From Sky to Sewer

The Eiffel Tower

Our time in Paris has flown by. Today was our last day to enjoy this beautiful city and fortunately for us, the sun had come out in all its glory! We made the most of it and explored the rest of the Latin Quarter on foot. We found Paris's oldest church bell, Paris' oldest tree, and stopped by the Cluny garden which was unfortunately looking a little sad in the middle of winter. Our route took us to the Sorbonne, and we had fun trying to pick out the different schools on top of the rows of windows. What an impressive university!

We continued on to the imposing Pantheon, originally a church dedicated to St Genevieve, and now a mausoleum for notables such as Curie, Hugo, Braille and Voltaire. We stared at the central pendulum for a while before realising that we would be late for our lunch reservation at Le Jules Verne at the Eiffel Tower. We ran with vigour and thankfully were only 15 minutes late...very unlike me!

Clear, blue skies!

The Notre Dame

Having a snack under the oldest tree in Paris. An acacia from Guyana

The Sorbonne

The Pantheon

Another cavernous structure

 The restaurant has its own private lift in the southern pilon of the Eiffel Tower. We entered and were whisked up to 123m above ground to the restaurant which offered a magnificent view of the city. We were fortunate to get a table by the window. The staff were wonderful. They helped the children order from the menu themselves taking the time to explain what the various dishes were. They then offered Jonah a simple custom-made entree of seabass with potato souffle. The older children ordered skate wing which the waiter then kindly deboned for them. I couldn't resist stealing one of Jonah's potato souffle. The texture was surprising. It is very hard to explain other than it was good! The staff automatically put an empty plate in front of Jonah without us asking so that he could sample all our mains which I thought was really nice. I was too busy eating and forgot to take photos of the appetiser and the entree, but did remember to take photographic proof of the best pork chops ever. So tender and so moist and so intense in flavour. Mmmm...Elliot exclaimed that it was the best meal ever. Might I add here that the sommelier had a voice with most gorgeous deep timber. It might be worth learning how to drink wine if it meant that I could listen to that voice recite lists of wines...

Lunch at Le Jules Verne

Going up!

The children were excited

Jonah's specially made junior sized sea bass

with potato souffle

The BEST pork chops ever!

Dessert

Petit fours

A little extra something to take home

The whole family rolled out 3 hours later. We walked along the Seine for our final destination of the day...The Sewer Museum. It was hard to tell which was more nauseating - the sewers or Malcolm's "dad joke" about the "I'm full" tower! Nonetheless, this was another surprise hit with the children. There were a lot of pretty clever devices and Malcolm was very taken with the large Indiana Jones style ball. We headed back to the apartment for a simple meal and to pack for our move tomorrow. Disneyland here we come!

Last stop of the day...sewer museum!

Under the streets of Paris

Jonah worried that the animals were real