Lyra & Nina Ten Days in Paris Read online

Museum in the afternoon.

  Lyra read about the Louvre in her guide book.  It said that the museum is most visited museum in the world and is the largest museum in France.  It was built in 1793 so is more than 200 years old.  However they added a glass pyramid to the building in 1988.

  There would be lots to see at the Louvre - paintings, statues, vases, drawings and more from all over the world.  Lyra was especially interested in seeing the most famous painting in the world - the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. 

  Again they caught the Metro to the Louvre.  It was not as full today, being Sunday.  There was a long queue when they arrived at the museum.  However it moved quickly and whilst they waited they could peer through the glass pyramid and watch all the people below.  It was strange to see such a modern pyramid in the middle of the very old buildings of the Louvre.  Lyra and Nina hoped the wait would be worth it.  They were both wearing their new hats and had their backpacks on again. 

  Finally it was their turn at the ticket window and then they went in.  It was so full with people that it was hard to see the paintings without someone being in front of you, especially being small.

  First they looked through the Egyptian section.  There were all kinds of bowls, weapons and even jewellery, some all in gold.  There were huge statues and even mummies.  Mum and Dad loved the Egyptian section as they had both travelled to Egypt and had first met there fifteen years ago.   They had promised to take Lyra and Nina there one day.  Lyra hoped that that could be their next overseas holiday.  She was lucky to have parents that loved travel.

  They continued to the paintings. There were so many and most of them were religious paintings.  They were mainly oil paintings and some of them were so large that they reached from the floor to the ceiling. Lyra thought about how long it must take an artist to paint a picture that size.

  At last they entered the room with the Mona Lisa painting.  Lyra was surprised to see that is was quite a small painting.  She couldn’t understand why it was the most famous painting in the world - it really was just a painting of a woman who wasn’t even really that pretty.  Oh well, at least she could say that she had seen the most famous painting in the world even if she didn’t really like it!  Nina also wasn’t very impressed.

  It seemed that they were in the Louvre for hours.  When they finally came outside it was late afternoon.  They walked through the huge gardens outside the Louvre until they came to a cafe in the middle and there was a small play area for children nearby.  Mum and Dad sat down and ordered coffees for themselves and crepes for Nina and Lyra.  Whilst they waited, the girls went off to the park to play.  They both put their backpacks down on the park bench next to the playground.  When Lyra looked over a few minutes later, a man was sitting on the bench.  No!  It was the very same man that she had seen yesterday.  Now she really knew there was no coincidence. 

  Lyra panicked.  Her backpack was next to the man. Should she go over there and get it?  Should she go near him?  She was afraid and so was Nina.  She decided she did not want to lose her backpack, so holding hands together with Nina they headed to the bench to retrieve their backpacks.  As they walked in his direction, the man suddenly stood up, grabbed her backpack and started to run.  Oh no!  Lyra was so shocked that she just stood there.  She looked at the man running away and wished he would just drop her backpack.  She was so upset and angry that she couldn’t even speak or scream.  “Just fall over and leave my backpack alone” she repeated to herself in her head over and over. 

  Then the most amazing thing happened.  The man tripped over a large tree root and fell to the ground with a loud thud. Lyra heard him groan and saw him hold his knee.   She grabbed Nina and ran towards the man.  Her backpack was lying on the ground two metres away from the man but he was too busy holding his knee to notice. Lyra ran as fast as she could, snatched her bag and continued sprinting towards her parents at the cafe.  Nina was right behind her puffing loudly.  She glanced over her shoulder expecting to see the man, but he had vanished.  Where did he go?  Lyra stopped and looked around.  There was no sign of the man. 

  Lyra and Nina continued walking to their parents and puffing, Lyra explained what had happened to them.  Her Dad looked around whilst her Mum had a worried look on her face.  They sat down and ate their crepes whilst catching their breath.  Lyra was happy that she had rescued her backpack but she was worried that the man would somehow appear again.  Why was he following them?  Why was he so interested in her backpack?  It was so lucky that he had fallen over.  She hoped that he might be scared to come following them again now. 

