Paris: Part One

Oh Paris – you were top on my list of places to visit, and finally I was able to make my dreams come true. I spent three full days exploring the city of love, on valentine’s weekend no less. Granted I was sans valentine, however I do feel like spending a few days in Paris constitutes “winning” the holiday.  I took the Eurostar over from London, which was super quick and really easy to do, plus it put me at a major train spot that brought me to a metro that dropped me off a block from my hotel. As a non-French speaker, I never had trouble navigating the metro ( I swear the States are the worse for clear public transit instructions).

The first night I was super tried, as I was out way too late the night before – oops. I haven’t seen 3 am in about 3 years until then – I guess there are worse things though then having a good time on a Friday night. I just got settled and made my way to a bistro for dinner before heading to an early bed time so I could take full advantage of my day on Sunday.

 

Once I got moving, I made my way over to the Eiffel Tower. I know it’s completely the one landmark everyone thinks of when Paris comes to mind. I remember seeing it when I was in high school, but it still so beautiful to see in person. I spent a good hour or so walking around the park snapping photos and just watching the people. One extra bonus was seeing so many people out enjoying the day with their pets and families – so many dog walkers. I also happened to see Donkey rides, which was certainly very tempting, but alas I just passed and snapped a funny picture.

Once I wrapped up, I crossed a bridge over the Siene and headed towards the Louvre by walking through the Champs de Elysee, and the lovely park. The weather was amazing and I stopped for lunch at one of the outdoor cafes and enjoyed reading my book in the park while enjoying the sites. I do think I’ve become a true city dweller as I love public parks and seeing so many people enjoy common space – yes I am a complete nerd, thank you very much.

As the afternoon wore on, I decided to try to see the major pieces of art at The Louvre – there are so many master pieces there, and really you could spend the entire vacation going to this museum. Knowing that it’s a fairly comprehensive museum I did two major things, checked out the apartments of Napoleon III, and took the iTunes Masterpieces tour that I was able to download to my phone in the museum. That tour was so helpful as it pretty much told you exactly where to go to see some of the major players in the museum such as the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, and many others. It did make me chuckle that as the tour told you to move to another spot you could hear footsteps on the playback. Anyways, I liked getting a bit of the history behind the art work and getting a semi-guided tour of the museum. As the museum closed for the day, I headed back across the river to my hotel, where I was pleasantly surprised that an American couple stopped me to take their photo- and they thought I lived in Paris – oh I wish. I really do think Americans find each other when we are in other places though, I think we stick out a bit.

I ended my day with another dinner out, before turning in. Though I did decide to make a plan of the next two day on the major things I wanted to see while I was in town. As they say, so much to do, so little time.

Hopefully you are enjoying my little recap on Paris, there will be Day 2 and Day 3 coming soon. I thought I’d break up the fun a bit this time around.