Paris- Called the City of Lights for an apparent reason I will get to a little later in this review of our few hours in that wonderful city. Upon our arrival at the airport, we were greeted by a gentleman holding a sign with our name on it prepared to drive us to our hotel (this is the way to do it, as driving yourself in Paris is on par with a death wish). Crossing into the city actually was reminiscent of driving through certain parts of Mexico as people (gypsies our driver told us) ‘washed’ car windows as you were stopped at traffic lights and then demanded money from the driver. Once we got into the city, we made our way through the traffic to our hotel.
In American terms our room would have been described as ‘cozy,’ as I was able to take 3 steps across the room in either direction and there was not a single drawer to store any of our belongings in (but hey, its like Vegas right? You aren’t there for the room). Our first afternoon/evening in Paris was actually rather uneventful as we took a brief stroll around the neighborhood our hotel was in (located a few blocks from the beautiful Paris Oprah House), we simply picked up some bread, meat, cheese, and things like that from a local store and ate that for dinner as we went back to the hotel to deal with our jetlag.
The next day, we woke up early and hit the city. As I mentioned, our hotel was located not far from the Paris Oprah house, which was an amazing building for all imaginable reasons. Listing musicians from history on the outside, the architecture of the building was breathtaking. A short walk off, was the “Madeline Church.” Another amazing building, this was a church designed drawing on inspiration from ancient Greek and Roman times- having 52 columns around the outside for the 52 weeks in a year. Straight down from the church was a monument which housed one of the oldest items in Paris. An Egyptian Obelisk stood on top of a monument which was reminiscent of the Washington monument in Washington DC. This monument was located in the largest (and seemingly busiest intersections/squares/roundabouts in Paris.
When we stepped into the intersection, we received our first official view of the monument associated with Paris the world over- the Eiffel tower. Walking towards it through the park along Champs de Elysees, we took tons of pictures as fountains, statues, and other buildings we were only able to hazard guesses as to what they were based off our guidebooks and signs. Before we actually reached the tower, we took a trip down the Avenue Montaige which is in essence the Rodeo Drive of Paris. There was EVERY designer store you could imagine on this street, and even some you couldn’t (who knew there was a “Baby Dior” children’s boutique?). Unfortunately for Crystal, it was Sunday and all the stores were closed so we were forced to window shop. After a time strolling down the street we turned away from the Eiffel Tower and went to another famous Paris monument: L’Arc de Triumph. Initially commissioned by Napoleon as a tribute to his armies and a fulfillment of his promise to them that they would march back to Paris under, “Triumphant Arches,” this was truly a site to behold. This monument was also the first place on our trip JT was able to step out of his comfort zone and deal with his fear of heights. Climbing what felt like the endless spiral staircase within the monument, the top of the Arc allows for breathtaking views of all of Paris. After spending some time in the Arc, we went back towards the Eiffel Tower where we had lunch at a café before we made our way down to the park below the tower.
As we knew we were scheduled to have lunch in the tower the next day, we opted to not go up right then and there and continue walking around the city seeing the outside of many of the museums and official buildings located throughout (unfortunately, as it was getting late and our time in the city overall was limited, we did not get to experience several of the lesser known museums and sites we would have liked (but now we have something to look forward to next time). As those of you who have travelled (or let’s be honest, even driven) with me know, I have the worst sense of direction in the world and bowed to Crystal when it came to getting us back to our hotel, or getting us anywhere in the city for that matter. Utilizing her infallible sense of direction once again, she managed to get us back to our hotel. All in all we are estimating we walked in the neighborhood of 17 miles that day (and our feet reminded us every step of the way).
On our second day in the city, we had a full tour day scheduled. We were met by a tour guide at our hotel at 9:30 in the morning as he took us to many of the sites in the city. It was nice, as many of the buildings and sites we had seen as we strolled around the prior day were described and explained to us as opposed to us having to hazard guesses as to what they were based on our very limited French.
