The Day We Got an Eye Full (aka Saw the Eiffel Tower)

The Day We Got an Eye Full (aka Saw the Eiffel Tower)

Kristyn Meyer is on a journey to make herself the best human she can be. These posts are a reflection of that. She welcomes your support via reading and through commissioned affiliate links within her posts! Please subscribe to her email list to stay up to date on all of her shenanigans! (psst… there’s a free gift involved)

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I am writing you, my dear friends, from Day Three in regards to Day Two. It’s worth noting that the days will be combined because Day Three turned into an abandonment of all plans and recovery from Day Two day.

When I first booked the tickets for this trip, I looked up average temps in Paris in September. I saw that the average high was in the 70s, and I felt that to be more than acceptable. Anyone who knows me understands my aversion to heat and the sun. Therefore, it’s rare for me to venture out in the high heat.

Don’t ask me about our Arabian cruise in May. That’s a major exception to the rule.

Paris is in its 7th day of high heat temps. It’s so hot here that they are advising people not to go outside. Unfortunately, that doesn’t bode well for tourists. So we tried to plan our day to where we would do something early in the day and then hole up in the hotel for a few hours before going out again in the evening.

That plan started out rough yesterday. We didn’t wake up as early as planned, despite the extensive nap we had the day before. However, look at this breakfast we got at the hotel. Carrot cake to start off the day? Merci, s’il vous plait!

First Stop of the Day

I know it’s split on whether people enjoy taking the hop-on, hop-off bus tours in big cities. The first time we went on one was in San Francisco way before having kids. Since then, I think we’ve done them in most of the cities we have visited. The problem is that they aren’t all the same, even if you use the same company.

This time I booked with Tootbus, which, yes, got far too many giggles from the family. I went with this one because it was advertised as a good option for kids, and the reviews weren’t awful. However, what is awful is Parisien traffic. Having been in many large cities, I can say that this is the worst we have encountered. Beijing, Mexico City, Chicago, Rome, New York City, Toronto…nothing touches how bad Paris is.

The tour itself had nine stops. However, due to the massive amount of cars and motorcycles, it took roughly 30 minutes to get to the next one. The temperatures were in the high 90s, and the bus wasn’t air-conditioned. Therefore, the only respite you got was when the bus was going. To circle back, the heavy traffic meant that the bus rarely moved for more than five seconds.

This situation is most definitely not the fault of the company or the tour. In cooler temps, it would have been more tolerable. And we still got to see these incredible landmarks, so at the end of the day, can you really complain?

Second Stop of the Day

After we evacuated the heat box that was the Tootbus, I walked straight into whatever cafe was in front of me. We started the day off with three bottles of water, which were quickly downed before we even got on the bus. Something that you won’t find as often as you do in the USA is bottled water for sale. There are public water fountains, but we have yet to come across one. You will have people come around who sell bottled water for a few Euros. We did this later in the day, and I tried to forget the scene in the movie Slumdog Millionaire where they refill the bottles and glue the seal together.

The cafe was Illy, which is a franchise. Their products are sold at home. We bought two of the biggest bottles of water they had, and the four of us emptied them within minutes. We also got a strawberries and cream torte, a piece of apple cake, and a macaron for the girl kid. The clear winner was the torte if you were wondering.

Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped at a store to try to find a fan. Here’s another thing that we learned – air conditioning is not the same everywhere you go. I keep my house at 68 degrees in the summer. Anything above that, and I feel like I’m dying. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, it gets bad.

Okay, I can eat just fine. It’s just mainly ice cream. The sleeping, though, is a real problem.

Anyway, the whole time we were on the plane, I envisioned walking into a hotel room where I could blast the AC without inhibition. Imagine my dismay when the room didn’t greet me with an onslaught of chill!

After finagling with the thermostat, I waited for it to cool down. After it didn’t, I called the spousal unit over. He determined it wasn’t getting cold. We called the front desk and told them our AC wasn’t working. She said everything was up and going from her end, but she came up to look.

The determination: France’s air conditioning is not like “American air conditioning,” per the worker lol. Their units don’t dial down like ours do. I’m not sure if this is a governmental regulation or not, but I do know that some countries do control the extent to which you can utilize these things.

So now my routine is consistently to come back, take a cold shower, and put on the lightest clothes I brought until we leave again.

A New Discovery

Before telling you about the last adventure of the day, I have to tell you about this item I found while we were looking for a fan. Bad news, no fan. Good news, I found this after-sun lotion that is a game changer. I put on some sunscreen that I brought before we headed out and reapplied once while on the bus. However, it was SPF 30, and that rarely does my skin justice. I wore a big floppy hat but knew I was going to walk away with a significant sunburn.

I had heard of this stuff on TikTok and found it in the store. It’s from a brand called Avene, and it’s their after-sun lotion. I put it on as soon as we got back to the hotel, and I have no pain or redness today! I also grabbed the spring water spray, and the whole family liked it. It instantly cooled our faces down after being in the heat.

Third Stop of the Day

After recovering for a bit at our temporary home, we set out to embark on a night cruise of the River Seine. However, quick question first:

Do you pronounce the Seine like:

• A) Sane
• B) Cen (like the beginning of cents)

Because it’s been said both ways during tours and such while here. I am personally in Team B, but I’m curious where others stand on this not-so-controversial topic.

I knew the night hours were more popular for this activity, and even more so in the heat. Even with an entire family cutting us in line and having an issue with our tickets, we were the very last ones allowed on the boat for the 8:30 sail. In fact, the boy child and I almost didn’t make the cut until they saw we were all together!

If we hadn’t made it, there would have been a 30-minute wait for the next one. But we somehow, by the grace of God, also got what I read to be the best spot on the lower level, the front left. We had a mostly unobstructed view and could walk right out to the balcony.

One of us couldn’t hang the whole time, so we took a taxi back to the hotel as soon as we got off the boat.

To Sum It All Up

Even with all the little hiccups, memories were made. As my husband told my daughter when looking at the Eiffel Tower all lit up – “These are the things you don’t fully see when you are looking at it through a screen.”