Last Day In Paris

On this, our last day in Paris, we opted to go visit a Medieval castle called Chateau Vincennes.  It was completed in 1370 and was initially a royal residence.  It later was a military stronghold and now is a historic site visited by tourists.  It boasts the tallest keep (tower) in France, a high stone wall and a deep moat.  Although you can't climb to the top of the tower, you can go up several floors and the tour takes you to the private rooms of Charles V (1364-1380).  There are lots of stairwells and windows and the whole building has a super fun ambiance.  Kent and Brandt should have been wearing armor and Blythe and I should have been wearing tall cone shaped hats with veils coming out the top.  It was a good place to take the kids because they could run around and didn't have to be particularly quiet.  In addition to the castle, there was a church and another palace built much later.  

The moat, once filled with water, is now filled with grass.

The fortified castle with the keep.

It has been undergoing restoration for several decades.

Looking down from above to the spot where Kent was standing three pictures up.

This is looking towards the newer palace and out over the eastern edge of Paris.

That's the church behind us.

Bell tower, complete with bell.

I loved these original paintings on the walls.

It was cold inside.

These are the windows in the church. 

The first day we were in Paris, Kent remembered that when their family

was on study abroad in Paris in 1980, there had been signs on the grass in all the parks that said,

"Don't walk on the grass."

Then, lo and behold!, one of those very signs on the grass.

We both laughed.

And kept the children off the grass.

It is lovely and lush looking grass,

probably made so by the lack of people walking on it.

Watch out! 

Bearing in mind the children, from the chateau, we took the metro to the base of the hill that Sacra Coeur is on.  There is a funicular you can ride for the mere price of a metro ticket, and while the ride is very short, it is pretty fun.  The best view of Paris is from the Sacra Coeur, so off we went.  The whole place was a madhouse.  There were lots and lots and lots of people, and I held onto one child while Kent held on to the other, and I clutched at my purse to insure it wasn't stolen or pick pocketed. 

The funicular was packed.  We were all jammed in like sardines, but the kids thought it was great.  

Here is Brandt smashed between large bodies. 

The view from the steps of Sacra Coeur.

We were watching a guy do amazing tricks with a soccer ball.  

He is nearly at the top of the light post and he is balancing the spinning soccer ball on a pen held in his mouth.

He shimmied up the pole like that.

We watched him for some time and then left him two euros in appreciation of his talents.

This is the last picture I got from this day.

The battery in the camera died.

After out trip up the hill, we took the metro back to our flat.  We organized and packed a bit as we are leaving to fly home in the morning, and then we returned to the park down the street.  We did more people watching, I helped a boy who fell off the monkey bars and was injured and whose parent/s were not paying attention.  He didn't want anything to do with me.  

For dinner we went in search of a Chinese restaurant and found one that made us food to go.  We also found the almost oldest building in Paris.  For many years it was thought to be the oldest until another was discovered.  However, it is super old.  It is at 3 Rue Volta.  It dates from 1644.  The ground floor has a Chinese restaurant in it, but not the one we got dinner at.

Our trip has been wonderful.  The children have been excellent travelers (better than Kent), we have seen and done wonderful things, and although three weeks has been long, it has been great.  We will be happy to go home, but will treasure the memories of this great trip.