Jason and I both agreed that this time visiting Paris was even better than our first trip. Maybe it was having my parents around or finding the best food or the wonderful weather- whatever it was it worked. Paris was mesmerizing! I think all of us would return to Paris in a second.
Day 1:
We left London early one morning and jumped on the train that headed through “the Chunnel” under the English Channel. This is always a fun ride but surprisingly only takes about 2 hours, so it never lasts as long as we would like it to. The next thing you know you go from busy downtown London and then you are getting off the train in Paris. First thing was to find our hotel and drop off our luggage. We found this great hotel that had one important aspect to it- a balcony that looks at the Eiffel Tower. After our first trip to Paris we had several friends and family ask what the hotels are like in Europe. Rather than tell you we can show you with this video.
We still had most of the day to spend in Paris after we dropped off the luggage, so we were off. The first thing we went and did was to go and see one of the museums in town (since there are so many we have to spread them out). We went to the Musee de Orsay, which is just across the river from the more famous Musee de Louvre.
FUN FACT: The Louvre was originally the main museum in Paris for works of art. Eventually it got so full that they decided to convert an old train station into an art museum. The decision was to move all of the modern pieces from the Louvre to Musee de Orsay. That is why you can find such famous works of art by Van Gogh, Monet, and Rodan.
We spent several hours at the museum before we were ready to move on to the next site. We wanted to show mom and dad the Tulleries, which is basically a nice garden area in the center of Paris, with fountains and chairs to sit and enjoy the scenery. We sat on the bridge looking over the Seine for a bit and then went and enjoyed the garden.
A fountain found downtown Paris.
Cleopatra's needle. If you read our posts when we were in Egypt you would remember us talking about these obelisks. There are 2 pairs of these obelisks found in the world: NYC, Paris, London, and Egypt. We reached our 4th one in Luxor, Egypt but we still like seeing the others when we are in town.
RANDOM FACT: The Arc De’ Triumph was built by Napoleon as a monument for himself. It was built in the center of town because he wanted everyone to see his burial site. Now it is best known as the center of a huge roundabout where 6 lanes of traffic merge around it, causing a big traffic headache. It is also the location of the tomb for the unknown soldiers, or in other words for all of the men that have sacrificed their lives for France. Oh, and Napoleon isn't even buried here.
We knew we wanted to climb the stairs to get to the top, but that must have been before we found out that there are 284 steps to the top. We climbed up this spiral staircase for a long time and then finally we came out on top. It was breathtaking. We could see all of Paris from up there. It’s different than being on the Eiffel tower because there is multiple levels to the tower and you can always travel up, but once you are on top of the arc that is as high as you can go. Nothing but sky is above you and a 360 degree view.
Some views from on top of the Arc de Triumph.
You can almost always see the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
I think we weren’t all expected to have done such a physical workout at the arc, so once we had climbed down we were starving! It was also pretty dark so most of our favorite cafes and restaurants were closed… but we saw a McDonalds. I know it sounds so touristy to go to McDonalds in another country, but you need to try a familiar food chain in another language. Mom and dad enjoyed seeing the McDonalds, even though most of the menu wasn’t anything we recognized. If you ask me, the food is better at the French McDonalds.
We were just exhausted after this full day that we went back to the hotel and slept great.
Day 2:
We awoke to a sunny day in Paris and it stayed that way all day long. We had seen a little patiserie down the street from our hotel so we thought we would pick up breakfast. Let’s just say that after our stay in Paris, we had so many pastries from that cute little shop that we were sad to leave that as much as the Eiffel Tower. Our favorite: the almond croissants. Mom’s favorite: ALL OF THEM!!
A picture of the almond croissants. Someday we will learn to make the beauties! They are to die for!We spent most of the day at the Louvre. Just as we could have spent the whole day or week at the Louvre, so could we talking about all of the amazing things about that museum. It is one of our favorite places in the entire world to visit. Of course some of the famous pieces in it would be the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo, but we have also found some other favorite things about the Louvre. We love the statue area, because it is an open courtyard feeling and it is just a marvelous site to wander and get lost in. Jason got to see the Code of Hamuribi, which is the first written legal code in the world. So appropriate for our future laywer. I have to always see my favorite piece of art, Cupid and Psyche.
