Friday morning, I had originally planned a day trip to Normandy which was a 12-hour tour & would have left at 7:00 am. After our early morning photo shoot & our long day at Disney, the girls & Bryan decided they didn't want to go. So, I let everyone sleep in & then we had the next day to take it easy & explore Paris with no plans. Instead of eating breakfast at our hotel, we decided to go to Montmartre & have brunch at a cafe up there. Cafe Mareva was on my list last time, but we never made so I was so excited to try it & it did not disappoint. I ordered the glow toast, which was homemade gf bread, peanut butter, sliced bananas, granola & a drizzle of honey:
And Bryan went with the option on my list - it was the waffle of the month which peanut butter, chocolate & sliced bananas:
I tried not to talk too much about food & restaurants this time, but I couldn't help but share this meal because it was definitely a favorite!
Once we were energized, we headed up to the cathedral. It is not as busy as Notre Dame, so it was easier to walk around & just as beautiful. Of course, the view is amazing, even though it was a cloudy day:
We spent the afternoon walking around & shopping:
We bought most of our souvenirs up here but their favorite was the candy store. Bryan has a sweet tooth also so the 3 of them went a little overboard:
It was definitely easier to walk down, although there were a lot of stairs:
We continued shopping & strolling all the way back down to Champs de Elysee. Along the way, we discovered our favorite chocolate store in Paris! There are macaroon & chocolate stores everywhere, but this one caught my attention because they had huge chocolate statues of some of the Paris monuments:
We realized this was where our hotel bought our macarons & the majority of their items were gf & surprisingly, they had a lot of df also!
We may have bought a bag of caramel & chocolate to go with our gummies from earlier in the day.......
We continued shopping at Champs de Elysee that afternoon/evening. Sadie really wanted to go to the Nike store & she actually bought a new pair of dunks she is so excited about. And I can't believe I didn't take a picture to document this, but Sophie lost a tooth inside the Nike store! They called security because it was bleeding a lot & they refused to let her go in their bathroom. Seriously?! They gave her a trash can & a paper towel and thank goodness I had a water bottle, so she had to clean her face & her hands right there in the middle of the store leaning over a trash can. Ugh.
BUT, that tooth had been loose for months & she refused to pull it. The other tooth had already grown in & her baby tooth was being pushed out anyway! They have dentist appointments in 2 weeks & I had already told her the dentist was going to pull it. Bryan had the bright idea to bribe her with a Sephora shopping spree & sure enough that was all the motivation she needed & we were shocked when she actually pulled it! Needless to say, you know what store we headed to next:
Eventually we were shopped out & we went to dinner at Little Nonna, which was my favorite restaurant last time we were here. Again, 100% gf & some of the best pizza I have ever had in my life! Why don't they make gf pizza hand tossed like this in America? Somehow, I didn't get a picture of the pizza, but they also had a creamy parmesan gnocchi which was also my favorite meal of the trip besides brunch in Montmartre:
Saturday was always designed to be our free day, but since we had already gone to Montmartre, we had even more time to explore. Sadie wanted to go back to Shakespeare Library & she bought a few books. She loves reading & could have stayed here all day:
Sophie, not so much:
I wanted to shop all week before I made my big purchase. My birthday is in March, so I treated myself to an early birthday present:
And we finally made it to Bryan's favorite store. He loves Magnanni & this is their only store in the world. Otherwise, they sale in department stores:
That afternoon I surprised the girls & took them to the Jardin des Tuileries, which is right outside the Louvre. We told them it was a really big park, kind of like Grand Central Park, so we walked around & enjoyed the gardens in the middle of the city:
Secretly, I was walking them to the back corner where they had fun activities for kids. They were beyond excited when they saw the trampoline park:
And just like Disney, they are never too old for a carousel:
It was the perfect, chill way to end our last day until we were walking to dinner. And it started raining. We had perfect weather the entire week until our very last night there & then it rained the rest of the night, so it was a long 10-15 walk/run in the cold rain until we finally made it to dinner:
That is a horrible picture of me, but I had to include it because it was so comical that night. I think it actually rained most of the night & it was still dreary the next morning, of course we were up early to head to the airport:
We had the direct flight back to DFW all day Sunday & again, these girls went 9-10 hours with no sleep. They were glued to their screens & eating all of the gummies & chocolate we had bought. Not a bad way to end spring break, I guess!
All in all, we had a great time in Paris & I thought they were the perfect age to fully understand, appreciate & enjoy a trip abroad. I hope we have the opportunity to explore more countries with them next time!
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