Paris Part Trois

Our third day in Paris started with breakfast at our hotel, proceeded by walking through Jardin du Luxembourg, which is another beautiful garden, getting up close and personal with Notre Dame Cathedral, and walking through the Latin Quarter and St. Germain districts.  These are the areas that we would probably try to stay in when we go back.  There is just so much more going on there.  Lauren had to leave out a little earlier than us, so Chris, Reed and I walked up Champs-Élysées again since I had missed it the day before.  We made our way back to hotel to grab our bags and go to the train station.  And that, my friends, is our first trip to Paris!

Beautiful Jardin du Luxembourg

I want these flowers up the walkway at my house.  Unfortunately, I was informed that I would have to plant news flowers each season.  That doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

Cool building and more flowers inside the garden.

And a fountain.  So pretty.

Another cool fountain on our way to Notre Dame, unfortunately, it was littered with trash.

A view of the Seine with one of the two islands where Paris was originally founded on the right.

Notre Dame

This place is crazy big!

One of the entrances.  So cool!

Notre Dame

Another view of the Seine with the Eiffel Tower and one of Paris's many bridges.

Apparently the Paris Marathon was held the Sunday we left Paris.  Maybe that's why hotel rooms at reasonable prices were hard to come by?!??!

Arc de Triomphe again!

Our Hotel

Overall, we enjoyed our trip to Paris!  I can't say that it's my most favorite place I've ever visited.  It might even be one of those cities where once you've seen it, you don't really have to see it again.  That could be the fact that I was sick one of the days talking though.  Needless to say, we were super excited to be heading home to London where they speak English.  I really enjoy listening to people speaking French, while some do not, but it is somewhat uncomfortable to not be able to communicate very well.  That English to French book could have come in handy had I remembered it.  Next time, next time.  I think I will certainly go back to Paris in the future, but I will have to make sure to research restaurants and bring my translation book!  Oh, and hopefully not get sick again, lol!

So, where are we headed next?  Our next trip that is booked is to Scotland when my parents and brother are here in May, although we have a few long weekends coming up that we hope to be traveling out of town.  Keep checking back for more of our London-based adventures!

Paris Part Deux

On our second day in Paris, we made our way north to the area of Montmartre to visit the Sacré Coeur Basilica.  I read that the best views of Paris were from this location, so we had to check it out.  It did not disappoint.

Sacré Coeur.  The walk up looked quite daunting so we opted to ride the funicular, which is part of the metro, to the top.

A little closer.

Looking out over Paris.  The tall building on the right was somewhat close to our hotel.  Apparently it is a thorn in the side of all those who live in Paris.  It was actually annoying to me as well.  It's an ugly building that sticks out amongst an otherwise short (?? not sure what to use here) city.

The Eiffel Tower as seen from just around the corner from the Basilica.

The Moulin Rouge is also in the Montmartre area and I couldn't come to Paris without seeing it.

Because some of us were moving a little slow, we decided to hit up the Louvre next to ensure that we got to check it out before it closed.  I discovered on their website before we left a guided tour of the masterpieces of the Louvre.  Since the Louvre is so ridiculously huge, we knew this would be the best way for us to see the highlights without feeling too overwhelmed.

Cool passageway outside the Louvre.

The Louvre, or louv-ra, as I like to say.

Reed was a hugh help at the Louvre.  We got to bypass a really long line because we had him with us.  Thanks Reed!

Inside the Louvre, Reed much preferred playing with my iphone over looking at art.

Another cool hallway, apologies for the crookedness.

Aphrodite, known as Venus de Milo.
Late 2nd Century BC

The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Veronese
1562-1563

The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci
Between 1503 and 1506
Chris and I had actually seen the Mona Lisa before, but it was still cool to see it in its home.  There were people everywhere.  Too bad I didn't take a picture of that!

The Coronation of the Emperor Napoleon I and the Crowning of the Empress Josephine in Notre Dame Cathedral
Jacques-Louis David
1806-1807

The Raft of the Medusa
Theodore Gericault
1819

Reed doing his favorite thing at the Louvre, playing with the barriers.

July 28: Liberty Leading the People
Eugene Delacroix
1831

We certainly missed taking pictures of a few of the masterpieces that we saw, so if you are interested in reading more about the above works of art or seeing the other masterpieces we saw, then click here.  After leaving the Louvre, we saw the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, the Jardin des Tuileries and the Obelisk.

Very cool picture of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel with the Obelisk and the Arc de Triomphe in the center of it.

Up close.

The Louvre from afar.  I needed a shot with most of it in the picture.

The Obelisk.

At this point I had to part ways with the group.  Chris, Lauren and Reed continued up the Avenue des Champs-Élysées checking out the mostly shopping street until they ended at the Arc de Triomphe.

Chris contemplated buying this Versace dress for me since I was unable to go on with them, lol!

Laduree, the place that is famous for its macarons.  They are oh-so-yummy!

Chris and Reed with the Arc de Triomphe.

Stay tuned for day 3 in Paris!

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!!