I guess since we've been home for almost a month I should blog about this trip. It was a long time in the making (like years) and I'm so glad it was something we were finally able to do!! We talked about doing it a few years ago when Jeffy was living in Zurich for 6 months but it didn't work out. When we found out he was moving back there for a few years we knew we had to make the dream a reality!! We were thinking of going in the summer but also knew we wanted to have another baby... the trip looked like it wasn't going to happen so then we decided to have another little one then it looked like the trip was going to happen and I found out I was pregnant!! We decided to go ahead anyway and I'm so glad we did. My OB served his mission in France years ago so he was more than supportive of me going and had no problems with it. My parents, brother (and his family!) and Doug's brother were more than kind enough to watch our other kids when we were gone. We could not have done it without them!! Here we are getting ready to take off.
It was all fun and games until we'd been traveling for 15+ hours with only 2-3 hours of sleep...
We finally landed in Paris and took a cab to our hotel. We thought it would be a fun way to see the city and we're quite ready to navigate the metro yet. The Euro Cup happened to be going on while we were there. We passed one of the big stadiums on the way to the hotel.
My first views of the city! The buildings really were all white with dark rooftops. Just like pictures I'd seen and just how I envisioned it. I loved it!
After we checked in to our hotel we decided to head out and do a little exploring to help us avoid jet lag. We were so tired but we heard the best thing to do was not fall asleep once you get there. So we forced ourselves to stay awake and we were glad we did. We went to go find the Salvador Dali museum in the Montmarte area that was near our hotels. I couldn't get enough of the streets there. I don't know how long it took them to build these streets but they were fun to see!
We finally found the museum and saw some fun (and crazy) things. Like the melting clock in the painting...
And this crazy chess set. We saw a lot of other things too and Doug loved it. Dali is one of his favorites and it was neat to see some originals.
While we were walking around that area I was complaining a little about all the hills and kept saying that I didn't realize Paris was so hilly. It was only later that I realized we had climbed to the highest part of Paris!! Not sure that was our smartest move but the view was amazing!!
We also went to Sacre Coeur.
It was amazing and so beautiful to see inside. They didn't allow pictures but it was incredible. Definitely a good first cathedral to see in Europe!
We took the steps down instead of the giant hill we'd just climbed and were kind of glad we hadn't taken the steps up in the first place!
At the bottom there was this fun old carousel. It made us miss our kids. They would have loved it!
We then went to go find a snack to eat. It wasn't very hard to do since there were the most adorable cafes on every corner!
We went for a croque monsieur, a brie and tomate bagette and a nutella and coconut crepe. It was all amazing and made for the perfect meal in France!
After that we went to the Louvre. (Before we left on our trip we bought a Paris pass that came with a 3 day metro pass, a hop on hop off bus tour, and 2 day museum pass. We were so glad we did that. It helped us make an itinerary before so that we didn't waste time figuring out what to do when we got there.) Anyway, here's Doug at the reverse pyramid in the Louvre.
We only spent a few hours there and saw the famous things. It was seriously the biggest museum. You could have spent days there. We were so tired though and it was hot inside so I didn't last very long. We did see the Winged Victory, Venus De Milo, Madonna on the Rocks, and of course the Mona Lisa. We also saw some other cool paintings that Doug was excited about but of course I didn't know what they were!
A few from the outside...
We took a little break after the Louvre and enjoyed some apple juice and a pain chocolat while we did some people watching. I also got my first view of the Eiffel Tower! Can you see it? It's between the building and lamp post on the left side of the picture.
We then went back to our hotel and slept for just a little bit. We couldn't resist sleep any longer!! We stayed in a cheap crappy hotel but were so glad we did. It gave us the Parisian experience we were looking for and made for some fun memories. It was so European and we loved it. It had the cutest little balcony and was so fun to see the typical Paris street below us. It was full of the cutest little cafes and shops including this flower shop a little bit down the street. It smelled amazing every time we walked by.
Balcony selfie!
This awesome hair dryer was in the bathroom. It actually came in handy when mine went a little haywire with the voltage change!
It was so fun to walk the streets and see so many yummy things!! I'll take one of everything please! We fell asleep that night listening to the cheers and celebrations going on in the bars and streets due to a French Euro Cup victory.
The next morning (man we look tired!!) we decided to do the hop on hop off bus tour.
We started off by going around the concord by the Louvre. This place was insane. So much traffic (bikes, cars, motorcycles, buses, etc) and of course no marked lanes. I don't know how people navigate it all!
So apparently we didn't get a good picture but each little cart of this Ferris wheel was covered in a picture of a painted Euro cup fan face. They were huge and it was kind of fun to see!
More views
The first stop we got off at was Notre Dame. Once again, I was blown away and this was amazing to see in person. The line to get in was a little long but it was amazing.
We passed on the huge line to climb the 300+ steps to the top and settled for enjoying the views inside. These pictures do not do this justice. It was amazing in person!!
Some of the famous gargoyles on the outside!
Before hopping back on the bus we stopped for another crepe. This one with canelle and sucre (cinnamon sugar). So yummy. We skipped the ice cream cone "whit" 2 scoops though.
The next stop we hopped off at was the Musee D'Orsay. This was an amazing museum too. We saw a lot of Monets, Van Goughs, Saurats, etc.
These clocks were giant on the outside and were even more giant on the inside!
Monet's haystacks.
A few Van Goghs,
including his self portrait
AKA, Doug's twin.
After that we walked over to the Musee de L'Orangerie. This was probably my favorite museum in all of Paris. It had 4 big rooms full of Monet's waterlillies. They were incredible!! Such an amazing thing to see in real life.
A close up. It's amazing that they look like kid scribbles up close but from afar they're incredible!!
'
The basement of this museum had some incredible things too. Including this Renoir that hangs above the piano in my parents house. It was neat to see the real thing!
When we finished walking through this museum it was raining cats and dogs. It was nuts. We decided to eat in their little cafe while the storm passed. We enjoyed a delicious little lunch there including a yummy baguette sandwich with butter, salami and pickles. It ended up being one of my favorite things we ate in Paris!! After the rain stopped we walked back over to the Orsay to catch the bus again. We had to stop and take a picture with the famous locks on the lock bridge though.
Overall the bus tour was fun but I'm not sure we'd do it again. It seemed like we waited longer than expected for the buses to come. Part of that was most likely do to the Euro cup but it was kind of annoying. Especially when it was raining...
A cool fountain we saw somewhere...
The next stop we got off on was the Arc de Triomphe. This was one of my favorite memories from Paris. While we were on the bus they had some narration you could listen to about the things we were passing and seeing. As we drove down the Champs Elysee toward the Arc, it played the song "Champs Elysee" which I remember learning in a college french class. It was so fun to drive down that famous street listening to that song and just taking it all in. We missed out (or more like chose to not do any) on shopping on that famous boulevard but it was still fun to see all the shops.
We didn't spend much time and the arc because we didn't want to wait in line to climb it but it was amazing to see. And again, I'm not sure how vehicles navigate traffic in this roundabout!! There was something like 12 streets that intersect here!
Just enjoying a little rain on the top of the bus...
Somewhere else in Paris...
The next stop we got off at was for the Eiffel Tower. I had to use the bathroom so badly so we took advantage of our museum passes (for the sole purpose of finding a bathroom) and stopped at the closest museum. It just so happened to be the maritime museum and although it wasn't the fanciest museum in Paris it made for some good memories and a chance to take some goofy pictures.
This thing was a little crazy. We're not sure what it was but if we were ever in a fight we wanted to have one.
Next stop (and part 2), Le Tour Eiffel!
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