Paris..The End

 Monday morning we woke bright and early and after hitting up Starbucks we headed for the Eiffel Tower.  We figured there would be a shorter line on Monday morning to ride to the top.

Lining the green grassy area in front of the Eiffel Tower were these "Buddy Bears."  There is one for every country.

USA!!!

Here is the story behind the United Buddy Bears Exhibit.  So cool!!!

England

Sweden

While Nathan took Leah and Dylan up in the tower Grant and I had a good time walking around looking at the Buddy Bears, snapping photos, and being accosted by middle eastern women who were looking for English speaking people to sign a petition for the deaf homeless.  Seriously, there were probably 50 or more of them wandering around the base of the tower, and I am pretty sure I was asked by every single one to sign their sketchy petition.  Talk about putting a damper on the Eiffle Tower experience.  I watched three security guards (who were carrying automatic riffles) chase a group of the girls away at one point, so I gather I'm not the only one who didn't care for them too much.

Here's another great shot for the "Grant was here" scrapbook.

After a quick lunch we once again headed out via subway, train, subway, train, and train to get back to Bristol.  After spotting Gwen Stephani (yes THE Gwen Stephani from No Doubt) in the Gare du Nord Train Station in Paris...

She is the blonde on the left.  She literally crossed our path about 15 feet away.

...and then nearly having a panic attack as our children were on their worst behavior  while we were questioned in customs about why we didn't have visas.  I really thought for a moment they weren't going to let us back into the UK.  I told Nathan later that I wasn't too worried, because it would only take them about 15 minutes of trying to detain our children before they would decide they definitely wouldn't want them to stay in Paris.  In the end we made it through and about 8 hours later were finally back in our flat in Bristol.

Like I said, I'm still glad that we went, but won't be returning anytime soon.  I am even more happy to be back to our temporary home away from home though. I sort of feel like I need to have t-shirts printed that say, "I survived Paris."  Today Leah asked if we could go to Italy. I think I may have blacked out for a minute.  When I was able to speak again I just told her the next place I am going is Wichita.