Europe Part 2: Paris

Where did I leave off?!  Oh yes, our last day in London.  Well, we woke up and finally were up, showered, and dressed in time for the free breakfast (thanks Accenture for making me a Hilton Gold member).  And man, did we regret being lazy in the morning and missing the amazing spread!?  I couldn't believe the free breakfast was so good.  Oh well... we will blame the jet lag. 

We then hopped in a cab to the train station to catch a train to take us to Paris via the chunnel!  G$ and I (well more G$) were very excited to take a train through the chunnel.  Was it that exciting?  Nope, not at all (in my opinion) and maybe that's because I'm jaded from over a year of training up to Philadelphia or New York City for work (again, thanks Accenture).

Once we arrived in France, we took a taxi to our hotel, which was a little further out from central Paris, but since it was right on both a metro and rail line, it made getting into the heart of Paris super easy.  This is where I'll go on my speel about how absolutely wonderful Paris's public transportation system is.  They had metro lines all across the city and the trains came about ever three minutes even at night!  I know, everyone in DC is shocked, I had a ten minute metro wait just last week during rush hour.  Paris's system really put DC to shame (not that it's a difficult task to do so).

Once we checked into the hotel, we headed to see the Arc de Triomphe, which was within walking distance of our hotel.   Saw some street dancers performing outside the metro stop.  Then metroed into central Paris.

Croissants.  Ahhhh, French croissants.  Need I say more?!  We ate entirely too many, but boy were they delicoius.  I am personally more favorable to the chocolate filled ones, also known as Pain Au Chocolat, because who wouldn't want chocolatey goodness inside their buttery goodness?  :)

Sunset with the Eiffel Tower

After eating a late lunch, we walked to Notre Dame, where we waited in line to get in, once on the inside, walked around the outer perimeter, which was open to tourists, then found a seat for an evening Sunday mass. 

View from Outside

Inside Shot

Gargoyles

On our first night in our hotel, we stopped by the concierge desk and ask about the best way to get tickets to The Louvre and the concierge man said, well right here.  So we paid for the tickets in advance, which ended up being one of the best decisions of the trip!  The Louvre was closed on Mondays, so we had planned to go on Tuesday.  The Louvre has two entrances - one underground and then the infamous pyramid.  We came in underground from the train and saw that the line was looong. 

We had planned to grab a quick bite at a street vendor, but since we were already underground, we stopped at the most convenient place, which was sadly Starbucks.  And it will likely be the most memorable Starbucks trips we've ever taken.  First off, have I mentioned I don't speak French?  And for those who know me, I have been known to be a little awkward from time to time, especially when I'm uncomfortable (shocker, right?).  Well, I butchered my order.  I knew the basics in French: hello, thanks, please, but neglected to learn, I'll have, or may I please have.  Then the barista responded with a question, and I had no. idea. what. she. said.  Of course, G$ was just standing by watching me struggle.  Then she asked if we spoke English, then asked the question in English, but due to the accent, I still couldn't understand her.  Finally, I figured out if she was asking if we were staying or going.  Whoops.  Then it was time to pay and this is where this Starbucks trip becomes so memborable.  G$ and I ordered coffees and breakfast sandwiches and the grand total came to over 20 Euros!  Which if you do the exchange, was about a $30 breakfast at Starbucks!  My coffee alone (a Caramel Macchiato) was about $8! 


Then it was off to get in line.  We found the end, but then asked a lady who worked there and she said that with our tickets, we could go upstairs to the pyramid and didn't have to wait in line!  Sweeeeet!  So we made our way out to the inner courtyard with the pyramid and basically just walked right up, showed our tickets, and were inside! 

Yes, yes we did. :)

Our first order of business was seeing the Mona Lisa.  Don't get me wrong, I know how famous this painting is, but I just wasn't wowed.  For one thing, it was well protected behind a glass barrier and then it was roped off so you couldn't even get that close.  Not to mention, the lines and crowd.  G$ and I talked about it afterwards and came to the conclusion that with the internet and books available in this day of age, we both have already been able to see the Mona Lisa, and more up close and personal online than were were in person.  So, it was cool to say we did it and maybe my lack of excitement was also in part from not being a super art person, but I wasn't overly impressed. 

A horrible picture of me with the Mona Lisa in the background.  

 Then we spent a couple hours wandering around the rest of the Louvre and boy was it a huge museum!  Saw a lot of pretty incredible pieces!  Took a ton of pictures, which I will spare you, with the exception of this little gem (pun intended):

Princess Kara.

