< Paris Tidbits >

 

Well now you can see the randomness we brought back from Paris.
::Crepes, yum. We have used these the last two days with cheese and chicken in them grilled like a toasted cheese sandwich.
::Jachey wanted that random bowl and those chocolate cake things.
::silk scarf pour moi
::bought some old postcards
::had to buy some art prints from the Louvre
::bought the pretty Eiffel Tower pic and mini Eiffel Towers up on the Tower. All my life I have wanted an Eiffel Tower, but just couldn't buy one until I actually got one in Paris. For some reason it never seemed right to have one unless I had been to Paris. And good thing my dream came true.
::Goldfish! They don't sell Goldfish here and they sure looked good so we bought the cheddar and salt & vinegar ones...are the salt & vinegar ones new? I feel like I had never seen them before, they are SO TASTY.
::all our metro and ticket stubs

I know, kinda funny that I would buy baby stuff...but I wouldn't be the first girl to buy baby stuff pre-baby. I always wanted to buy baby stuff, but never could get myself to start a collection. But since baby time for us is in the future I get to start a collection. And I found some great could be worn/used by girl or buy things for future baby.
::Sophie Giraffe "born in Paris"
::leather moccasins
::dang cute baby pants
::cute shirts for baby
::a pacifier and bottle with French words on it. ha.

 

::I was really pleased with Paris. Like I mentioned before it felt very relaxed. I loved all the parks and all the sitting and relaxing spots...that is something I wished there was more of here in Switzerland.
::I loved hearing all that French. I just love that language so much and wish I hadn't forgot so much of it. You can defiantly get around Paris without knowing any French. Jachen and I used our French probably half the time or less. Mostly they just knew by how we spoke that we weren't native speakers so they would just end up replying to us in English.
::One night we watched an interesting tv program on one of the French channels about guys who stand around the sights and try and sell you those mini Eiffel Towers and how it's illegal because they don't have a license to sell them. It showed how when cops see them the guys go running and if they get caught they get a 650fine and 6months in jail. It was interesting, but we hadn't seen any people selling them so we figured people had stopped because of the crack down on it. However, the very next day we saw men selling and it sure did look sketchy. Every single one of them was looking over their shoulders the whole time and we saw one guy hid the stuff he was selling when cops came in the area. Jachen and I joked about scarring them buy pointing behind them and saying police.
::There were a lot of army men with big guns walking around, the airport, Eiffel Tower....etc...patrooling. Cool.
::We didn't see any pickpocketing until the second to the last day...on our way to the Eiffel Tower on the metro there was this major commotion on the train we were on...a pregnant girl was grabbed by a man and she tried running and got caught but escaped again, but her friend got stuck on the train by the group the two girls tried to rob. It was kinda freaky. The girl stuck was being yelled at and she was yelling back and the group was all yelling. We deducted that her pregnant friend tried robbing or did rob a wallet from the group and the people who caught the one girl was keeping her until the other friend came back. It was pretty intense so at the next stop we switched to another area of the train. The next day we saw both those girls together again. Yikes.
::Besides that, the French seemed really nice and friendly. We had really good interactions with them.
::We loved our trip, so surreal that we did it and it's over. It feels really good to fulfill a lifelong dream.

>>>M

< Paris//Last Day >

Day four/last day::The only thing planned for our last day was going to the Louvre. The Louvre, like pretty much all museums in Paris, are free the first Sunday of every month...so we decided to take them up on that offer. We checked out of our hotel around 10:30, left our luggage in our hotel's luggage room and made our way to the Louvre. We arrived there around 11am or was it noon? Can't remember. And we stood in line for about an hour to get in which wasn't too bad seeing as how long the line was. And stupid people would cut and join in in the middle of the line, stupid.

