Mussels, fairy floss and love locks!

If you thought romance was passé in Paris, all you have to do is look at Paris bridges to see it is being displayed in full force.

The Paris “love locks” are back.

The love padlocks have been a phenomenon in cities around the world.

For those of you who haven’t heard of them, here's the story. A couple writes their names on a padlock and locks it onto one of the bridges. They then throw the key into the Seine River as a symbol of their undying love.

Some say the only way to break the seal of love brought on by this love lock act is to find the key and unlock the padlock. Of course, that is nearly impossible, since the keys lie at the bottom of the river. This reality induces many brokenhearted individuals to return with bolt cutters to try to chop off the padlocks in the dead of the night. 

Alex and Charlie decided they wanted to put their padlock on the bridge too. They wrote 'Alex, Charlie and Sam, Paris 2013' on their lock and tossed the key in the Seine (and kept a spare for their journals).

The car park we deposited the car at did free bike hire so Rog hired a bike and did some touring by the Seine giving 'croggies' to the kids. We went to the Jardin des Tuileries near the Louvre and went on the fair ground. The views from the air chairs was fantastic. (Cheaper than DLP and no queues or mice in sight!) 

Ended the day with steaming pots of moules frites (again!!).

We love Paris!!

A & C with their padlock

Charlie attaches it to bridge

The Louvre from the Jardin du Carousel

Louvre again 

Going up on the air chairs

The Louvre from the air chairs

Log flume- be warned you may get wet!

Fairy floss of course 

Musee d'Orsay and some tower

Moules frites (again!!!!!)

Paris with kids

We've found Paris a very 'kid friendly' city. You know what they say, 'Happy kids, happy life!
There are many parks with good quality, imaginative play equipment, clean and in good condition. Many of these are close to major attractions which makes 'letting off steam' easy. All of these were free except for the park in Jardin du Luxembourg which costs about 10 euro for a family of 4 for an 'all day' ticket.

Many of the attractions are free for kids, including the major museums. We visited Paris in August which is peak season so there were a lot of tourists around. We basically avoided some places/ activities that were renown for being very busy with long queues, eg: the Louvre, Versailles, going up the Eiffel Tower. Despite the hoards of people with a little imagination and research it was very easy to escape the hoards. We used 'Trip advisor', 'DK Family Guide to France' and a Guardian travel guide 'Paris with kids.'

We camped at Beau Village Camping, Paris which is about 20km south east of the centre. We drove into the city each day and parked in underground parking close to our destination. This was relatively straight forward with a GPS and quicker (on average taking 45min) and cheaper (average 20 euro) than public transport. The train takes 45 min into the centre of Pari then we would have had to take the metro, public transport for us all would have been in excess of 30 euros per day. Driving had the advantage of conserving the kids' energy as they can sit and chill in the back of the car meaning we could see more of the city, the younger two often fell asleep on the way home. The other great thing is the car parks have complimentary bikes which we took advantage of and had lovely time cycling through Paris.

We went to Paris Disneyland as it had been high on Alex and Charlie's list of 'must do's'. VERY expensive 260 euros for us, and VERY VERY busy. Queues for rides were 30-60 mins. It was Roger's and my idea of hell but the kids loved it. Charlie particularly loved all the Disney characters and the parade at the end of the day.

City Centre Parking (saves time, energy and money)

Spot the tower!

Complimentary bike from the parking