Hop on Hop off!

One of the best days out we have had as a family has been a day trip to Paris while we were staying at a popular Camp Site about an hour from Paris.

We heard about the Batobus tours which take a circular route along the Seine. There are 9 stops along the route where you can hop off and on again for a very reasonable price.

Our coach had brought us into the city past the St Germain football ground which the boys thought was great. We were dropped about a mile from the Eiffel Tower - opened in 1889 and which is the most visited (paid) site in the world.

Having passed by the Arc de Triomphe, we eventually reached the river bank where we could hop on the Batobus.

You can see the boats in the picture. We got off in a few places. The most popular for us being Notre Dame and the Louvre.

Neil was about 11 years old at the time and was learning about art in history at school. He really wanted to see the Mona Lisa. So off we went.

There were loads of school trips that day and it was very hot. Mike and Nat decided to stay outside and have a cool drink while Neil and I ventured into the museum. By the time we reached the Louvre we had little time left before we had to journey back by Batobus to catch our coach ride back to the camp site.

We hurried along looking for the Denon Wing on the first floor - where Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting was at the time. We hurried through several halls of sculptures and paintings. I remember thinking, this is quite wrong - I should be taking at least a week to look at all this stuff!! We did manage to stop a few times along the way to look at some of the amazing pieces of work. The Greek Antiquities section was pretty awesome but Neil hurried me along. We eventually found the salon home to the Mona Lisa where a crowd of around 30 people were all holding their cameras in the air to take a picture of a picture behind glass - bonkers! Anyhow I said to Neil "you take your camera a wriggle you way to the front, you are small and will get there. I'll wait here" and off he went. I turned around and was amazed at the opposite wall - there was the vast painting of the Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Verenese - an interpretation of the Biblical story from John 1 1-11 where Jesus and his mother and some of his disciples are guests at a wedding feast and Jesus is encouraged by his mother to help out when the stewards run out of wine. You probably know this story!

As everyone else was looking at the Mona Lisa, I had a wonderful ten minutes or so looking at this awesome painting totally on my own. Wonderful!