We finally got in, luckily it was a gorgeous day so we didn't mind enjoying the courtyard while we waited, and first went to see the Greek and Roman rooms. People are dumb sometimes....so many people were totally just in there to take pictures with the art...they didn't even look to see what it was or care what it was they just wanted a picture of them with it. Pretty lame and funny. I have no idea why people feel the need to have themselves in pictures with everything. Then we went to find the two things I had to see at the Louvre...the Mona Lisa and The Raft of the Medusa which became a favorite of mine when I learned about it in an art history class in college.

There were tons of people huddled around the Mona Lisa...since she is bite-sized. You can see her in a picture and in the video...but you have to look hard cus she is small. Then onto find the Raft of the Medusa which was large and glorious. Then I wanted to see some of the Egyptian art and artifacts including one that I love called The Seated Scribe, which is in the video. So now I have seen Egyptian art in Cairo, London and Paris! Feel pretty cool. ha. We saw a lot more art on our way out because the exit is the entrance so we had to find out way back. Clearly we didn't see everything in the Louvre since a. you would have to spend days for that and b. we had only so much time left before leaving to the airport.

We left the Louvre to go find some lunch...and on our walk along the river we ran into/came upon the Pont des Arts bridge! I had wanted to find it while in Paris, but it wasn't something I was going to search for...but there it was! Happy we found that, a great way to end our last day in Paris. Then we found lunch, hopped on the metro and headed back to our hotel to pick up our luggage.

The train directly to the airport was closed, so they directed us all to take a train to an area "near" the airpot then they shuttled us all on buses....like shoved as many of us on each bus as could fit and drove alllll the way to the airport on that crowded bus, not ideal. But lucky for us we still had plenty of time for our flight and we weren't late despite the bus fiasco. Finally, at midnight we arrived back at our home. What a long day!

Thus ends our last day in Paris.

 

Le Louvre

Pont des Arts Bridge

>>>M

< Paris//Day Three >

Day three::There wasn't much planned for Saturday so we decided to take our sweet time that morning. It was nice being able to sleep in everyday and take our time getting ready in the morning. Also, we knew the earlier we started the more we would be on our feet and the faster our feet would start hurting again.

We went to Monoprix around 10:30/11 to get some lunch to eat by the river across from our hotel. At Monoprix they have realllly cute baby stuff...and I MAY have bought some baby items...not pregnant, but I sure will be one day and when that day comes I want some things from Paris for my baby. {will post a picture of what I bought later} We also bought some other goodies and things to take home with us. After Monoprix we stopped at a bakery and got some baguettes and a ham and cheese quiche pour moi. Headed back to the hotel, dropped off our goodies and went down to the river to eat lunch.

At the end of eating lunch, it started to sprinkle. I thought it wouldn't last...I was wrong. The rest of the day was full on raining. BUT if there was one day to rain, I am glad it was that one. That day was the day we went to L'Arc de Triomphe and walked down the Champs-Élysées...and since I didn't get video of the Eiffel Tower from the previous day, we ended the day with going there again.

It was so so great to see the Arc de Triomphe in person...well every place was of course. We had planned before going to Paris to climb up it, but since it was raining and we knew the climb would kill our feet faster we decided not to go up. We enjoyed around and underneath though. I had no idea you could see the top of the Eiffel Tower from ground level...can you see it in the video? We then walked up and down the Champs-Élysées which turns out really is just a street full of really pricey/nice stores. I thought in my head it would be more kitschy and French, but it was pretty much just stores. But that's okay, I still fulfilled a life wish of walking down it.

Then we headed back on the metro to the Eiffel Tower. We took a different way then before, which was nice to see a different angle and area around the tower. On the way to the tower we found a cute cafe that we decided to eat at after. We couldn't stay long at the Tower because of the rain, there was no where to sit, so we headed back to the cafe to eat dinner. We were boring and both ordered sandwiches and ate fries...we should have ordered escargot. Then we got fancy and ordered a banana split. Ha. But really eating at an actual French restaurant was a big enough step for us. And then we MAY have gone back to Monoprix on our way home that evening and got a Ben & Jerry's ice cream to share in our hotel while we watched tv.

That was rainy day three.

