Over the Easter holidays I went on the third of my four 'changing schools' trips. I have four boys and as each of them undertook the dreaded AQE, or transfer test, we wanted to celebrate their hard work regardless of their result. So it was decided that a wee weekend trip would be their reward, and since they do most of their activities with their dad, it was designated a 'mummy and son' trip!
When B went through the transfer process, we went to Glasgow to the Commonwealth Games, and enjoyed watching hockey games and walking round old castles.
With E, we went to London to visit Stamford Bridge and Wembley. We had stadium tours, went on an open-top bus tour and even went to an art exhibition.
So this is trip number 3 and R decided he wanted to go a little further afield. He is a big football fan and supports Real Madrid, so I thought we'd end up in Spain, but instead we got tickets to see PSG v Monaco, so off to Paris we flew!
There were a lot of nerves on this trip as it was my first trip abroad with one of the boys, and my anxiety was on high alert. It was going to be a very busy city with over 55,000 people going to the match, and I was scared stiff of losing him. That sounds silly - but my anxiety just went overboard and in the days running up to the trip I imagined every disaster that could take place, and every situation where I might lose him.
My sister was such an encouragement. She prayed with me, messaged me and even sent me a beautiful worship song to listen to as we waited in the airport. It made such a difference! I knew God was there with me and was going to be by our side the whole way through the trip, but the reminder was just perfect!
So what did we do in lovely Paris?
Day one involved a lot of travelling... and I do mean a lot!!! We left the bus station in Belfast at 1am, got a flight from Dublin at 6:15am, a bus from Paris Beauvais at 9:50am and then flitted round the city trying to get to our hotel! It was a Saturday so there were the 'yellow jackets' protests, and so the Arc de Triumphe (and it's surrounding area) was closed! We ended up walking right the way around to the other side of it in order to find a bus to take us to our hotel, but it was a lovely way to see Paris and its beautiful buildings. We loved it! We finally got to our hotel and realised we'd been up and on the go for 22 hours! What a day!
Day two was much calmer and started with a good lie in! We started with a boat trip down the Seine, which was lovely. I love boat trips, because you get to relax, see the sights and enjoy time on the water! The exciting part of this one was seeing Notre Dame. Obviously we weren't able to get in to see it as it was closed after the horrific fire. But just to see it from the water was good enough. It is a beautiful building, even with the horrible burnt shell. After that, we enjoyed a walk around the Paris aquarium - with their hypnotic jellyfish! And then came the pièce de résistance. We made our way across the city to Le Parc de Princes, where we revelled in the amazing atmosphere, laughed, cheered and celebrated with the PSG crowd, even nearly crying as they got passionate about saving the Notre Dame after the fire. It was amazing! They even won and R got to see his two favourite players playing right in front of him! The stress came when 55,000 people were all trying to exit the stadium and make their way home! You don't notice that many people when you are in the ground, but boy do you ever when they are all leaving! But God was good, we found the right bus really easily and even ventured onto the Metro!
Day three was back to being an early start as we had an appointment to keep... R had an art homework to do, where he had to sketch a painting in an art gallery, so why not do it in the Louvre! We walked round and found a wonderful painting by Theodore Rousseau to sketch, even though I kept telling him he should try drawing the Mona Lisa! It was definitely an experience seeing one of the most famous paintings in the world. After that we took an open-top bus tour, seeing all the famous sights, and hearing 'Champs-Elysees' over and over again on the onboard guide! (R's new favourite song!) We finished the day with a hot chocolate in the wonderful Lindt shop - where we found out that there IS such a thing as too much chocolate!
Day four was our final day, so it was another long travelling day. We started with a walk to Sacre Coeur which was close to where we were staying. The view from the steps was amazing. We had to keep reminding ourselves that we were actually in Paris and that our trip was nearly over. We had one last trip across Paris to visit the Eiffel Tower (and to Facetime home!) and then started our bus trip back to the airport. Our flights and buses were fantastic and so easy to use, but when we got to Dublin we were 5 minutes late and missed our bus to Belfast! We had to wait another 2 hours before the next bus, but it was fine and I loved having the opportunity to people-watch in the airport. It was the middle of the night but there were still several men (of varying ages) with big bouquets for their other halves! Romance definitely isn't dead!
So that was our springtime adventure in Paris. I do love these trips as it gives me a chance to connect to the boys and spend some proper time with them. One left to go - so I'm hoping I'll manage to convince M to go to Spain or Disneyland!
Sorry its so long today - I wanted to have a written record of it as well as all my photos!!
Blessings xx
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