Paris Part Un (One)

Friday morning we got up earlier than normal and made our way to the train station to catch a Eurostar train to Paris.  The train ride was a short two hour ride and went under the English Channel for 22 minutes.  Thankfully, the thought of being in a train under water didn't phase me as much as I thought it would, lol.  We arrived in Paris just after noon their time, one hour ahead of London time.

The craziest adventure of our time in Paris came just after we arrived.  We got to the platform where the metro would pick us up.  Reed and I got on the first train that arrived but Lauren and Chris did not.  Holy crap!!  Not being too concerned for myself, since I knew where we were going, I was terrified of the fact that Lauren and Chris didn't know where to go or even the name of the hotel (although Chris said he knew it after we were reunited).  I rode quite a while on the metro, just me and Reed, praying that they would know where to go.  We made it to our first stop where we needed to change trains and Reed and I waited.  Thankfully, the first train that arrived had Chris and Lauren on it.  Phew!  That was a relief.  Chris has remembered the stop that I had mentioned just 30 seconds before getting on the first train.  Thank goodness!  We instituted a new rule from them on, always get off at the next stop if you get separated from the group.

We got to our hotel, Hotel Apollon Montparnasse, and the person who greeted us was very friendly and showed us to our rooms, which I didn't take a single picture of.  They were very nicely decorated and cozy.  Although after checking out other areas of Paris, I probably wouldn't stay at this hotel again.  It was nice, it just isn't in the best location possible.

After dropping off our stuff, we headed out to walk to walk the approximately 2 miles to the Eiffel Tower.  It really is a beautiful sight.  We opted not to go up in the Eiffel Tower due to the long lines as well as the fact that I had read an article where someone pointed out that the one thing you don't see when you are in the Eiffel Tower is the Eiffel Tower, lol.  We took an afternoon cruise on the Seine with Bateuax Parisiens, which I highly recommend.  If we go back to Paris, I might take the cruise at night to see everything lit up.   Back from the cruise, we tried to find a place to relax and have dinner prior to watching the Eiffel Tower twinkle for the first five minutes of the hour.  We paid way too much for not a very good meal, boo.  Note to self......do research on restaurants as well before going to Paris!  And then the twinkling began.  It was really pretty, although it didn't turn out in pictures very well.  We had all met our limit by then, so we headed back to our rooms to get some rest before our second day of adventure in Paris.

Our first view of the Eiffel Tower.

Hotel des Invalides, not actually a hotel.  This is the location of Napoleon's tomb.

Pretty street.

All four of us!

I definitely should have taken notes during our boat cruise, because I have no idea the names of some of these places.  Whoops!

We were pretty amazed by this lady who spoke 8 languages very well and transferred between them with ease.

Notre Dame in the center.

Can you say creep-y?  These guys were everywhere.

You can never have to many shots of the Eiffel Tower, right?  Well, that's good, because there are plenty more.

We stopped and let Reed play with the bubbles.  The guy making the bubbles was getting very angry at the big kids jumping in front of Reed to pop the bubbles.

We stopped at a little playground so Reed could do something that he likes to do for a bit.

The Eiffel Tower is the most gorgeous at night!

And it's not too bad when it twinkles either!!