  After eating and drinking in silence they all got up and walked back to the Metro station.  Thirty minutes later they were back in the comfort and safety of their hotel. Lyra hoped that they would not have another adventure like that on their trip.  However Nina took her mind off things by reminding her that tomorrow they would be going to Euro Disney.   They couldn’t wait. 

  Day 5 - Euro Disney

  Today was the day! The best day of her life!  Lyra was so excited.  Disneyland. So many kids dreamed of going to Disneyland and she was on her way there. Nina couldn’t sit still for a second.  She kept peering out of the train window to see whether she could see Euro Disney.  Lyra wished that Euro Disney was not quite so far outside of Paris as the train journey seemed to take forever.

  Finally the end station arrived and they left the train. There were so many families all heading to Euro Disney just like them.  As the walked towards the entrance they could hear music playing.  There it was!  It looked so perfect. There were gardens in front of the entrance with trees shaped like Disney characters.  They had already bought tickets so could skip the queue and go to the gate.  Their tickets each had a Disney character on it - Lyra had Dumbo and Nina had Tinkerbell. 

  As they walked along Main Street, Lyra and Nina peered at all the cute shops selling Disney toys, cups, stuffed animals, T-shirts, jewellery and so much more. It all looked so beautiful.  Lyra had a map of the park and they had studied this on the train to work out what rides they would like to go on and what shows they wanted to see.

  EuroDisney was divided into four lands - Discoveryland, Fantasyland, Adventureland and Frontierland.  They had decided to visit Fantasyland first as it had the most rides for Lyra and Nina.  Neither Lyra or Nina wanted to go on the scary rides.  Besides, some of the rides such as roller coasters had minimum heights and Lyra and Nina would be too small.

  Lyra and Nina gasped as they saw the entrance to Fantasyland.  It was the Sleeping Beauty Castle you see on the start of all the Disney movies.  It was pink and had tall spires in blue with gold tips. It looked so gorgeous.  Lyra wished she could live there.   They walked over a small bridge and through the centre of the castle. 

  Their first ride was Peter Pan’s Flight.  They sat in small sailing ships.  It was very dark inside and the ships seemed to fly in the air.  As she looked around, Lyra could see Peter Pan’s Island below and then Captain Hook.  It was as if they were a part of the fairy tale. 

  The next ride was It’s a Small World.  This time they sat in cruise boats and floated along the water slowly into the ride.  The song “It’s a small world” played the entire time and on both sides of the boat were characters and scenes from different countries all around the world.  There was the Eiffel Tower and two children from Paris, a windmill for The Netherlands and even a kangaroo and Aboriginal for Australia.  Lyra and Nina enjoyed the ride so much that they went on it three times.

  After spending two hours in Fantasyland they had a short break for lunch and then continued to Discoveryland.  Lyra’s favourite ride was Buzz Lightyear where you become a Space Ranger and had to shoot aliens with a laser gun. Of course, her Dad shot the most aliens but it was so much fun.  The Space Mountain ride was totally scary with them sitting in a space ship and it shaking as they took off into space and avoided crashing into meteors and comets. 

  In Frontierland
they visited Pocahontas Indian Village where there were Indian tepees and Woody’s Roundup Village.  Finally in Adventureland they swung and climbed

  on Adventure Isle and walked through Aladdin’s Passage.

  It was all so fantastic.

  As it approached 4 o’clock they walked back to Main Street so that they could watch the parade.  Lyra and Nina stood at the front behind the ropes alongside the street curb so they could see.  Mum and Dad stood behind them.  The music began and out marched some of the Disney characters - Donald Duck and Pluto.  Then along came a colourful train with each carriage carrying different characters.  There was Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Captain Hook and Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and then all the Disney Princesses - Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.  As the train approached them, it stopped and out jumped all the characters and danced to the music. 

  Lyra and Nina waved and called out to the characters. Mum and Dad were busy taking photos and trying to get pictures with Lyra and Nina in the front of all the characters.  Lyra wanted to be able to show her friends at school that she had really been there. 

  They were so busy watching that they did not notice a