France holiday part three: Paris and the Eiffel Tower

After a few days of relaxing and getting settled in we wanted to head out and seeing as the holiday park is only just over an hour away from Paris we thought it would make a great day trip. I would love to spend more time in Paris, as I've only been when I was younger and of course, it's Paris, but I feel I'd like to have a bit more time there without kids first. But saying that Theo has wanted to go and see the Eiffel Tower for a long time, so without making a whole separate holiday we thought it would be a great opportunity to combine it with this one.

We also decided that it might be too much to do more than this in one day, as it's that thing where you want to fit in as much as possible but don't end up spending enough time anywhere and feeling completely rushed and drained. In fact trying to do anything with children makes you realise sometimes you need to be realistic and not over do it! I'm so glad we made this decision before hand as it made the whole day fairly relaxed. We drove to the outskirts of Paris and parked our car and took the train the rest of the way to Gare De Nord.

By the time we'd navigated the trains and made our way to the station we were all pretty hungry and hot. I didn't really do any research on where to go before hand, which may have been a good idea, but sometimes things work just by winging it and this time we were lucky! As we emerged from the subway station there were a whole host of restaurants on the streets around the Eiffel Tower, but much like in other cities we thought that they'd be super over priced and perhaps not the best food, plus they were right next to the road and pretty busy. Instead we did a quick search online and found a pretty well rated local pizza place a short walk across the park. (Thank goodness for the internet right?!)

Turning the corner on our way to the park we suddenly caught a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower peering out between the trees. It hit me that we were in Paris and everything felt exciting. The streets looked so typically Parisian, and it was just joyful to be walking the quiet shady residential streets taking it all in. We stumbled upon corner bistros and busy streets and found our way to the park in front of the tower. For a Sunday we were pretty surprised that it wasn't ridiculously busy, and enabled us to get a pretty good view. We crossed the park and found the restaurant, just a local pizza place with a really friendly owner, who accommodated us and the pushchair really well. After Rob having to walk Rohan around the block a few times to get him to sleep we managed to eat lunch and all felt much better, even though I felt as though I was coming down with a bad cold which was pretty annoying! But nevertheless we made our way back to the park towards the Eiffel Tower.

Once we'd figured out how to get into the entrance we made our way to special assistance, as my sister needs mobility help, and we were unable to climb the stairs with Rohan. The staff were pretty helpful, and we managed to be able to get a carers discount and help getting to the lift and so forth. We were only able to go up to the first level, but actually this was all we needed really (plus we couldn't afford the cost of going up any higher!) Theo was a little hesitant at first about the height but soon got over his fear and really enjoyed looking through the railings at the view and using the telescope. We of course posed for a few photos and made our way round the whole platform to take in the view from all the different angles. Rowie was so sweet and loved being out of the buggy and able to pull himself up and look out the little gaps just perfect for his height!

After a while and once we'd seen everything we made our way down, we took the lift whilst Rob and Theo took the stairs