We got up early to finish packing and arrive early at the train to Paris. Since we are travelling with Hedge, we arrived about two hours early and chilled in the station. We shopped for lunch at Marks & Spencer - everyone got a sandwich and a treat and we shared some fruit. We boarded the train, and it was pretty low key when we went through the tunnel; we didn't even know it! We heard an announcement that they were selling the Paris Museum passes in car 13, so Hedge and I went through to get it, but none of our credit or debit cards would work. The manager guy said that we don't have the chip in our cards, so we started worrying that they might not work in France! We had called and visited the banks, so we expected they would work.

Next thing we knew, we arrived in Paris at Gare du Nord. We got off, and stopped at the currency exchange to trade dollars for Euros, so we'd have a little money. Then we tried to figure out the machines that sell tickets for the metro, but they wouldn't take our cards, either. The line to an attended window was really long, but they had very nice girls out there to help you. Our card worked at the window, and we bought a carnet of ten tickets to get us to our hotel.

Luckily, our hotel is near the metro stop, and we checked in without any issues. We have rooms 41 and 42, which connect, and they're quite nice, though we did take down the cot they had set up so we can maneuver better. The cubs are sharing a bed, which is fine. We decided to walk down to Notre Dame, which isn't too bad a walk. We waited in line for ages at Berthillon to get some ice creams, which Toria was very excited about. The cubs both got mint leaf, Hedge got chocolate orange, and I got apricot. They were pretty good. We walked around Notre Dame and Shakespeare and Company while we ate our glace, then headed to the Pantheon.

The Pantheon is near to the Sorbonne and the Jardins du Luxembourg, and it was really beautiful in the park. We looked at all the statues of the Queens of France, and loved that Genevieve was holding a Nerf dart. We actually got a bit of sun while we were there, and it was very nice. Gabe got to run; he was scouting ahead looking for the sorting hat statue, but we never found it. We saw lots of people enjoying the sun and getting some exercise, and chatting with their amis.

We found an ATM that gave us some money, which was a bit of a relief. Hopefully, our cards will work at the Louvre in the morning to buy our museum passes! We walked back up to our hotel, and enjoyed the Rue Mouffetard, which has a lot of little shops and restaurants. We even saw the one we ate at last time we were here. We stopped at Pizza Cesar for a Pizza Margherita and a Pizza Quatre Saisons a emporteur, or to take away, as we're used to saying from London. You specify when you order, because there are two different prices, unlike at home. We have been telling the cubs for 5 years how good that pizza is, and they agreed wholeheartedly.

We went through our photos and uploaded them, which continues our nightly routine from London. We miss having a kitchen and living room here, but we have two bathrooms, though one of them has a leaky toilet. The guy at the desk says they'll either repair it or move us tomorrow; we're hoping they fix it, as we don't want to move all our stuff. The bed is quite comfy, and ours is large - maybe King. Cubs have double, I think. It's hard for us all to look at the pictures and type on the bed though.

We've been trying to sort out if we buy passes for the metro or just buy more packs like we did today. We have to get different tickets to go to Versailles and the airport, but it's convenient to have the unlimited pass. Not sure - hopefully there's an attended ticket window tomorrow where we can discuss it with someone. In the morning, we're going to enjoy the breakfast here, and hope it's as good as we remember. Then we head to the Louvre; Victoria is very excited about that. In the afternoon, we go to Invalides; Gabe is super excited about that, even though the de Gaulle part is closed tomorrow. We hope to fit in the Arc de Triomphe after that, and have dinner somewhere there.