Paris days and nights

We have been staying up late here in Europe. Sunset is not until nearly 10 and we find ourselves constantly surprised to be running around and then realize it is 7:30 and we have not yet had dinner. Luckily the kids (and Bill) are sleeping later as well.

The air conditioner caused us some major problems our first night. We turned it on, closed the windows and went out to dinner and returned to a sauna. We turned it off and opened the windows and discovered that Paris rivals NY in the 'city that doesn't sleep category.'. In fact, I gave lived in NY and never been kept awake by street noise the way I was in this apartment. Bill and Devlin managed to sleep better than the boys and I, but none of us got a full nights sleep. I emailed our friend and travel agent, Claire, and she got in touch with the apartment manager. A technician arrived at 9am, at which point we re all asleep. We asked him to return later in the day, which he apparently did. The ac is still a little odd and a window needs to be kept open to vent it, which is odd with nearly floor to ceiling windows, but we did find a workable solution. Windows closed where the kids sleep and curtains drawn. By our bed the window is opened only barely as much as needed for the vent hose and the curtains are closed and arranged to block as much of the opening as possible. Combined with sheer exhaustion, this seems to have worked - we all slept.

Knowing that the kids were tired we tried to take a laid back approach to yesterday. We grabbed some breakfast and headed to the Luxemborg Gardens. There the kids fed the ducks and played in the insane playground. Would love to have one like this at home, but with all the lawyers in Kenilworth it probably wouldn't work out. After the gardens we took a cruise on the Seine, where Devlin feel asleep, and then walked around Notre Dame. Alas nobody was really up for doing the whole tour.

In the evening we had a late dinner at the Eiffel Tower, which was a big hit. Our table had a perfect view of the setting sun. The kids menu was not an American restaurant's kids menu, which made me happy and the children a little less happy. They did manage to enjoy the tomato and mozzarella and the roast chicken. After we ate we walked around and climbed further up the tower and took lots of pictures. Home to bed about 10:30

Today's plan is the catacombs and a late lunch at Atelier. We better get moving.