to take them to see Sainte-Chappele because not only is it beautiful, but you can actually go in it. Apparently, many other people had the same idea and when Sennen saw the line down the block to enter Sainte-Chappele, he wasn't having it. The beauty of Notre Dame being under renovation still is that there was no wait – just show up and look. My inner tour guide took over and I reached back in my brain to high school French, art history, European history and novels I've read to give my kids context for what they were seeing, what all the symbolism means, the trend toward Gothic architecture and the ingenuity of flying buttresses (or flying assess as Sennen called them). Sennen ate it up. Ailyn was teetering and still hadn't forgiven Paris for not having purple, pink and orange skies. Then she went up to the displays outlining the restoration work and saw photos of the stained glass being restored, what it looked like before – and what it will look like when complete and everything changed.
"This is art! I want to be an artist who makes this kind of stuff! I want to be famous for making beautiful things like this! This is amazing!"
Ailyn then wanted to look at ALL the renovation photos and sign and was suddenly interested to learn most of the same things as Sennen.
From then on, Ailyn soaked in Paris. Notre Dame wasn't some stone church, it was art and flying buttresses were part of that art. Sure, the massive crypts below the art were a freaky idea – but art can be weird. Ailyn loved the Seine and wanted to see ALL of Paris.
So it was that when looking at the Seine from the Pont de l'Archeveche that we saw the BatoBus Hop-On-Hop-Off boat go by and the kids wanted on.
Seeing Paris from the Seine is iconic and how much different is the BatoBus from a Bateau Mouche? The kids have only so much walking stamina per day anyway, right? This is how I talked myself into walking up to the ticket counter and buying the passes. Within an hour, the kids had seen the Louvre, the Musee D'Orsay, the Hotel de Ville, Invalides and more. They understood the Ile de la Cite and the Ile St Louis. And when we got to the Eiffel Tower, it was clear that between Ailyn's increasing enthusiasm for Paris and Sennen's growing hunger for lunch that we needed to get off.
And there – just past the dock, was each kid's dream: the Eiffel Tower in all its close-up glory and a Christmas Market alongside with a variety of tasty street food options. After cheese-covered spetzele and Nutella beignets, Ailyn did a little souvenir shopping and then we headed over to the tower to see about the line. Along the way was a caricature artist and Ailyn had been wanting to a caricature. Checked that one off the list.
Then the most shocking thing happened. Faced with her dream site right in front of her, at the entrance to the line – which didn't look too bad – Ailyn decided not to go up the Eiffel Tower. I told her I was happy to wait however long it might take and that there would be no time during our visit where we would be guaranteed a short wait. I had no problem paying for the ride all the way to the top if that's what she wanted – and it was easier to go now while we were there than to come back, because it's not that close to our Airbnb. She stared at the tower, glanced at the line, back at the tower and told me she was sure, she did not want to go up the Eiffel Tower today.
"I'm tired and ready for a rest. Can we go back to the apartment for awhile?"
So we did. For some reason, the kids found the crowded metro train hilarious. And when we got "home" they chilled out for an hour and a half until they asked to get back out there.
"How are you doing with the apartment today?" I asked Ailyn
"It's fine now. I like it a lot better in the light."
Sennen said that he really liked the view a lot and that Paris is pretty cool. He just didn't realize it arriving at night and being so annoyed from the taxi line at the train station yesterday.
"I like Paris! I like France! I want to stay here forever. I don't want to hurry. I want to savor the days!"
After a trip back to the Place de la Concorde which Sennen very much wanted to see again, we wandered into a nearby brasserie where Sennen also savored beef tartare. Ailyn became acquainted with real French Onion Soup to her delight.
We then walked on to the Grands Boulevards and strolled the Boulevard Haussmann while Ailyn took in the department store juggernauts of Au Printemps and Galleries Lafayette. Three whole buildings of departments store each. They were sadly closed by the time we got there, but we WILL return. Then, with a cone of hot chestnuts in hand, Sennen wanted to walk across the street and around the corner to get a full view of the Palais Garnier – aka the Paris Opera House, my favorite building in Paris. He took it all in, we talked about the Phantom of the Opera, he stopped to dump some of his chestnut shells in the garbage so he could get to the chestnuts further down, and then he needed to know all he could about Napoleon III with special emphasis on considering whether Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was a king or a dictator. A college thesis worthy topic.
"So what do you guys think about Paris now? It's quite different from Cannes," I asked at the end of the day.
"It's very different. Cannes is all about the life. I could live in Cannes. It's the best place in the world for me – it's much calmer. But I really like visiting Paris. It's a fun city and there's so much. I feel like we've seen so much – it's hard to believe it's only been one day!" Sennen said with a beaming attitude.
"I like Paris," Ailyn offered, "But I really love thee Eiffel Tower. That's the best part. And my ankle really hurts." (she tripped stepping off a curb and twisted it a little earlier).
So, at the end of the day – Paris was upgraded significantly over yesterday. That said, neither one is ready to move here. What I love is that Sennen can appreciate Paris for what it is, know what it isn't – and still want to savor it.
As for me, I've decided to surrender to being a tourist in Paris. I may not want to be a tourist – and I probably would not be at the Eiffel Tower (I last did that when I was 16) or on a BatoBus – but I am one. That's just where I find myself. I get to help them find their Paris. I already found mine – and in leaning in to what works for my kids, my Paris is all the more beautiful.