The Pariasan cafe.  I loooved it.  I had so much fun sitting outside in the cafes, eating a relaxing (and by relaxing, I mean sloooow service) meal with a bottle of wine.  Unfortunately, I didn't take a single picture of a cafe.  :(

Since our vacation was taken almost three months ago, I honestly cannot remember which day we went to see the Panthéon (not to be confused with the Pantheon in Rome). 

On our last day, we decided to take the train out to Versailles.  Or as G$ would call it "Ver-Suck."  In Versailles defense, it was raining that day and we had to wait in a loooooong line in pouring rain.  We got off the train and luckily were able to snag a Paris umbrella from a shop, but our umbrella didn't quite open all the way, so water accumulated on the top, then you would move and the umbrella would dump water down your side or back.  By the time we got inside, one entire side of my jacket was completed drenched.  We did the inside tour, but since it was raining, we opted not to walk through the millions of gardens, which was kind of a shame. 

Me in the Sun Room.

We had saved the best for last by planning to go up in the Eiffel Tower at night on our last day there.  

Yes, he did. :)

I think I may have told G$ I wouldn't put this little mishap on the blog, but since everything turned out just fine, I think it's fine to share.  While we were in London, we G$ went online and bought tickets to go up in the Eiffel Tower on our last evening there.  We had tickets for 5:30.  After our long day of Versailles and walking, we had ended up at the Eiffel Tower early (around 4ish) and were just hanging out waiting.  We were taking in everything, especially the long lines to buy the tickets and we said to each other, "Definitely was smart for us to buy these in advance."  The ticket holder line wasn't really even a line.  Since we were there early, we asked the ticket collectors if it was possible to go up early, but they said no dice.  5:30 finally came around, so we get into our short line for ticket holders, give the collector our tickets, only to hear him say, these tickets are for 6:30, not 5:30.  WHAT?!?!  We had somehow gotten it in our heads that our tickets were for 5:30.  If this was my fault, it must have been due to the tickets being in military time.  What's G$'s excuse?!  :)  At this point, the sun is going down and it's getting colder.  Neither of us is wearing a warm enough jacket to be out at night, so we opt to quickly run back to the hotel to change since we now had an hour to kill.  Back at the Eiffel Tower at 6:30, we again go to our short line for tickets holders, give the collector our tickets, only to hear him say, these are for tomorrow night.  WHAT!?!?!  G$ bought them for the wrong day!  And, even worse, for a day that we won't even be in Paris!!  Ugh.  We couldn't NOT go up in the Eiffel Tower while in Paris!  So... you know that line that we were both so glad we had planned ahead and bought tickets in advance so we could avoid it?  Yup, that where we had to park it!  Since it was dinner time, the ticket line was definitely shorter than it had been earlier in the day, so all in all, it probably only put us back about 30 or so minutes.  Not too shabby.  So we took the elevator up to the second platform, then another elevator to the top, peaked around outside for a bit (it was freezing)...

If you can't read it, it says "Washington 6,175 km"

Quick shot with the Paris lights in the back

Me fake looking through the telescope.

Then we elevatored back down to the second platform.  At this point, we opted to walk down to the first platform (which was only accessible via the stairs).  While walking down, we saw signs for the restaurant in the Eiffel Tower and decided that it was totally worth spending a little bit more on dinner that night to eat in the Eiffel Tower.  Plus it was November 1, five days before our one-year anniversary, so we called it our anniversary dinner.  The dinner started with a glass of champagne while we were reviewing the menu.  While reading it, I noticed they had a little line at the bottom saying that they only accept Visas and American Express cards.  I started freaking out - we only had a MasterCard!  Before ordering, we verified with the server and all was ok.  The meal was definitely more on the extravagant side than G$'s and my normal means, but it was nice to end our great vacation with something like that!

The next day we woke up, took a cab to the airport, and had pretty uneventful plane ride home.  We I really lucked out in that we had the entire row to ourselves, which ended up being a blessing in disguise since the headphone jack for the TV in the back of the seat in front of us was broken on tmy assigned seat.  Luckily, I realized this and was able to move to the aisle seat before the plan took off - phew!  I'm sure the plane ride would have seemed muuuuch longer without being able to watch three movies.  Yup, I said three.  Ha!  I got in some girly movies that G$ isn't always the biggest fan of!

And there you have it, a quick summary of the final leg of our Europe trip! 

In summary: we loooved Paris and would definitely go back there in the future!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!


<3
K$