Eliot's Travels

Our first day in Paris was overcast and cool. Jim left early (7 am) for his meeting, while the boys and I got to sleep in until nearly 9 am. After a continental breakfast downstairs, we came back up to the room to plot our itenerary for the day. Eliot was very excited about the Eiffel Tower, so we decided that would be the place to go. As I got our things together, Eliot and Miles watched Arthur (PBS) in French. Eliot said that "they are speaking silly language." French is quite different from Dutch, for sure.

Equipped with a map from the hotel, we headed off toward the Tower. Along the way and after a wrong turn, we discovered a playground on a beautiful boulevard leading up to Les Invalides. The boys ran around and enjoyed the slide and stairs, while I figured out the right road to take. This statue in a traffic circle was just beside the park.

The architecture in Paris is completely different than that of Holland. In Delft, everything is made of brick with tiled roofs. The buildings are in shades of reds and browns. Most of the buildings in Paris were tan limestone. The roofs were made of shingles, often square or rectangle in shape. There was lots of rod iron on the windows and balconies with decorative sculptures at overhangs and windows.

Paris is definitely a big city. All the building were at least 4 stories high though most were 7 and there were plenty towers as well. There are multiple skyscraper areas. Along with city comes busy streets, litter, and homeless. We walked by some pretty grimey areas but never felt unsafe. Eliot commented that "Paris looks like Boulder." Why I asked, "because the streets are concrete - not brick like Delft."

posted by Whitney @ 11:23 AM