Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Number 4...Finally


Can you guess where we landed next? 


That's right. Paris! After our few days with the Jorgensens we hopped on another plane for the short flight over to France. We got there in the evening and, after traversing via subway and by foot through the uber confusing land of the french, we managed to find our way to our hotel. Then promptly left to find a place where we could fill our ravenous stomachs. No pictures sadly, because we were feeling tourist-ied out, but we ate at an AMAZING restaurant called The Classroom. Seriously one of the best meals I've had in my entire life. Those French sure know how to cook. Side note: Most people we'd talked to about France forewarned us that they don't care for Americans. They speak hardly any English and couldn't care less about trying. Josh and I agreed with those perceptions. Whatever. We were expecting it. Just be prepared if you head for France any time soon.

After our meal we headed home to rest up and prepare for the next day. It was going to be a long one. (Apologies in advance. There are pretty much zero pictures of Josh because I apparently turned into the worst picture taker-er ever. It was not my intention at all to make you look at a million pictures of me...or maybe it was... ;) but either way, sorry.)

The next day began with our walk to Notre Dame. Super impressive cathedral, which I'm sure everyone already knows, but a little too crowded for our liking. We did learn that they hold services during the day right in the middle of all the milling crowds, which was interesting. (You can see the little priest guys finishing up in the picture below.)



Then we walked over to the pont de l'archevêché bridge, stopping on the way to buy a few souvenirs.The bridge is adorned with thousands of locks and looks even cooler in person. From a ways away it looks like a shiny gold bridge. And up close there are some awesome old padlocks.

 Next stop was the Louvre. I knew it was big, but I didn't really comprehend just how massive until I saw it first hand. Gotta admit, we didn't last very long inside. Sorry art folk. Old stuff is cool, but maybe tons of it makes it less cool somehow? We saw most of the more famous art pieces including the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa, but were most impressed with this less known piece, Husband and Wife in the Louvre. ;)




Oh, and this statue that looked like it was taking a selfie with a phone. 

Following the Louvre, our now aching feet started the long journey to the Eiffel Tower. I think this part of the walk is important or famous or something, but I can't remember what it is. Here I am striking a pose just like the models were doing in the background by the white tent. America's next top model here I come!

 Finally making it to the Eiffel tower Josh and I decided we needed a break and settled on the grass for a little nap/people watching/resting our feet period. It felt like an appropriate French thing to do on the beautiful sunny day, though I could be very wrong.



After some rest for our feet we decided we could handle the walk up the tower, paid our fee, and took our merry time climbing up and taking lots of pictures. Well, I guess Josh took lots of pictures. (Bear with me. This is going in a blog book one day so I have to put them in.)


It's a REALLY tall tower. We didn't pay the full fee and were only able to walk up to about the 2/3's mark.

And I'm pretty sure Paris is THE largest city in the world. No joke. We couldn't get over just how big it is. (It looks like this on every side of the Eiffel tower.)

Look who it is!!

I just noticed it looks like the tower is leaning in this picture...

After hours spent on, under, and around the Eiffel tower we wrestled with the idea of whether to wait around for it to get dark so we could see the tower lights, or see more sights, or just go back to the hotel. We decided to eat dinner first and see where the light was at that point. Expecting to find a restaurant that was a little more English speaking friendly because we were so close to such a major tourist attraction we began the search for something tasty. I'm here to tell you, I don't think it exists in France. They really don't care. Anyhow, we picked a spot ordered some food, and about half way through our meal we overheard our waiter at the table next to us tell the people that they didn't accept credit cards. Wha?! It was a huge restaurant just blocks from the Eiffel Tower and they didn't accept credit cards?! Lucky for our neighbors, they had cash. Unlucky for us, as we'd been trying to get rid of ours so we wouldn't have a lot of left over foreign currency. We felt foolish so Josh sneaked away to find an ATM while I pretended he was going to the bathroom or something and finished my meal. An extra ATM fee, and a few minutes later, we were off to our next tourist attraction because it was still no where close to dark.


Our last stop for the day and our final site in Europe was the Arc de Triomphe, an ornately carved arch right in the middle of the world's largest roundabout ... or at least the biggest one I had ever seen. Finally exhausted beyond belief we began our hunt for the subway with which to ride back to our hotel. We'd walked a thousand miles that day to save money and to avoid getting lost, but decided our feet wouldn't be able to get us back without breaking. Unfortunately the station we were trying to find was the only hidden one, and our feet nearly fell off during the hunt for it anyway. Luckily we did eventually find it and made it back to the hotel to crash for a few hours, before leaving at 5am the next morning beginning our 27 hour journey home.





All in all Paris, you had some impressive sites. It was a great city to tack on to our Europe tour, but not our favorite stop. I'm happy to say I've seen it, but learned I would trade it a thousand times over for a place like the magical Gotland. Sorry if you're a Paris lover, but Josh and I are the learning fast that we're the more adventurous type. Besides, Paris probably wouldn't want us anyway. We're not fancy enough and do things like sing, "Pari holds the key to your fart." all day long. (Thank you Disney's Anastasia.)

In the the end, we couldn't have asked for a more well rounded and crazy fun trip. We're so lucky!!

1 comment:

Bishoffs said...

Hey watch Now You See Me. That lock bridge is in it:) jealous of all of your adventures!