Mona Lisa... as if you didn't know that!
Cupid and Psyche. We were lucky enough to find a miniature replica of the statue to bring home, so now I can enjoy it every day!
A picture of one of the ceilings in the Louvre. Even those are decorated with beautiful paintings.
We had a quick meal at the Louvre and mom and I went shopping in the museum shops. It was hilarious because I know a few phrases in French and was buying something and the cashier just kept talking to me in French. I kept guessing what she was saying and responding, but eventually I said in English that I didn’t know what she was saying. She laughed and said that she thought I was French so that’s why she kept talking to me.
Pictures of everyone outside the Louvre.
We split up from Mom and Dad for a few hours and apparently both couples got so exhausted we eventually sat down in different areas and tried to rest. Mom and Dad decided they wanted to take a little rest on one of the window seats. After dozing off for a few minutes, a window washer had to come and kick them out because he had to clean the window. He felt bad though and he kept saying “You look tired” to them in broken English.
The Louvre is a huge building and after spending half of the day there we wanted to do something more relaxing that evening. We had decided that we wanted to take my parents to the Eiffel Tower at ngiht.
Jason and I had never been to the Eiffel Tower at night, so this was going to be a new experience for us too. Our hotel was so close to the tower that we just went for a lovely 5 minute walk and we were there. The greatest thing was as we were walking we suddenly saw the Eiffel Tower light up with a dazzling array of twinkling lights. We forgot that it does that every hour so it came as such a shock to us.
It is probably one of the most beautiful and memorable things I have ever seen in my life. We made our way up to the different levels of the Eiffel tower to see the city of Lights stretch out before our eyes. It was the perfect end to the evening.
A picture of us on top of the Eiffel Tower. It gets pretty windy up there so you have to cuddle to stay warm.
SIDE NOTE: We’ve had a lot of people ask us if we experience “culture shock” in different countries. We don’t really feel it in the countries where English is the main language, but it is an odd feeling to be in a country where you don’t understand the signs or what anyone is saying. Jason and I are kind of used to it now, but Mom and Dad did really good about not getting frustrated with confusing maps and unhelpful people. Once you learn to relax and figure things out then you don’t really feel culture shock.
Day 3:
As you might of guessed , our last morning in Paris was filled with more pastries. After our stomachs were full we were off to one of the most iconic religious sites in Paris: Notre Dame. We decided to climb to the top and see the gargoyles and bells from up top before we went and walked around inside. Once again, we had to climb a ton of steps to reach the top. I almost am glad that we had to climb the stairs, because the staircases are actually quite gorgeous, but it also made us feel iike we earned the right to enjoy such famous landmarks. We even got to see the famous bell claimed to be one rung by Quasimodo.
The bell that was mentioned in the novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."
The infamous stained glass window in Notre Dame.
While trying to take this picture of the candles my hair almost caught fire. That's all we needed was to deal with a burned head.
One activity that my parents had requested to do in Paris was to ride a bato, or in other words a “boat.” There was a stop that was just outside of Notre Dame so we jumped on one of the boats there. If you’ve ever seen “Charades” with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, they ride a boat down the Seine river, so I was very excited to try to recreate that movie moment. It was so much fun to float down the river at a relaxing pace and see Paris from a boats perspective. We eventually made a loop and came to the stop by the Eiffel Tower, so we got off there since we just walk to our hotel from there. We had to take in some of the Eiffel Tower because it is still impressive to see during the day. After walking around for a bit (and running into a woman from Cedar City) we went back home to pack up our luggage and leave the City of Love!
We really had a wonderful time in Paris and couldn’t believe how wonderful the weather and the food were.
Some delicious foods that we found in Paris!
Another favorite treat in Paris: Crepes. Last time I became addicted to the Nutella crepes, but this time we were big on the savory crepes. Here is a video of one that we got from a street vendor. He made my mom an egg, cheese, and ham crepe. Please restrain from drooling on your keyboard.
Next Up.....Rome!
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