Hello, Pardon, and Thank You

The Eiffel Tower was rated as a 'must see' by the children, and while Maggie has ventured to France on two previous occasions, this was to be Dom's first visit. Getting away had its challenges - Seamus's school had previously cancelled his excursion to a neighbouring town for Irish historical tourism. The day was cancelled in celebration after the school team won a footy match!! The new date for the trip was the day we had our flights booked {our turn to cancel}. It then turned out Imogen had an unforeseen athletics carnival on the same day. By a miracle of negotiation the organisers brought forward the triple jump enough for Mo to get in a qualifying leap, and we all bundled off to Dublin Airport.

While we can add nothing to the volumes that writers of all shades have said about Paris over centuries, I feel obliged to record that we found it a truly fabulous place. As a heat wave {22 degrees!?} enveloped Ireland and Europe, we were en route to the city of Gaiety, which then received all the credit for the warm weather and sunshine.

The public buildings are impressively beautiful, the people stylish and courteous to a fault, the streets clean, and the transport excellent. The fact that our collective French language skills covered only a fraction more than Hello, Pardon, and Thank You {That's French for G'Day, Sorry Mate, and Thanks} was no barrier anywhere we went.

We had borrowed a stroller from The Bailleys, allowing Malachy to enjoy the walking tour as much as the rest of us, and the city met with universal acclaim, with at least one child expressing the desire to live in Paris. Mo has picked fifteen possible corner terrace houses, view of Tower preferred...

After two days of city adventure, which included, of course, a serve of es cargo {see photos}, we walked back to the tower late to catch its hourly light show, and enjoy the warm spring air with the myriad other revellers, and retired to refresh for Paris Disneyland the next day.