 

>>>M

< Paris//Day Two >

Day Two::it's a long one folks. This day was pretty awesomely jam packed. It would seem we were running from one place to the next, but we totally weren't. We took our sweet time.

Friday/that morning I checked my email and found an email from my brother suggesting we go see his favorite chapel in Paris, Saint-Étienne du Mont. It looked great and it was nearish where we were already headed that day {Musée de l'Armée} so we decided to go there first. We weren't 100% sure where it was located but we knew the area so we as we were looking for it we happened upon a crêpe stand. THANK GOODNESS we decided to get them because they were seriously seriously delicious. I got my favorite, banana and Nutella and Jachen got cheese and chicken. I can't still believe how good they were. That, unfortunately, was the only crêpes we got in Paris though...all the other times we saw stands we weren't hungry or just didn't get them...probably my only regret for this trip was that we didn't eat more. {although I did buy already made crêpes at Monoprix that we brought home so last night I made cheese and chicken crêpes which tasted pretty close. so good}

We found the chapel, right next to the Panthéon. What a beautiful area that was. It was such a beautiful day again so lots of students/people were out on the steps of the Panthéon and the chapel eating lunch.
Saint-Étienne du Mont was so so beautiful. I am glad my brother suggested we go and I am so happy we decided to go. My new favorite chapel as well. You can see lots of it in the video.

We didn't go in the Panthéon, neither of us cared to. However when we walked up in front of it, I turned around and THERE it was!...the Eiffel Tower! My first peek at it! It was pretty exciting. Everything we had seen up to that point could have been anywhere in the world...BUT the Eiffel Tower is only in Paris...the Eiffel Tower is what makes you realize "holy cow I am really here!" But it wasn't quite time yet to go to it.

We headed down the street in front of the Panthéon and it lead us to/through the Jardin du Luxembourg which was beautiful and big. We found seats in the shade and chilled there for awhile next to the water. After we headed to the nearest metro station which took us near the army museum/hotel des invalides. We had a nice little walk trying to find it and ended up sitting at another great area enjoying the Eiffel Tower top in front of us and the Hotel des Invalides to our left. After resting we headed into the army museum. We didn't go through the whole museum, we would have gone to more, but our feet were already pretty sore and we still had the Eiffel Tower to go to that day.

We left the museum and walked to the Eiffel Tower. Jachen took two pictures with my iPod and it died...so there is no videos of the Eiffel Tower that day...as you can see from the video. Darn it! {But I couldn't make all these videos and not have the Eiffel Tower in any, so we went the next evening to see the Eiffel Tower again.} Enjoyed the tower down below for a bit then stood in line to ride the elevator up to the mid level. So happy we did that. It was awesome to see Paris from that high...as you can see from the pictures. Paris really is as beautiful as you would think. When people say "Paris is dirty" don't listen to them...sure it has grungy areas, but what city doesn't. There were soo many beautiful areas and buildings that I don't even know why people say that about Paris as one of their first things.

Up on the Eiffel, after seeing the views and purchasing some Eiffel Tower souvenirs, we were starting to be real sore and real hungry. After finally getting our turn back down on the elevator, it was passed dinner and I was seriously getting hungry. The last real thing I ate was hourssss before when we had the crêpes{well technically we had a granola bar and a couple crackers after}. We took the metro near that area from day one that we wanted to go back and eat...but we got off at a metro stop we hadn't been before and somehow we got turned around and started heading the wrong direction. NOT good for me when I was starving, sore feet and tired from a long day of walking. We ended up having to take a metro again to get to where we needed and finalllly made it to where we wanted to go and got Gyros. Weren't as amazing as the ones I have had in Seattle{it wasn't lamb and there was no feta}, but still hit the spot that Gyro and Orangina. Then somehow, we managed to make it all the way back to our hotel that evening.

That was day two. A big and great day.

 

Saint-Étienne du Mont

Panthéon

Jardin du Luxembourg

L'Hôtel des Invalides//Musée de l'Armée

Eiffel Tower

>>>M