Day 3: August 8th marathon de Paris

Jonah's 9th birthday in Paris!!!!  Today's theme was go, go, go. We explored Paris by Batobus along the Seine River. This is a great way to move slowly. The all-day pass worked well for us. With the sun shinning the boat gets hot, bring water.

We got off and took a walk at the Jardin des Plants, avoid the little zoo. Lunch was baguette and cheese on the Batobus between stops.

Jardin des Plants

 We 'ah'ed and oh'ed' at the gorgeous Pont Alexander and all the bridges are fun to see from the boat.

We strolled among the canons at the muse d'armes, (We did not have enough time to go in because we had a 4pm reservation at the Eiffel Tower. Maybe we can come back on Friday.)

and marveled at and on the Eiffel Tower. Purchase your tickets from home three months before the date you want for the Eiffel Tower. This gives you a guaranteed date and entrance time, saving two hours in line.

Not every 9 year old Canadian boy gets to celebrate his birthday on top of the Eiffel Tower. Lucky Jonah....

Sam, Isabel and Jonah are becoming master photographers.  And we are building up our leg muscles.

Walked over three bridges, two gardens, one boulevard, and about 360 Eiffel Tower stairs (down, from the first level to ground). There is no good restaurants around the Eiffel Tower so we got back on the Batobus and picked a random stop and restaurant... we were tired, hungry and lucky because we ended up at Mucha Café

Risotto with shrimp....

"Hamburger" salad... Cured ham and roasted goat cheese. Not kosher but we ate it all so that the chef would not be insulted! Wow was it good.

After dinner we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower at night and managed to catch the last Batobus of the night. It was worth it.

Today's picture is Jonah celebrating his ninth birthday on the Eiffel Tower.  

What did we learn after 14 hours? You are allowed to but your feet up on the chairs on the Batobus, but you need to take off your shoes. The shore of the Seine River is party central after dark, very safe and very fun. Judging from the warning signs the pick-pockets are a problem, but we have been lucky... So far. The kids can do anything we can do, traveling together is very very fun.