What a Trip!

Paris!

What an AMAZING expereince. It truly was an amazing time. While I feel like we accomplished much of what we wanted to do, there are a few things I'd really be interested in returning to do in the future.

Day 1: December 19th

We left on the 19th for our trip. Since the flight wasn't until 8:30pm we went to work for the day (leaving an hour early) and then rush home to get ready. We left for the airport around 5:00pm. Barbie and Kevin met us at our house and we drove their car to the airport. After parking and unloading and checking in, we sat in the terminal and played cards while eatting McDonalds. The time went by very quickly and before I knew it, we were on the plane and on our way.

As we were cruising down the run way Ryan's tooth broke. I was afraid it would cause him some problems while we were on the trip, but he toughed it out. The flight went smoothly other then that. We got a little sleep and arrived at the CDG airport on December 20th in the morning.

Day 2: December 20th

On our first day in Paris, we played everything by ear. We arrived and took a shuttle to our hotel. After checking in and getting ourselves settled into our semi-small rooms at the Hotel Prince, we decided to go out and get something to eat. We found our way to the hard Rock cafe and had a nice American - friendly meal. The waiter spoke great English, so it was a nice "adjusting" time... or something. After dinner we decided to do a little wandering around. We walked down some streets and did some browsing at different stores. I bought Scott a Harry Potter book in French and we went to scope out the George Pompidu Center. It wasn't worth the walk though. It was interesting to see the design of the building, but besdies that, it was almost pretty lame. Since we were in a random area of the city, didn't know how to speak French and were slightly jet lagged we decided to go back to the hotel for some much needed rest. We were in bed by 7:30.









Day 3: December 21st

For our first full day we decided to wake up fairly early to get some stuff done. We were well rested from our large amount of sleep and ready to go. First we headed to Notre Dame. We took the subway and spent a lot of time looking around at all of the art work in the Cathedral. It really was stunning. Following the inside of the building we went up the towers to a great view of the city and a close up of some gargoyle gutters. After taking a peek at the hunchback's large bell we headed back down for a trip to the catacombes.







After taking like 15 minutes to try and locate the fairly hidden door we finally found the entrace to the underground tour and were disappointed to find that they were closed for the month. It was really upsetting since it was probably going to be one of the highlights of the trip for me, but we figured we could always go back at some point in the future.

Next we located the Hotel Invalides which also was Napoleons Tomb (I'm typing all of this without looking up correct spelling - so I apologize if I'm butchering anything). The tomb was large and pretty interesting inside of this pretty neat looking chapel. The ceilings were very high with amazing paintings and gold trim. Very stunning. After scoping out the tomb we went to another entrace of the Hotel Invalides and saw the war museums. They were very interesting. Ryan loved the World War II portion being the history buff that he is and fell in love with the Jeep they had on display. We spent a lot of time looking around and taking it all in. We then looked at some armor and other older war pieces and left for our next portion of the trip.











We decided to try and scope out the Eiffel Tower and see what the line looked like. When we got there the sun was beginning to set and the line was still longer then expected so we decided to look around a little and then come back the following morning.








After taking pictures we decided to walk to a cute little restaurant that Kevin found in their trusty Paris book. It was a longer walk then expected, but great for letting us take in the city and see some adorable buildings and streets. We had a delicious dinner (since we had barly eatten anything all day) and then did a little walking around to look at the little shops along the way.

That night the Louvre was open until late so we planned to head there to look at the famous paintings. Once there, we did the Mona Lisa and two famous sculptures and were all pretty much ready to go (so much for needing weeks to get through it). I think if I ever went back I would visit the D'Orsy museum which I hear is much better than the Louvre, which (in my humble opinion) was slighly over rated.







After snapping some pictures in front of the fancy glass pyramid outside of the Louvre we saw a great looking Ferris Wheel and decided it's where we wanted to be. We took a ride of the Ferris Wheel, stopped to look at the "Washington Monument" and just generally had a good time.



By the time we were done and heading back to our hotel we were oddly hungry and stopped into a cute little pizza shop-looking thing to get pizza, drinks and ice cream across the street from our hotel. Very good. Really hit the spot. Left slightly tipsy.

Day 4: December 22

Our 4th day started fairly early at the Eiffel Tower. We waited in a fairly short line (compared to the day before) and made our way up to the first, second, third story of the tower. I can officially say I've been to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was a slightly hazey day (as it was most other days as well) but it was still a stunning view. They had the typical chart of Paris for you to locate key points from the top along with some wax -figures set up depicting events that have happened at the top of the tower. It was a great experience and fairly chilly. After going down to the second story we shopped in the gift shops, mailed post cards and then walked down the many steps from the second floor of the tower. There were actually people walking up them as well - which I could not even imagine. We got to see the restaurant we would later have dinner at, a cute little winter wonderland they had set up and the numbered markings on the sides of the steps telling you how much farther you had to go. What fun.







