Day 6- Notre Dame Tower, Eiffel Tower, Orsay, Orangerie, Missing Passport

This being our last day in Paris we had a lot on our list to get done.  We still had two museums to hit up and the Eiffel Tower to climb on top of the Notre Dame's Tower.  Those were our main must dos. We hit up the Metro early and came out to where I had ventured on my day without Becca.  The Orangerie Museum was at the far end of the Tuileries Gardens closest to this Metro Stop. 

Orangerie Museum

 

This was the first room we walked into.  I was SHOCKED at the vastness of the waterlily paintings.  They are HUGE!!!  It's one of my all time favorite paintings of Monet and Rebecca had a SMALL part of the painting in her room growing up.  We never realized just how big it really was.

Downstairs the was the rest of the museum.  It's a rather small museum but I loved it.  I read a lot about each painter which helped me appreciate their artwork.  Rebecca liked to just walk around until something struck her and then she read about it.  She was finished with the museum before I finished the first of about 4 rooms.  :-)  Thankfully she was patient with me.

ORSAY

Rebecca took an "illegal" picture in the Orsay before I reminded her she wasn't allowed to take pictures

I was so happy to go back to the Orsay.  I missed a bunch of the artwork I wanted to see due to the elevators and the stroller.  They moved all the art I really wanted to see down on the first level that I didn't notice before since they are redoing the upper floor.  It was SUPER crowded so we saw what we needed and left since SP was getting VERY cranky and hungry.

We ventured over to the "green canopy" store in search of a digital scale like the one we used in our cooking class.  They told us that if we showed them the business card they gave us that we would get a discount on whatever we purchased there.  I was thinking the scale would be a perfect gift for DH. Sadly they were out of stock at the time but really...I wouldn't have bought it for him anyway since the cost for one was a couple hundred EROS...that would have been a fortune in dollars too.  Along our walk around the neighborhood trying to locate the shop we ran across this building (below) full of old sewing machines!  It was incredible.  I also got another chance to practice my French in a local market for directions to the store.  They guy even asked if we spoke French or not...LOVE that they can't tell and have to ask!  Not bad for a 20-30 minute lesson on French with DH before leaving.

Just Love the old buildings of Paris.  I could get use to seeing them daily!

 

 Notre Dame

The line for the tower was the longest yet...silly us it was Saturday.  Thankfully this guy (in mask) pictured above made the wait not so long by entertaining us.  We would walk behind people and tap them on the shoulder.  They would turn and scream.  It was hilarious. Some times he would even hold their hand and they would look over and freak out.  I know I would have it were me.  He got one girl 3 times.  It was fabulous!  We got some hot chocolate to keep us warmer during the wait which was fabulous. It was FREEZING that day. I even got some great shopping done at the store across the street (scarf and jersey for DH and a zip-up sweater for me).

After a LONG wait we finally got in.  I found the same book I had been eyeing at a store by the Louvre that I wanted to get for the kids.  I asked Rebecca which one I should get (the yellow one or red one).  She said the one in English since the other was in French.  I looked closer at it and realized she was right!  So silly.  She was laughing about that for a long time.  I'm so glad I got it since it's been one of the kids favorite books.  It's similar to "Where's Waldo."

View out one of the widows walking up the staircase.

At the Top!

 

Wonderful Views!

The Bell was HUGE!  I didn't know what to expect but it was so neat to see it in person.  It was so dusty up there too.  I LOVED the rich beams the supported the structure.

Notice Rebecca holding the famous book :-)

love this little house sandwiched between the HUGE buildings

 

 The Eiffel Tower

Beautiful Garden below the Eiffel Tower

 

Looking Up from the ground

 View from First Level

 

View from the Top

New Year's Eve 1999

The Eiffel Tower played host to Paris' Millennium Celebration. On this occasion, flashing lights and four high-power searchlights were installed on the tower, and fireworks were set off all over it. An exhibition above a cafeteria on the first floor commemorates this event. Since then, the light show has become a nightly event. The searchlights on top of the tower make it a beacon in Paris' night sky, and the 20,000 flash bulbs give the tower a sparkly appearance every hour on the hour.

All Lit up!

How far we were from NY...

Workings of the Machine

Going Down we wanted to get off at the second level but the elevator was so crowded and no one else got off so we couldn't even move to get off too.  I was a bit sad that we didn't see that level.  Something for my next trip I guess.  I was really concerned about being pick pocketed though.  They mention it all the time on the ride.

 We Made It!
 

  
Champs Elysees

To end our tour in France we headed down the street of Champs Elysees for some shopping.  My feet were so tired from the long week of walking EVERYWHERE that all I wanted to do was sit down.  We walked into a few shops but I couldn't reason spending almost twice the amount on a shirt after the exchange rate.  It was an experience though.  We got completely lost trying to take a short cut back to the hotel...thank goodness for Rebecca's GPS on her phone!  Sadly I was so tired and cranky that it wasn't the best experience and I literally felt like my legs were going to fall off.  I kept telling myself that if I kept putting one foot forward it would hold me up.  Thankfully we made it back safely just to have more panic to set in when Rebecca asked where my passport was...

I went to where I thought they were in my suitcase and they weren't there.  I checked the Ergo. Not there.  I then started to panic.  I searched EVERYWHERE!  I couldn't find them.  Rebecca started going through everything.  I started to get sick to my stomach.  I was going to be stuck in Paris with my baby.  Never in my life have I wanted to go home so badly.  I couldn't just get on a train or in a car to get there either.  I was SICK.  I went into the bathroom thinking I was going to throw-up and bawled.  It was terrible.  Rebecca started to cry too not know what we could do.  We tried calling the airlines to talk to them and see if we could change our flight since we were scheduled to fly out EARLY in the morning and wouldn't' give us time to find them.  I tried calling the museums to see what their hours where in the morning to see if maybe they had dropped out there and hopefully someone picked them up.  I had brought one of SP's extra pictures with me thankfully for her passport.  I called DH up after we were sure we couldn't find them.  He asked me if we had searched everywhere...of course!  I know he was just asking to be sure.  I asked him if he could try calling the airlines since we couldn't get through to them and it was early evening back home.  He didn't have any luck but gave us the number to the US Embassy to call.  I called the number and the Lady seemed irritated that we called her.  She said so many people were loosing their passports today.  Great...she said we would have to go on Monday to get new passports and it would take all morning so not to schedule a flight till the afternoon or the next day to be safe.  It looked like we would be staying 2 more days.  Rebecca called down to the Lobby and asked if we could stay two more days and it was fine. I finally just went to bed and covered my head praying tomorrow would be better miraculously and the passports would be found.  I have never felt like a worse mother than stranding my daughter in a foreign place.  I know she didn't know and was just fine but I felt TERRIBLE!