Never go to Paris on Bastille day.

Edit note: This is a series of originally private memoirs from my family trip to Europe. Click here for the start of this series. 28 Days in Europe with the kids

July 14th Bastille Day in Paris

Up at 7:30 for Breakfast and then off to the Louvre. We got there at 8:30, half an hour before it opened, and there was already a line! We did not know that because it was Bastille day, the Louvre had free admission, score! We made a beeline for the Mona Lisa, because we were there early there were only about 100 people in front of the famous painting so we were able to get a great look. The Louvre is so filled with great works of art that we couldn’t possibly see them all in one day and after a while its hard to keep your perspective, we bought a book that describes the most famous pieces so that we could understand what we were looking at. Picture shows us at “Wedding at Cana.” This is the painting right across the hall from the Mona Lisa

Now here is some very good advice to all you travelers out there; Never go to Paris on Bastille Day.

1) All major attractions, except the Louvre are closed.

2) There are police, soliders and French patriots EVERYWHERE

3) It rains buckets (okay this could have happened any day but it just so happened that is was on Bastille day this year that more rain fell in four hours than for the past 6 weeks)

As we walked out of the Louvre it was pouring rain, we bought two umbrellas and tried to walk through the streets to get to the Champs Elysee but this was pointless as all streets were closed for Bastille Day…grrrrr, it was so frustrating we were getting soaking wet, there were gypsies trying to rob us, puddles and rivers everywhere, what was happening to my dream Paris holiday?

We spotted a Bistro across the road and ran for it, I think we got inside just as the lightning and thunder happened. Joshua asked me if it was “midnight” the sky was pitch black it was unbelievable, it was actually only 1:00 PM. The bistro was, however our safe haven. We promptly ordered a litre of the house wine and settled in for the afternoon. 110 Euros later, the kids were well fed on all sorts of French delicacies, I was much more mellow, all of a sudden Paris was good again. It was still lightly raining at 3:00 and we set off.

By 3:30 the rain had stopped and we found our selves in the middle of a french army “meet and greet” Connor, Sophie and Josh got to put on French Army gear, ride on a tank, sit on a helicopter and practice finding land mines. Is it actually okay to go to Paris on Bastille day?  I still say no, but the kids did like it, at one point I think I said to Chris,” I did not come to Paris to try on a Army uniform,” haha, its all good.

At this point the sun came out and we ventured over to the Eiffel tower, it was packed with tourists and the lines were at the two hour wait point. We decided to go back to our left bank hotel, shower and have dinner.

 

Enroute, we stopped off at the gardens outside of the Louvre where we went on the largest Ferris wheel in France, ate some cotton candy and goofed around a little. By the time we made it back to our hotel it was 9:30 PM, we got showered, dressed up and went out for a great dinner. At 11:00 all the fireworks went off but we were too busy eating and drinking to really care, at 12:00 we again fell into bed, completely wiped out.