Following the Eiffel Tower, the four of us split up and Ryan and I tried to find Versailles. I was super excited to see the palace as I had heard it was breath taking. We hopped on what we thought was the correct train and we were riding... and riding... and riding. About an hour into the train ride we got concerned. We realized we had gone the "long" way and were circling the suburbs of France. While it was interesting to see the country outside of the city, it was scary and intimidating that we were out of the tourist region and into the possibly not as friendly and English speaking areas of France. Our end point of the train ride was the TOWN of Versaille not the Chateu (spelling again?) de Versailles. We reoriented our selves and decided to head back towards the city. Come to find out it was a simple 20-30 minute ride back to the city so the day was not totally wasted. Upon heading back in the right direction we realized we were only a stop away from where we really wanted to be (the palace) but decided too much time had already been wasted so we started to knock off some more of the tourist locations in the city instead.

Upon arriving back in the city we made a pit stop at the hotel and redirected our selves to the Champs Elysées which is apparently the premier shopping street in Paris. Being the weekend before Christmas it was booming with people everywhere. The trees were light up and it looked amazing. Not really wanting to spend money or waste any more time we headed straight for the Arc de Triomphe. It was amazing. It's so amazing how detailed and grand everything is. We climbed to the top and took in the view. By now the sun had set and the streets were lighting up. It was astonishing to take in. We saw a car accident, crazy drivers, perfectly converging streets and much more from the top. We then trucked back down the many steps to the streets.






We walked back down the opposite side of the street to take in more of the road and found an adorable cafe to eat in. I got pizza, Ryan got pasta. They were both AMAZING. Neither of us could keep our hands out of each others plates. After filling up we decided to hit up the Concorde Plaza. There cute statues, a really neat looking fountain and some perfectly placed trees. It was dark at this point, but it was still stunning. Would have been nice to see it during the day. Probably even more amazing in the spring.



By the time we were down, we decided to head back to our hotel. When we got there, we found Kevin and Barbie in their room. After they finished dinner we all played Dominos and drink a couple of drink in our hotel room.

Day 5: December 23

Our last full day was our last chance to see and do everything else on our list. We first went to Sacre Coer. What an amazing looking church. It was at the top of a great hill which we climbed successfully. While climbing the hill there were men lining the sides of the streets trying to harrass tourists. They would try to grab your finger and make a bracelet. Poor Kevin got caught and couldn't let go. I however kept my hands in my pocket. Then they got Barbie and Ryan. Eventually they all broke through with out getting the bracelet locked on around their wrist. It was pretty funny in my opinion. Once we made it to the top, we looked around the church and then did some shopping on the streets below.






We eventually found Montmartre and looked at all the great artists making Charictures and paintings of the city. We browsed around, did some souvenier shopping and then decided to go to Pigalle.

Pigalle is basically the "red light district". Lined with sex shops, the Erotic Museum and the Moulin Rouge it was the hot spot for American soldiers during the war. We visited the Erotic Museum and saw some old sculptures and basically porn from very early years. We hit up a couple of the sex shops, just to say we did and took some pictures of the Moulin Rouge during the day.




Ryan and I then decided to hit up a couple of other locations. We began our journey to Saint Sulpice. On our way, we tried to stop at this cooking shop that was on my list to visit, but it was closed (three of the things I really wanted to do - and all were pretty much a flop - so sad). After that we got back on the train towards Saint Sulpice.

Once there, we saw the Rose Line and some recreations of the Shroud of Turin. It too was a beautiful church. By then it was time to get ready for our "fancy night" so we went back to the hotel.






After dressing we met the bus for our dinner/cruise/show. First we went to the Eiffel Tower and had dinner at Altitude 95. It was an adorable restaurant with cute little chairs and amazingly great food.



Following dinner we did our evening cruise down the Seine. It would have been wonderful to do this at the beginning of our trip as it was very helpful pointing out land marks, giving us historical info and much more. If anything, it made me want to go back again to see and do more! After the very informative cruise, we caught the bus to the Moulin Rouge for our show 'o boobies. It was a cute show (if you can call a show with boobies "cute"). Ryan and I split a bottle campaign and took it all in.

It was late by the time the show was over, so we went back to our hotel. It was both good and sad to be packing up for our trip home. Ryan and I were both excited to get back into our daily routine and see our puppies again, but at the same time were sad that the trip was coming to an end. Even though a couple of the things I wanted to do didn't really get accomplished, I still feel like for the most part I saw everything I wanted to. What a great expereince.

After a little bit of havack getting some souveniers past security (and having to go through check-in twice for a mouse knife, we were finally safely on the plane and heading home.