The City of Lights

Ahhh, Paris!!

I'll admit, Paris as a whole was rather underwhelming.  I'm sure part of it came from the fact that we were only able to be there for two days (one full day, really), so the sheer feeling of having so much to do in so little time was kind of a burden.  We also were coming to Paris after having been traveling for 8 days already, and we were pretty exhausted.

Plus, it was surprisingly dirty, which I wasn't expecting.

BUT--that being said, we had some truly magical moments and some wonderful pictures from the trip which I'm excited to share.

Our first night, after we landed, we checked in at our hotel, but only after having some misunderstandings with the subways--turns out that unlike the London and Edinburg subways systems, the barriers didn't automatically open, and because the light didn't flash green (and we couldn't read what was flashing up instead) with the passes we had, we thought they didn't work.

After about an hour, a little panicking, and some help from an incredibly patient worker who had better English than what our French was capable of, we figured out the subways and headed to the Arc de Triomphe.

It was stunning--several flights' worth of stairs:

only to be greeted by the god of war at the middle section:

And then the view at the top was wonderful.  It was raining and quite cold, so I didn't grab any pictures (I think Steve did), but we looked around a bit, and then decided to wander down the Champs-Elysses.

It was stunning and quite opulent, but because I'm a small town country girl, expensive stores and restaurants aren't really my scene, and with the rain and the chill, it was all rather overwhelming and confusing.

We were hungry, so we turned down a side street to see if we could find any restaurants serving food for less than 50 Euros a plate, and we came across a little place called Chez Barbara.  It was warm and smelled good, so we sat down--the waitress spoke English quite well, and explained the menu to us, and while we chatted with another American sitting next to us (who looked almost exactly like Dan Stevens), she joined in and chatted with us, telling us her story after he left.

Turns out, the friendly waitress was Barbara herself!  The food was so good, and the experience was so pleasant that I asked to get a picture with her.

Also, yes, that is a monkey giving us the finger in the background.  Not sure why, but the food was good.

After eating, the rain cleared up a little and so strolling down the Champs-Elysses this time was significantly more pleasant:

Still cold, though.

Our hotel was situated near the famous Moulin Rouge, and since Steve is a huge fan of the movie, we grabbed a shot:

After which we learned that the Moulin Rouge is right next to Paris' red light district.  Red also describes the color of my face as we walked the surface street back to our hotel--I have never seen so many awkward novelty items in one place before!

A fantastic shot of Steve in front of the Arc:

And me:

We got back to the hotel, dried off a bit, and then wandered a bit (in a different direction) in search of a pastry shop, as the French pastries were absolutely on our must-do list.

We weren't disappointed--one of the shops was still open at that late hour, and we got about 15 Euros' worth of pastries.

And then stuffed our faces like a couple of fat kids back in our hotel room, after Facetiming our kids.

SOOOOOOO decadent.

The next morning, our first stop was the Louvre, where we saw the glass pyramids:

Isn't it incredible?

And the Sphinx.  Truly, the biggest thing we'd wanted to see at the Louvre was their Egyptian section, as Steve and I both love Egyptian culture, and after wandering through the maze a bit, we learned that the Egyptian section is closed on Fridays.

We were there on Friday--our only day to be able to go.

Pouty face.

But we went through the marble sculpture section, and I was truly astonished at the beauty that artists could find in human and animal forms.

It was incredible, and I'm sure I could spend a week alone in the Louvre.

We didn't really plan to, but we ended up wandering into the area where the Mona Lisa (the most famous painting in the world) is kept.

Meh.

It was nice, but I definitely can't see why this painting, of all the other paintings in the world, has become the celebrity of paintings.

I felt sorry for all the other paintings in the same room with Mona, and I made sure to look at them extra hard to make up for the inadequacies I'm sure they feel.

Steve, looking at a depiction of a theatre.  It made me happy.

This painting cracked me up, because as soon as we saw it, Steve started singing "It's a Hard Knock Life"... apparently this is what happened to Little Orphan Annie when she grew up!

We then grabbed a double-decker tour bus ride, where we drove past the Louvre again on the way to Notre Dame.

Notre Dame was incredible and quite a beautiful experience--Steve was the principle photographer when we were inside the building, so I only have a couple of shots of the outside:


I got a video while we were standing in line (in which I'm TOTALLY tongue-in-cheek about how we entitled Americans shouldn't have to wait in line)...

