Paris

Ah, Paris (said with a Parisian accent). How I love thee!

I have wanted to go to France since I did a project on Marseilles in a French class in Jr. High. I planned to go during my first trip to London in 2012, and when that didn’t work out I wondered if I would ever make it. Thanks to my best friend moving to London for school I got a second chance in 2013!

Day trip to Paris while visiting her? Why not!

So, we got up at 3am, waited for a night bus… to the train station… to catch the Chunnel to Paris. Once in Paris, we began a whirlwind 9-hour walking tour of the magnificent city that I can’t wait to visit again!

My first glimpse of the city (not including the train station or the Metro):

First stop: The Concord. I was fascinated by this fountain:

Next stop: Crepes from a random stand in a park. Yum!! Only wish I had bought two…

At this point we realized it was much warmer than we planned for. So, we made a quick pit-stop at H&M for my friend to buy a dress before walking up to the Arch de Triumph

We walked a few more miles (think I’m exaggerating? I’m not! See the map at the end of the post…) before stopping for some lunch in the gardens outside the Louver. Who knew that a fresh baguette, Brie, and some lettuce and tomato could taste so heavenly? And then follow that up with beautiful gelato. Amazing!

That gave us some additional energy to explore, and be silly…

Our next major stop was Notre Dame, which took us along the Seine and over some bridges.

I’m not entirely sure which I took more pictures of – the Eiffel Tower, or Notre Dame. Both are so captivating. And I really couldn’t believe that I was seeing either of them in person. Me? How could that be?!

Next came the time for making hard decisions (and determining that I simply had to return to Paris again someday…) about how to spend out last couple of hours in Paris before heading back to the train to London. After learning we could not take a riverboat one-way, we decided to hop on the Metro and head to the Eiffel Tower.

Turns out it was cheaper, and the line was significantly shorter, to walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator (what’s really shocking is that that is not always the case!). After walking nearly 8 miles in as many hours, what’s a few hundred stairs? :)

The views were incredible the whole way up! While I want to go back and go all the way to the very top, I am grateful for the chance I had to climb those stairs and enjoy that experience.

Periodically on the way up the number of stairs already climbed are indicated on the stairs. I determined I needed to take a pic at the top to document this epic climb. However, it slipped my mind when I got to the top…This is where I realized I forgot to take a picture at the top stair. (Yes, I turned around and walked back up the 69 stairs to take a picture)

I’m already making plans to go back…and stay for longer…and venture a little further…and maybe take the train a little more….