Teddy in Paris Day 1: Arrival, Hotel, Eiffel Tower

We were at Pearson Airport ready to fly to Paris I have never been but heard so many good and exciting stories. My research guides before the going were Internet and Rick Steves' Paris 2013 book. The flight was quite good, Teddy fell asleep right after the dinner giving us time to watch movies from the beginning to the end. Travelling with small kids also gives a benefit of skipping line-ups during boarding.

We arrived to Charles de Gaulle Airport on Friday afternoon; it was Easter week-end. At the airport ,workers were really nice treated us with sweets, chocolate bunnies especially when they saw Teddy in a stroller (he was sleeping that time) , saying that one more treat for a baby.

We easily found the Information Booth, bought tickets and transit passes Pass Navigo for a week. I decided to get the pass for a week just being out of hassle with tickets and a flexibility of travelling for the whole week. There are so many things to explore were ahead.

Initially we also wanted to buy museum passes at the airport (it was a good idea) but we were so excited to be in the City of Lights so we skipped that planning to buy them at the attractions close to our hotel (the better solution was to get passes at the airport as later we spent some time standing in a long line for passes with active toddler).

The day was nice and sunny; we caught out RER train going to the city, not having problem passing with our UPPA Baby stroller with sleeping baby via checking gates. At the second stop a musician with accordion entered the train playing nice music, after first sounds we were sure we are finally in PARIS.

In comparison in Toronto no musicians play in a train, of course, there are lots of them on a platform and near shopping spots.

Our second RER gates passing was not as successful as first one, our stroller was stuck and squeezed with gates which made me panic, but glad we managed to push it forward. After that we decided to fold our stroller all the time we are travelling by RER or subway (Metro).

Finally we reached the stop École Militaire where our hotel was located. Our Hôtel Royal Phare turned out to be exactly what I read about it on-line, small elevator, small stairs and corridors, but we were lucky we got a quite big room (I think because of three of us) .


This hotel became our home for the next nine beautiful and amazing days in Paris. That day and first day we ended by visiting the Eiffel Tower since it was close about few minutes’ walk from our hotel. The view was so impressive, as Teddy said “Oh, that’s THE TOWER”.