Ice Skating and Notre Dame

One of the awesome things about French culture is their focus on family and holidays. Every Christmas holidays; free ice rinks are set up in a couple of locations around Paris. A number of carousels also get into the mood and operate free. 


We decided on the ice rink located right outside the famous Hotel-de-Ville where the Paris city administration is housed dating back to the 14th century. We've never been ice skating so the kids were very excited. Because of the relatively warm temperatures (13°C) there was a layer of water across the ice. This only added to our trepidation as we only had one change of clothes for Holly. There were two sections, one for kids with chair and penguin stands to help kids stay upright. They weren't enough to keep Holly and Julia upright as both fell over a number of times.

For those who were a little better it was possible to to skate amongst the pros even if we weren't that good. You can see the carousel in the background which we simply needed to see afterwards. 

Julia's pants were quite wet after this and wearing Hollys extras didn't quite look right. We found a massive multi leveled apartment store which I am sure many people travel to Paris to see called HBV. We ventured up to level five in search of new pants. I couldn't believe the number of people in the place. No sales required here. We took one look at the price and thought better of it.

We went overland next to the Notre Dame Cathedral. On the way we crossed the La Seine river and stopped to listen to a busker. Before long Holly and Julia were dancing and drawing a crowd. Must have been been good business for the busker but most photos were being taken of the kids.

The Notre Dame is a very imposing building even in Paris. This seems to be the place for tourists to flock to with a number of tourist shops surrounding the area. We first wandered through the cathedral itself, soaking in the atmosphere. Afterwards we joined the queue for the stairs to the top. It only took 30 minutes to get to the front which is apparently very short.

For me this actually surpassed the Eiffel Tower. It's 850 years old, and has that magic of being born out of the ages. About halfway up the first section of circular stairs Holly gave up the ghost. This happens frequently and can alarm other people as a three year old suddenly collapses in front of them. Sometimes people quickly move to grab her and others turn to see our reaction which is usually great amusement.

The view from the top of the Notre Dame is complete. It is more in the heart of the old city than the Eiffel and you enjoy the view with Gargoyles. We spent a long time up there just hanging out and enjoying the place. The girls ran around exploring every nook and crevice. Luckily the space is caged in so it is almost impossible to climb out. Never say impossible when the girls are around though, so we kept a reasonable eye on them.

On the very top we were waiting to be let down the stairs again. A girl was in front of us being doted over by her parents taking photo upon photo. Holly wanted a bit of the action and moved in. Before long they were friends and we were introduced to Isobel. She was a four year old from America. I wasn't sure what her parents thought of us but they seemed amused by Holly's forthright attitude. The walk down was somewhat slow as Isobel's father went in front backwards holding her to ensure she safely made it down the stairs. Our kids bounded down having to stop frequently to allow them to get a head. Holly kept wanting to see her and to let her know she was there.

On our way home we darted down an alleyway to find a small kebab shop. We had somewhat neglected the eating process during what had been a fully pack day of adventure.