Rain or Shine...Paris in 36 Hours

Tuesday morning, my mom, dad, and I (Jeff stayed home and worked) grabbed some lunch and hopped on a train to London.  We got to London and then jumped on the Eurostar and traveled to Paris.  We were able to go in the Chunnel (a tunnel going under the Channel) to get to Paris within 3 hours.  It was a really enjoyable ride and went very quickly.  We got into Paris, walked to our hotel, and got ready to go hit the town.

We went on a fairly lengthy walk to see the Eiffel Tower at night.  We stopped and ate a great dinner where we tried the local pints, wines, and crepes.  We got to the Eiffel Tower, and I really enjoyed seeing my parents reaction to how large and beautiful the tower is, especially at night.  We were able to get a few photos, watch the light show that happens every hour for a few hours, and then walk back to the hotel.  We had a late night, and didn't get back until around 1:00. We were tired, sore, and ready for bed.

Despite our lack of sleep, we got up early to head straight to the Louve.  Although the weather was not cooperating at all.  After being completely soaked, we hopped on the packed metro to ride to the Louve. Funny story, because the metro was so packed, I got on and the doors closed...my parents didn't make it on with me.  Luckily, we communicated our next stop well, and they just met me there on the next available metro.  We finally made it to the Louve, hopped in line for a few minutes and explored the museum.  We were able to see the majority of the museum, and even places I had not been when Jeff and I went there in May.  I think we all enjoyed the museum, and I was amazed at how much more packed it was in August than in May.  We went and grabbed a quiet lunch and then headed to the Love Lock Bridge in hopes to find Jeff and I's lock.  You may or may not have heard, but in June part of the Love Lock Bridge broke and fell into the river.  They took extreme caution as they boarded the majority of the bridge up.  Needless to say, we did not find Jeff and I's lock.  After the bridge, we headed to the Eiffel Tower.  We stood in line for quite a while, but it was nice to just stand in line and talk. The three of us traveled to the top level and back down again.

 All the buildings surrounding the pyramid are part of the museum. It is huge!

 Mom & Dad

Some of my favorite pieces from the Louve.  

 

Pretty sad to see all the beautiful locks covered up. 

 Hold on tight...we're up on the highest level of the Eiffel Tower!

Beautiful city! 

After a few more pictures with the Eiffel Tower in the background, we walked to the Arc de Triomphe, which my dad taught me that it was the final location of the Tour de France.  That made the arch much more memorable than the first time we saw it.  The arch was at the top of the street of some great (and expensive) shopping. My mom and I went into a few stores to look around, dream about buying something, and then leave.  Not very eventful, right? We stopped by a bakery to grab a few chocolate macaroons, and to bring a few home to Jeff.  We slowly finished our day by finding an even fancier shopping street.  You know the guards at the doors, guarding the five items they have on display to sell.  On our walk towards our hotel we found a spot for dinner.  We found a fantastic place and definitely enjoyed one another's company.  We sat for a long time talking about our day's adventures.  We made it back to the hotel to rest up for another day of traveling...back to England.

Great shot of the Eiffel Tower in the background. One of the best spots to take a picture with it. 

We were able to see a lot in our short amount of time in Paris, although there are some things we didn't have time for. I'm glad my parents were able to experience a city that did not speak our same language.  They did a great job adjusting to that and the culture.  We got back at a reasonable time on Thursday, and were able to eat dinner with Jeff to tell him all our stories.

Onto the next adventure...

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!