We woke up in Carcassonne, and drove an hour to the Toulouse train station and dropped off our car rental. I did not plan the times well, as there was quite a lengthy wait before we were able to board our train. I noticed that dogs were even allowed in train stations. This makes sense in retrospect, as I was aware that dogs are allowed in trains in most civilized countries. This was later confirmed when I saw a large dog being walked past us while in our seats.
Miles and I sat facing Jeremy and a girl, with foldout tables between us. The girl spoke English fairly well, and based on my past European train rides, expected some conversation, which would give me a French perspective. This proved to be incorrect. She slept the entire five and a half hours of the train ride. We took an Uber ride to our hotels, which were just around the corner from each other. While Jeremy checked in, Miles played with the hotel cat.
It was Sunday, and we read that one of the only things open on Sunday was a museum that I had already wanted to see, as it was recommended for kids. The place was called Pompidou Center, and it was apparently free that day. The outside of the museum had an interesting look, with piping and escalators on the outside.
The inside had all different types of interesting and colorful more contemporary art.
Miles asked if this next one was Deadpool, the comic character.
From the higher levels, we had a decent view of the city. I was able to spot Sacre Coeur, a high hilled church, that I only knew of from its placement in a computer game that I had played recently.
Just outside the Center was even more artwork, surrounded by local restaurants.
That night, we walked toward Notre Dame, which was conveniently located near our hotels. The view was extraordinary. We then realized that the bridge was heavily occupied by spiders.
In front of the Notre Dame, there was a group of street performers dancing and moving around while twirling fire. Miles was enthralled, while I sat a few feet away on the ground, stretching. They ended with a small firework display on the ground, which I partially saw. The rest of the performance was not easily seen from my place on the ground. Afterwards, Miles declared to me that this was his new favorite moment of the trip. Jeremy confirmed to my that they were quite good.
The next day, we decided to start off with Miles' choice of where to go. I had wanted to bring him to the Metiers museum, which featured science and inventions, but it was closed. The Catacombs were likewise closed. His pick was the Natural History Museum. When we arrived, we told him that there was also a zoo, the Menagerie. He decided, despite my prodding in the other direction, to go with the zoo.
The zoo was pretty small, and kind of sad looking. A majority of the areas were incredibly small for the animals. Miles thoroughly enjoyed it and we saw some interesting animals including a Red Panda, whom Jeremy had never quite managed to see, even after going to the Bronx Zoo on occasion.
We purchased day passes for the water ferries that went up and down the river. We took a boat from the zoo to the area around the Louvre. It was lunchtime, so we stopped locally to eat. Prior to this day in Paris, Jeremy insisted that we were not to plan anything, but to simply "walk around," as a way of seeing Paris. While eating, I suggested to him that I could purchase tickets to the Louvre on my phone, if he wanted to go in and have the ability to skip the line. At the end of the meal, he had finally decided that he had always wanted to see the Louvre, and since we were right there already, we might as well. He also insisted that the line looked short and that buying a ticket ahead of time would not have saved us much time.
We arrived at the line. I pointed out that we would have saved at least twenty minutes by buying the tickets in advance.
When inside, I let Jeremy steer the way, as he had more of an interest than I. He led us through the areas that featured Greek history, and as we walked, he taught Miles about the ancient Greek/Roman gods and other important figures. They both were enjoying it. I listened to Jeremy test Miles when he saw reoccurring characters.
We found ourselves near the Mona Lisa. While Jeremy wasn't too interested, and I couldn't care less, he led us into the room. We looked at it from afar, shrugged, and moved on. We did, however, ask Miles first, if he had any interest himself. He did not. We then walked quickly through some of the ancient Egypt section before closing time.
I'm not a huge museum person. Jeremy informed me that the Louvre was the biggest museum in the world. This, and the interesting inside architecture, interested me more than what we found inside. It was mostly sculptures, small artifacts, and walls of what I have begun to call "Jesus pictures," that I have found to be in art museums all throughout where I have been in Europe. The rooms themselves were quite impressive though!
Next, we took the ferry to the next stop, the Eiffel Tower. I had less than zero interest in this, but I really had no problem with Jeremy picking what interested him most. We arrived, went through the scanners, and looked at the Tower from below. Since heights are not my thing, and I had no interest whatsoever, Jeremy and Miles climbed up by themselves. They walked up to the second platform, and then waited in line to go by elevator to the top. It took them hours, but they enjoyed themselves. Uber, yet again, brought us back to our hotels.
We went out to a fancy Thai restaurant that Jeremy had been interested in. I was proud of Miles for trying some new foods. We finished by going to a highly Google rated ice cream place for our final moments together. We walked Jeremy back to his hotel and said our final goodbyes. As we were walking away, Miles said to me, "I'm going to miss him."
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