Venice 🇮🇹 & Paris 🇫🇷

We spent a few days in Venice, where we tried to stay cool during the heatwave days, and went exploring the labyrinth of streets in the evenings. We stayed in Cannaregio (the Jewish Ghetto), which was the perfect neighbourhood for calm walks far enough from the main roads. The architecture of Venice is eye candy, and the gelato is fantastic. Just like we did at DisneySea, we took a gondola ride. This time it was just us, and the gondolier told us about the community and its history. 

We went to Murano one day and spent time at a glass jewelry workshop. We also went to San Marco’s Square where the girls fed pigeons. 

From Venice it was actually quite a gruelling journey to Paris. We had booked an overnight train, which would have been very comfortable, but there was a landslide in France that made the track impassable. So the new deal was a train to Milan, then an overnight bus to Paris. Sadly it was one step up from a school bus and was stopped at the French border because it didn’t meet the environmental standards. We waited five hours for the replacement bus, then made our way to Paris, where there was a heat wave. 

Luckily our AirBnb was another great one, a whimsical apartment in Montmartre with loads of fun stuff to look at and toys for the kids. To beat the heat, we went to the Louvre to appreciate the air conditioning, and the art. The Egyptian section is my favourite. We also found a community pool and went there three times during the week. 

When the weekend came, we were lucky to get visitors! James and Naomi zipped over from London. What a pleasure to spend time with family, especially these two legends! We had a great time exploring the city: la Tour Eiffel, great lunch, Shakespeare & Co bookstore, an amusement park. It was fun to spend time together and we were sad to see them go.