It can be said that we’re getting the hang of Paris.  Today was a smoothly executed series of adventures that fit somewhat seamlessly.

One minor snag has been the Paris Museum Pass, which has generally validated its purchase several times over.  It gets us into a lot of things and even promises to get us to the front of the line.  It worked splendidly yesterday at the Arc de Triomphe, getting us in, up and out of that place very quickly.

Sometimes, it’s not clear which lines we get to skip.  Today we thought we could go right up to the top of the Nortre-Dame towers as soon as we were done touring the cathedral; but, no, we still had to get a reservation.

That adventure had to be put on hold for a few hours, but we were able to take in the mega-interesting Crypte archéologique de l’île de la Cité right away. The name of this museum is much longer than the line to get in, even though you may fall down the stairwell if you’re in line for the Notre-Dame and not paying attention.

Right there underneath the large square in front of the cathedral is a museum centered around the exposed foundations, wall, and even door arches of the very early enhabitants of the l’île.

We could not linger too long, even though Zoe and I might have stayed for another hour or so looking at the artifacts they found during excavation.    Because we had a full 24 hours on our Batobus pass from yesterday, we could still squeeze another ride in if we got to the quay before 11:20.  We pulled ourselves from the crypts and, voila: bonus Batobus ride!

See how things are coming together?  Sometime in the morning we even managed to buy four huge ham and cheese crepes.  As a family we could only manage to finish three.  I snacked on the last one as the day went on.

The Batobus ferried us to the Musee d’ Orsay, which is, of course, on the Paris Museum pass.  We didn’t get to skip much of a line here, but we didn’t have to shell out any more money, either.  Then again, I would not have begrudged paying a little for this place.

I believe there are one or two more art museums in Paris, maybe, but I’m not sure there needs to be.   My head and heart were full of wonder and appreciation after our three-hour tour of the d’ Orsay.

We’re trying to get Zoe to post a vitural tour for the blog.  She took pictures of dozens of pieces she liked.  (Can you believe it? They let you take pictures of whatever you want there!)    They even provided us with a menu of diverse and important exhibited pieces in the mesuem guide. That served as a scavenger hunt for the girls.  We told them that if they could find all of the featured items, we would get them syrops on the way home.  (Scroll down to see if the succeeded.)

Let’s see.  Then we went back across the river to Jardin de Tuliers, which is lovely formal park which has been taken over partially by Coney Island.  There’s a ferris wheel and a flume and a whole bunch of other things Louis X — XVI all would have gone bonkers over, right there in the park.

We got ice cream in the Coney Island part and ate it in the formal park part, under a manicured chestnut tree.

We proceded then to another art museum, this one with a big glass pyramid in front of it, but we didn’t have the energy for any more culture.  Instead, we walked more blocks, crossed onto the l’île.

Here, Jen knew of a “hidden garden” right at the end of the island, and from there we spotted and even more hidden space under a willow tree at the very point where the river splits.  This was perfect for some well-needed shade.  We spent an hour playing hearts under the tree until it was time for our 5:30 Notre-Dame tower appointment.

See how this is all coming together!

Up the tower — this time all of us made it to the top, despite an interminable period (ten minutes? two hours?) baking in the sun, suspended on a ledge over the entrance doors, while we waited for them to let us up the stairs for the final climb. (It seems there is only one narrow stairway up the last tower and they had to let a bunch of people down before they could let us up.  Man, it was hot waiting.  Jen said it was like we were in Purgatory.)

Then home.  Because the tower tour took so long, we were not able the make the Pantheon before its 6:30 ferme time.  This landmark was two minutes from our apartment and still we weren’t able to fit it in.  So not every puzzle piece fit into place, even today.

But there always seems to be something more to do in Paris, including, much to the girls’ delight, a final Parisian night dinner at the ramen restaurant that they passed longinngly multiple times during our travels.