Je parle français zéro.

Translate: "I speak zero French." and that was a problem when in Paris despite the times that Christian translated for us...thank goodness.  We struggled both in the southern part of the country and some in Paris with the language barrier.  Jeff and I have been spoiled that this is the first time we have experienced any language barrier.  I would have assumed the city would have been very English friendly since there were tourists everywhere.  #spoiled

Paris was quite an experience and did many attractions in just the first day there.  Jeff's Comment: "Who said you can't do Paris in just one day?" We woke up early to make our way to the Louvre Museum, where the Mona Lisa and other famous paintings are held. It was filled with tourists, some more bossy than others.  I think I started getting some elbows out later in the day because I was tired of being pushed around. You'd think the Mona Lisa was about ready to walk away as people pushed their way up to the front to take a picture. Crazy tourists. Jeff had his audio guide. Are you surprised? But it was nice because he would share some of the facts he learned, which was the perfect amount for me since I don't have the attention span to listen during my entire journey.  He was able to get a better understanding of the paintings and architecture.

Great time at the Louvre Museum although Paris was not kind with beautiful weather for our two-day trip. I was proud of my picture of the Mona Lisa.  All I needed was two elbows! Ha!

We headed to the Love Lock Bridge afterwards. If you don't know much about this bridge, it is filled with thousands of locks that couples write on, lock it to the bridge, and then they throw the key(s) into the Seine River.  We made sure to load our lock up with lots of writing: date of marriage, date on bridge, JMB + SJB = ♥, & "God Gave Me You" which is a song that has special meaning to us.  We latched the lock, and each threw a key into the river.

   

 Not the best photography on these, but you get my point. Pretty disappointed in myself for the finger in the top right one and middle one. Bummer. 

 

 With our love lock. 4 lamp posts in, in the center. Go look for it! 

 

As we continued to walk around the city, we had an odd experience happen to us...well Jeff.  We were walking onto the Notre Dame Cathedral when this young girl put this petition type paper up on Jeff's chest.  Jeff felt the young girl unzipping his chest pocket (which had his wallet in it).  Needless to say, Jeff freaked out on her and she ran away (no wallet in hand).  First and hopefully last experience with a pickpocketer.  We were definitely more careful about where our purses were and wallets the rest of the trip.

After all of that excitement we checked out the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was beautiful, although I do not have any pictures of the inside as we are fighting with our current camera situation. Afterwards we traveled to this beautiful church that was on this large hill, Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris. Quite the walk up a lot of stairs, but it was well worth it to see the interior as well.  Since it was on the hill, you were able to see beautiful views of the entire city of Paris.

 Notre Dame Cathedral (left). Do you see the hunchback? Kidding...stop looking. 

Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris (right). 

Still chugging along with Day 1 activities, we headed to the Eiffel Tower.  It was definitely an open-mouth in awe kind of reaction when you see it.  I lucked out, as Jeff wanted to walk the first part of the Eiffel Tower and then take the elevator up from the 2nd landing.  We luckily got into the wrong line and took the elevator up the whole way.  As you know from previous posts, we like to climb to the tops of towers and whatnot, but I don't like to see the ground as I do so, and that's what the Eiffel Tower walking experience would have been like.  It was still pretty nerve racking going to the top in the glass elevator because of how high we were.  Everything at the top was caged in or glass, so it wasn't too intimidating.  We got lots of photos, read a few blurbs about the tower, and headed back down to the bottom.

FYI: That's a tennis ball in the middle in honor of the French Open that was occurring the same weekend. 

It wasn't even dinner time at this point, so we grabbed some cheese and wine at a local spot. I think this was one of our favorite moments as a group.  We were at a restaurant that was mostly locals, so it was nice to just blend in and not feel like a tourist anymore.  Afterwards we headed to dinner, and then one last stop at the Eiffel Tower.  Seeing the tower at night was beautiful as they did a "lights show" with it at a certain time. The tower sparkled, as if it was a Christmas tree with fast-speed lights.

Day 2 was low key as we visited a small church, Sainte Chapelle. It had beautiful stained glass and within each window told a biblical story. After the church, we attempted to visit The Catacombs, which is an underground ossuary, which I read held the remains of 6 million people. The wait in line was 2 hours, so we decided again the waiting, although we all would have liked to see it.  Maybe next time.

At this point, we said our "goodbye for nows" and headed our separate ways.  Jeff and I wanted to go to Roland Garros, which is where the French Open was occurring. We were really lucky in our weekend choice to be able to experience it.  Unfortunately, we didn't plan ahead very well and could not buy tickets once we arrived.  The area was huge, and we were both pretty bummed when we couldn't go inside.  We both like tennis a lot, and it would have been pretty cool to experience that tournament.  That concluded our time in Paris, so we hopped on a 40-minute plane ride to get back to London.  It was pretty incredible to be able to experience all of these sights abroad with our great friends.

I end you with this picture, and I agree with Roland Garros...Thanks for your visit to my blog!