Paris is always a good idea.

- The movie "Sabrina". Well, I don't know if it was my absolute favorite place to visit, but it is certainly a beautiful city. :)

Patrick arrived in London on the 8th of May. I went to meet him at Heathrow and brought him back to my host family's for dinner. (We had yummy soup and other stuff--we did not eat Patrick.) That evening Patrick stayed in a hostel near Kings Cross and the next morning we met there (Kings Cross) bright and early to take the Eurostar to Paris!

Saturday
The ride was fairly uneventful--mostly dark. Once there, we met up with Alex Bonbon (our friend who stayed with my family for a while last fall). Alex was really nice and helped us get our footing, especially with directions and the Metro. He also gave us suggestions for what we should spend our time on. First, we found our hostel (which was located in the Old City part of Paris) and went to lunch nearby (where I figured out why we call it french bread--because they make it so WONDERFULLY!) Then we went to the Arc de Triomphe (a huge arch that stands as a monument in honor of those who fought for France--particularly in the Napoleonic Wars) which stands at the western end of Champs-Elysees and in the middle of the Charles de Gaulle plaza.

Patrick in front of the Arc de Triomphe.

Then we took a bus to the Eiffel Tower!!! We viewed it (and took pictures!) from afar and then went down (across the river) to see it up close. Seeing the under workings and all the intricacies while standing right underneath the tower was so cool! There was also lots of fun going on in the park there--there were lots of carousels!

Under the Eiffel Tower.

Then Alex took us to his neck of the woods: La Defense (which is a newer area in Paris). There we got to see some cool new architecture, a great view of the Arc de Triomphe, not to mention the mall-area near where Alex lives. :)

La Defense

During all this time, my Metro ticket (that we had bought to the train station) developed some issues. :P At this point, Patrick and I said goodbye to Alex and went back to the station to try to work it out. Unfortunately, they were not very helpful and basically said that they couldn't figure out what was wrong and, thus, I was on my own. GRRRR! So, for the rest of the trip, we had to carefully use some extra tickets we had or cheat the system by going through on the same ticket (Patrick's). I didn't like doing it, but we didn't really have a choice and I had already paid for my ticket! sigh.

After that, we went back to the hostel to finally rest our feet and then to have some dinner. We had some good food (salads in Paris are taaaasty), but the waiter as kinda rude (apparently, the fact that we were American and didn't speak French warranted snotty remarks and glances--even though Patrick is actually very good at French phonics and pronunciation!). It was a full day, but the next day was even fuller!

Sunday
This was a very full day of museums and sightseeing! First, we went to the Palace de la Concorde and walked to the LOURVE (!!!) where we were delighted to find out that we fit into the age group that gets in for Freeeee! yay! :) We saw a lot of classic pieces, including (of course) the Mona Lisa.

The Mona Lisa was much smaller in person than I had expected. :)

Then we walked to the Musse Orangerie, where I got to soak up a lot of Monet. They had to oval rooms with four large Monet's each curved around the walls. We were surrounded by beautiful Impressionism. I was in heaven.

Me--happily surrounded by Monet!

Then we strolled over to the Isle de Saint Louis and Pont Nuef (and saw lots of neat vendors along the way). Then we went down the island to the Saint Chappelle, which is full of beautiful stained glass--it was like being in a jewel box.

The "jewel box"!

After that, we went to Notre Dame. It was big. Patrick (who's dad is a Notre Dame--college--alumnus) especially liked it.

Patrick in front of Notre Dame.

Then we went back to Pont Nuef, where we sat for a while under the bridge along the water and then rested in the little park for a while. We were so wiped out from all the walking we'd done at that point that we both fell asleep on the bench for a short moment! It was very restful and romantic though--greenery and flowers in the trees all around us, benches to sit on, the river floating by, and birds singing... it was pretty sweet. :)

Us on our bench in the park. :)

After that we walked more along the river, got some dinner (that was unfortunately not very tasty), and then went to see the Eiffel Tower at dark. Once there we had to wait around for the Tower to start twinkling--luckily we were entertained for a bit by some street dancers with good music. Finally, we saw the tower light up. It was beautiful.

Look at it sparkle! How romantic! :)

After that we went back to the hostel to collapse! whew!

Monday
This day was very rainy! In the morning, we explored the area around our hostel. We (eventually) found the Sacre Cuer Basilica.

(Can you see the gargoyles?)

It sits on the highest point in the city and has a great view (that we unfortunately could not see very well because of the rain). :P We went in and were surprised to discover that they were letting sightseers in during a service (Patrick claimed that he knew exactly where they were in the service even though it was in French, which I was impressed by).

Wet, with a view behind me.

Then we walked around this very cute area (called Monmarte) looking at shops and picked one of the many inviting restaurants to have lunch at.

Not where we ate, but cute nonetheless.

Then we briefly visited the Red Light District (oh my!) and saw the Moulin Rouge.

Oo la la!

Then we went back to the museum area to do some last minute sight seeing. We re-visited the Lourve to find one of the Rose Line markers (it was neat to actually find it--kind of like a treasure hunt!). :)

A Rose Line medallion. I love this picture.

Then went to the Rodin, which was unfortunately closed (apparently Monday is the day for many museums in Paris to recover from the weekend). On the up side, the Les Invalides was nearby and we walked around it's outside (also the sight of the Musee D'Armie). I mostly followed Patrick around and listened to him say interesting things about the all artifacts we discovered (he's much more interested--and knowledgeable--about that stuff). When we were walking around this area, we came across a really cute bug car. It looked especially minuscule when Patrick stood next to it! We also tired to visit the Musee Orsay, but it was closed, too.

Patrick examining the inner-workings of a clock (plus Napoleon's reflection).

It's so tiny!

We finished our time there walking along the river, retrieving our belongings from the hostel, and buying some food supplies to eat during our return trip. After waiting at the station for a while, we finally returned to London on the Eurostar and found our way to our hostel (The Generator) where we could recover from our Parisian adventure!

Extra Stuff

• In addition to the tasty french bread, we really enjoyed the pain au chocolat (a.k.a. a chocolate croissant). mmmmm.
• One adventure we faced when arriving at and departing from Paris was how to get Patrick's Leatherman through the Eurostar security. Luckily, (since we approached them beforehand about it) they let him take it through.
• As we walked around Paris, we realized that (apparently) some American presidents are very popular there. There were lots of streets and such name after them, like Avenue du President Wilson and a stop on the Metro simply titled Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• While walking around the streets lined with trees, I kept thinking about the movie Gigi. The look was very similar--so I guess that means the movie got it right! :)

Me on a "Gigi" street! :)

P.S. This took a long time to create, so I'm sorry if I haven't proofread it thoroughly!