Paris

In order to make the most of Paris we had to get up pretty early, and that was fairly difficult, considering the very small amount of sleep that I was able to get on the plane ride. Regardless, I managed to drag myself out of bed. We started the day by walking down Avenue Raymond Poincare to PL. Trocadero. After a dinner of just cheeses we were both rather hungry, and we stopped in Café du Trocadero for some Petit D’jeniur (breakfast). From our table we were able to see the Eifel Tower through the Palias de Chaillot. I had an Omlet du Jambon (ham omlet) and the second best cup of coffee that I have ever had. (The best cup of coffee is to come later).  After breakfast we continued our walk down to the Pallias de Chaillot.

The Pallais is elevated with respect to the Champ de Mars, and provided an excellent viewing platform for the Eiffel Tower. The weather was slighty overcast and cool, and the clouds provided a nice backdrop for pictures, and the temperature was excellent for walking. We walked across la Seine, and took a while to marvel the tower. The line to go up the tower was longer than the tower is tall, and Charlotte is not fond of heights, so we enjoyed the tower from the ground. We strolled through the Camp de Mars and made sure to take every available photo op. We continued our walk down Motte Piquet la Tour Maubourg to the Hotel des Invalides. When we were walking down this street we saw a bus full of asain tourist all with their cameras and iPads against the window taking pictures, and two tiny cars that looked kind of like Trabants (Trabis).

From the Hotel des Invalides we were able to look all the way down Ave du Mal Gallieni and see the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais. The Ave du Mal Gallieni had little islands in the middle that you could stand on, and we stood on one and took a picture while cars were going by, so that It looked like we were standing in the middle of the road. We took a brief look around the two palais and then continued our walk down the river. We walked past the Place de la Concorde, which had a giant Egyptian obelisk in it…similar to Rome, past the Musee de Orsay,  and all the way down to Place Dauphine on Pont Neuf.  On Pont Neuf there is a quaint little restaurant  called Taverne Henry IV, which I had previously eaten at with my family the last time I was in Paris, and which I was planning on revisiting with Charlotte. About the same time that we got on the island, Charlotte began to question when we were going to eat lunch-perfect timing!

The restaurant was exactly as I remembered it! It had the same awning and the same table at which my family and I ate. When I was there last we enjoyed a bottle of Beaujolais that was recommended to us by a little old man from whom we were asking directions to la Post.

(By the way… I found la Post!) And so we each enjoyed a glass of Beaujolais, and a delectable lunch. Charlotte had a platter of Ham and camembert, and I had a an open face sandwich type of thing with eggplant, tomato, basil, and melted cheese. We spent a whole hour just relaxing and enjoying our lunch…it was perfect! Oh yeah, the plat du jour was Lasagna, and about half way through lunch some Italians came in to eat. I couldn’t tell exactly what the waiter was saying when he came over to talk to them, but I knew that it was something along the lines of “I won’t even show you the plat du jour, because it is lasagna”. While he was saying he was kind of moving the plat du jour sign out of sight, and the Italians jokingly said “no Lasagna”.  From Taverne Hernry IV we continued to Sainte Chapelle. There were a lot of Germans visiting the Sainte Chapelle, and it was refreshing to hear a language that I could actually understand. We read the story about each window and took some time just to gawk.  It’s so hard to believe that the Chapelle dates back to the 13^th century.

After finishing up at the Sainte Chapelle we carried on to Notre Dame. Notre Dame is by far my favorite site in Paris. The amount of detail and the the grandeur of every little part of the cathedral absolutely amazes me. Unfortunately, Notre Dame appeared to be everybody else’s favorite attraction as well. The line to get into the cathedral took up the entire Place du Paris Notre Dame, and the line to go up the tower extended far beyond the length of the building. Had we had more time in Paris I know that the line would have been worth waiting in, but since our time was limited we had to decline. So ein Mist! Fortunately, Notre Dame offers a spectacular view from any angle, and we walked around the perimeter of the Cathedral to take it all in. 

