The Amazing Race

Perfecting that model pose - not meant to be smiling !

Today (Sunday) we took part in the Mitchell Family "Amazing Race" courtesy of Blue Bike Tours (Blue Bike Tours Link). Our guide Hava is from Chicago but now lives in Paris with her Parisian husband and two children - they own and run the tour company.

After fitting us with appropriate sized bikes (Addi had a tag-a-long bike attached to Peter's), we headed out into the Paris traffic. But don't worry - it was Sunday so there wasn't as many vehicles on the road as normal.

Peter mimicking being a Parisian model 

The Challenge Card

At each landmark we stopped for a brief history lesson and to answer a challenge question. Sometimes we also had to act out the challenge. Failure to complete the challenge correctly resulted in a penalty - One penalty had Jordyn & Peter running around the Louvre pyramid during peak tourist time! Each successful challenge was rewarded with a collectable gold coin!

From the Gare d'Austerlitz train station we headed on our bikes along the river Seine to Notre Dame, then around Saint Chapelle and across the Pont Neuf bridge.


When we reached the Pont Des Arts we encountered our first real obstacle - the Paris 20km run.

So we had to take an alternative route through the Louvre grounds, along the Tuileriers Gardens and across the Seine to Hotel Des Invalides. At regular intervals we had more challenges to meet - testing our knowledge of history, french art and local land marks

Too many to choose from......

Following from there we stopped at a gorgeous pedestrian street to purchase some lunch supplies.

Notre Dame

On the streets of Paris

Nicks turn to complete the challenge

After a memorable lunch on the grass near the Eiffel Tower, we had an interesting challenge. We had to make a tower with our family - but not a person pyramid. More difficult than we thought but we did it.

Hava and the Mitchell kids

The Challenge - to create an Eiffel Tower

From the Eiffel Tower we continued our ride - stopping for more challenges at Place de la Concorde (apparently the egyptian needle is one of the few artifacts Paris didn't steal from the Egyptians!), The Pompidou Centre and the heading back to Gare d'Austerlitz along the Seine.

Fountain at Beaubourg, Pompidou Centre

It was a great day - lovely weather (it got to 11oC !), fun activities and happy kids. Although we left at 10am and didn't finish till 4pm - the day went really quick and there were no complaints (except for sore bottoms)..