Elodie's first day in Paris

Hi this is Elodie – 30 June.

Today was our first full day in Paris.

We went for a walk around the Louvre. It was massive. Lots of people around. There were glass pyramids and fountains in the main courtyard.

We then went for a walk around the streets and cafes. We walked across lots of bridges but there was one where people had put millions of padlocks on the side fencing. The padlocks had names and dates on them. I saw 2 Elodies.

We found some Hollys and Paiges. (We also later found a couple of mini number plates at a shop with Elodie on them). I was excited because this is the first time I had really seen my name somewhere and I am 10 years old! Mum and dad told me my name is French. It obviously is.

We met some more people from Australia. That’s probably 3 or 4 lots of Australian people we have met now. They hear the Aussie accent and ask where we are from. Not as many Australians around as we thought there would be though. Lots of Europeans including French from out of town. We have met lots of European people and families.

We went on a cruise down the Seine and saw all the main sights from the water – Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Museum d’Orsay, Concordia Square, lots of bridges ….. The cruise went for a bit over 1 hour. We got off and walked back home for lunch.

On the way back Holly and I had crepes from a creperie (crepes are like a really thin but really big pancake rolled up). Holly had nutella, I had a Crepe a la crème de marron – I think that’s what it was. (We looked it up later and found out it was cream hazelnut). It tasted like caramel.

We had ham, tomato, cheese and cucumber sandwiches and salad for lunch. When we finished lunch we headed off for the Eiffel Tower.

We walked through the Tuileries Gardens which were beautiful, past the Trocodero, and through La Concordia Square. This is where they used to cut people’s heads off with the guillotine. People who had nothing to do used to sit and knit next the guillotine platform and watch people getting their heads chopped. They used to get spattered with blood they were so close. That’s entertainment!

When we arrived at the Eiffel Tower we saw a protest march along the next street. Peaceful but lots of Police (“gendarmes”). There was also supposed to be a gay march in Paris that day somewhere else. We had a look around and found a nice place to sit and look at the tower. Dad went to get some tickets to go up. We were really excited. We played in the beautiful park at the bottom of the tower doing cartwheels and handstands. There were lots of people but it was a happy crowd. Lots of people were just lying around looking up at the tower or having picnics.

We then queued for about 30 minutes and walked up to the first level then the second level (about half way up). (We’ll catch the lift to the top on a quieter day). The view was amazing – you could see all around and see all the main sights like Notre Dame, Sacre Couer, Trocodero, and the Louvre. The city stretched to the horizon all around. We noticed not many high rise buildings – buildings in Paris are mainly 3 to 5 levels high – we did see a couple of small groups of high rise in the distance – probably main business districts. We went to the gift shop but everything was real expensive.

After enjoying our first trip up the Eiffel Tower we then went home and made spaghetti Bolognaise – yum.

My favourite part of the day was the Eiffel Tower. Unreal!!!

Love Elodie xxxx