This statue reminded me of Carmen San Diego, so I took a picture of it.

I'm sure I'm being totally disrespectful in saying that.

We then went into the catacombs underneath the city and saw the ancient roman ruins of Paris, where we took some pictures of personalized coins they made of our faces:

I never noticed my double chin until now.  Dang it....

After which we re-emerged to the surface streets to see a man surrounded by a huge flock of pigeons.

I'm weird, and I love pigeons, so we went over to walk through the flock, and the man beckoned me to him, filled my hand with bird seed, and grabbed my phone to take pictures while the birds flocked all over us.

It was SO fun!

My face cracks me up here--I was so simultaneously grossed out and yet thrilled that I was holding a Parisian pigeon on my head in front of the most famous cathedral in all the world!

Steve was more just grossed out:

But of course, as soon as the man stopped taking pictures, he held out his hand for us to pay him.

We hadn't gotten any cash, and so had to tell him we had no money--I felt awful, because he acted as though we were ripping him off by allowing him to take pictures of us without paying him for it.

But hey, we got some good pictures, right?

Us in front of the Seine:

And here we are in front of the Tower!  We had tickets to come back and see the tower at night (Steve wanted to be sure that we got to see it light up and sparkle), so we didn't stop here during the day, but that was definitely a highlight for me.

People are incredible.  I love seeing what they are capable of creating.

We stopped at the Palais Garnier only to learn that the last tour of the day had already ended, so we had to content ourselves with taking pictures in the lobby:

...the mirrors were stunning, and my lack of photography skills doesn't do them justice, but I had to at least try!

Honestly, the architecture alone could have me there for weeks.  So much detail and beauty even in the stonework of the outside!

We found another cafe for lunch/dinner:

And then went to the Eiffel Tower that night.  It was magical.

Because Steve was the principle photographer that night, I think I'll download all of his photos on a separate post about only the Eiffel Tower, but it was definitely my favorite landmark of Paris on this trip.

We spent a good amount of time at the Tower, after which we went back to the hotel and crashed--we were leaving the next afternoon, and wanted to be up to explore a little before we had to head to the airport.

The next morning was by far, my favorite experience overall in Paris.  We had no subway tickets or landmarks we felt pressured to see, so we just found a nice neighborhood near the hotel and wandered a bit.

We came across a petting zoo and a lovely little park, which were just so beautiful and quiet and sweet:

And then we found yet another cemetery:

I know. We're a little macabre.

This morning felt the most genuinely Parisian, however, seeing the sweet families with their ridiculously well-dressed children playing at the park, walking down the street, greeting each other kindly and sitting outside at the cafes.  It was lovely, and I'm so grateful we got that sweet, low-key morning after our otherwise hectic and busy trip.

I was quite impressed by how kind people were to us.  It was a new experience for me being in a country where I knew only a handful of phrases, and while several people spoke enough English to help us out in certain situations, I kept wanting to respond to them in French.  Problem is, every time I tried to speak the little French I knew, Chinese kept coming out!

Steve kept accidentally speaking Spanish, too, which cracked me up.  Good thing we both had these useful languages under our belt to visit France with!

I definitely gained a new appreciation for those people I know who are able to speak several different languages.  I still can't figure out how not to mix up the ones I know!

Isn't it just lovely?  This little park was so serene and beautiful.

When we finished wandering around, we then had to pack for the airport, and since we'd bought some souvenirs, I used the old trick of wearing all of my clothes so my suitcase would have room (and weight) for the things we'd bought.

It was uncomfortable, to say the least, but quite stylish:

We made it to the airport the required 2 hours early, only to find out that our flight was delayed a couple of hours...good thing we were pretty much ready to sleep on anything by that point.  We napped and looked at pictures and stalled as much as possible until we were ready to board.

Suffice it to say, by the time we finally landed in California at 8:00 California time (4:00 AM Parisian time), we were exhausted.  Being a tall person does not make for a conducive environment for resting when crammed into the coach seat of a Trans-Atlantic flight.

We sent this picture to our worried mothers as we rode the airport shuttle back to the hotel (which was random and deserves an entire post to itself), and then we crashed for the night before driving back home again.

What an amazing trip.  I am so glad we went, and now that I've caught the traveling bug, I can't wait for our next one!