Behind the Cathedral there was a rose garden with roses of all colors. I have never seen such a variety of rose colors.

We walked over to the other Island to check out the various little shops, and we found a little Fromagerie…wow! There is a major difference between the Fromageries in Paris and the cheese stores/departments in America-the Fromageries REEK!! I think that Americans are somewhat put off by foul odors, and therefore most stores try to avoid things that have an off-putting smell. In France it is a different story! The Fromagerie fills its storefront with only the smelliest of smelly cheeses. That being said, the smelly cheeses are quite delectable! Also, the majority of cheeses in France seem to be soft Brie-like cheeses rather than the hard cheeses that are typically sold back home. As an aside, la Post is just down the street from the Fromagerie…haha

After walking to the end of the island we crossed at Bvvd Henri, and took that to Place de la Bastille. We then picked up Rue St Antoine which turned into Rue Rivoli heading towards the Louvre. We passed through the Hotel de Ville and then to the Musee du Louvre. We were starting to get pretty well fatigued, and we elected to have a nice sit at the fountain among I.M. Pei’s pyramids in front of the Louvre. This break was much needed, and provided a number of good photo ops. After our little sojourn we walked through the Jardin des Tuileries. We must have done a fairly decent job of looking French, because the Gypsies that try and haggle with the tourists seemed to leave us alone. I think the look is partially in the clothes, but mostly in the face. You kind of pooch your lips out like a duck and lower your eyebrows when they look at you, and they think your French and leave you alone.  Either that or they think you’re psychotic and they are scared to come up to you. Regardless, they left us alone.














We then undertook the long hike up Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triumph. Although we were both very tired, the weather was absolutely perfect, and the walk was very enjoyable. We were also getting pretty hungry, but I didn’t want to eat of Champs Elysees because the food is very touristy and expensive, but about half way up Champs Elysees our hunger overcame us and we found ourselves in a Haagen Daz. Our ice cream (and seeing a random Audi R8) provided us with enough energy to get to the Arc de Triumph. From the Arc we walked down Victor Hugo to Place Victor Hugo, and ate at a Brasserie. Charlotte had and Omlette du Saumon and I had some kind of flame grilled Canard (Duck)…YUM! Dinner was excellent, and much needed. We then walked back down Avenue Raymond Poincare to the Hotel.

Since we had an entire day dedicated to sightseeing the next day was devoted to shopping. To speed up the process, and to save our aching legs the walk, we elected to travel by metro (the Paris underground). We got up early and grabbed some Petit D’jeneuir at the Boulangerie (Bakery…they make baguettes and breads) right down the street. For breakfast I had a soft baguette with chocolate chips in it (I thought they were blueberries), a croissant, and a cup of Coffee with Milk. The croissant and the coffee were both the best that I have ever had! While we were eating two American sorority girls came in to grab some breakfast, but they brought coffee from Starbucks with them.  I wanted to slap them and be like why would you come all the way to France and get Starbucks when this place has the best coffee I have ever had.

Anyways, we took the train to Notre Dame to check out the little shops and stands, unfortunately it was still pretty early and some of the places were still closed. We did manage to grab a few little sundry items here and there though.  We walked a ways down Rue de Rivloi (I called it Ravioli street), because there were a lot of little shops there, but not much sparked our interest.  So we hopped on the train to the Galleries Lafayette. Now I didn’t really know what exactly the Galleries Lafayette was, but the Concierge had recommended it for shopping, so we said let’s check it out. As soon as we went inside and saw the brilliant stained-glass ceiling I had remembered seeing it in the numerous travel books that I had looked through, but thinking that it was too far out of the way to go to. So that was pretty awesome to be surprised like that.

After some shopping and some lunch we journeyed back to the hotel to check out and head to the Airport. It is incredible how you can spend so long planning something and anticipate something, and then it has already passed you by. Fortunately I am pretty sure that we made the most of our time in Paris, and it is surely something I will always remember.