Luke and Courtnie: Paris

Our trip to Paris. The boys were originally supposed to be staying with my mom but crazy storms closed all the roads that direction so Jayme stepped in and watched five crazy kids all while she was sick. She's a hero! Friday the 10th we drove over to Zach and Jayme's house and let the kids play while Luke helped Zach on his new house. The next morning we woke up and left the house about 6 to get to the airport. I had a scare that I had forgotten my wallet with my ID at home. I literally felt my stomach drop. No worries. It was in a different pocket. I'm pretty sure it was my subconscious telling me not to leave my babies for so long. I really did have a little anxiety attack as we were in the airport. We tried to sleep the best we could on our long flight to Paris.

Day 1: We arrived in Paris about 8:00 AM on the 12th. We got our bags, exchanged some money and went about figuring out how to get to get to Versailles. While Luke tried to figure out the trains I went to find a bathroom. Unpleasant surprise, public restrooms cost money in Paris! Definitely my least favorite thing. After we got off the train and trekked our way to Versailles with our bags. We waited about two hours in the cold and rain before we finally got in. It was pretty amazing and so opulent. It was easy to see why the people rioted against the monarchy (especially after waiting outside like a peasant). After wandering around for a few hours we decided to get something to eat. One of the blogs I read said while in Paris you had to get hot chocolate at Angelina's. There was one at Versailles so that was where we had our lunch. We got a hot chocolate and our first baguette sandwich. The hot chocolate was so thick it was like drinking a melted dark chocolate bar. The baguette was pretty tough on the jaw and we each only ate half. The gardens were amazing as well. I was a little disappointed that we were there in the winter. I can only imagine how spectacular it looks with all the flowers in bloom.

After Versailles we got on the train back to Paris to find our apartment. It was in the Latin Quarter about a half block from Notre Dame and close to the metro. All the apartments in that area were above the restaurants and shops. Ours was up two flights of some pretty shady stairs. The apartment was quite a bit smaller than I had expected. There was a loft bed, one futon chair that fit us both and the toilet that was in the shower. It was in a fun area and we were really only there to sleep so we couldn't complain. The guy who owned the apartment worked at the restaurant downstairs. That was where we had dinner. We found out that they work pretty hard to get you to come inside and then don't really care what happens at that point. It takes forever to get a menu, to order, to get your food, to get your check. I kind of felt like we were being held hostage, especially when all I wanted to do was hurry up and stuff my face and go to bed.

Gates of Versailles

Just about to go inside

Hall of Mirrors

Gardens of Versailles

Home sweet (little) home

Day two: (Written by Luke) Monday the 13th. Between the little sleep we got on the airplane and the jet lag that made the planned 7am wake up feel like 12am, we didn't actually wake up until 10am. We headed over to the Louvre with plans to find breakfast on the way. We didn't find anything en route but at the Louvre they had a boulangerie Paul where we got some pastries and hot chocolate. I think Courtnie had a croissant, I had an Apricot pastry that was delicious. The guy serving hot chocolate asked if we wanted it mixed with milk, which sounded good (see above re: melted dark chocolate bar). I guess we didn't seem French? I'll take it as a compliment.

The Louvre was amazing. The building itself was almost as cool as Versailles and there was so much incredible art. My favorites were the sculptures of Hermaphrodite Endormi and the Winged Victory of Samothrace (Nike). There was way too much to take in during our short visit, and we couldn't understand most of the small captions so even the ones that caught our eye were often a mystery.

Ready to go into the Louvre!

Venus de Milo

The Kiss in the Louvre

The Selfie scupture (before its time)

After the Louvre we went to Notre Dame which was pretty cool. We wanted to go up in the belfry towers but it closed before we got there. With the sun setting on Paris we walked back to the Latin Quarter to check out the Shakespeare & Company book store then find some dinner. Courtnie wanted fondue for Valentines Day but we weren't sure when we would get back from the Eiffel Tower so we got fondue the night before.

Inside Notre Dame

Cheese and chocolate fondue.

Day Three: Tuesday 14th. Valentine's Day. We started the day by renting bikes. Ideally you paid like a dollar something for all day and as long as you stayed under a half hour per ride you wouldn't be charged any more. I don't think we always made it within the half hour time period but it was mostly fun to ride around. Only a little stressful riding against traffic and trying to find a place to check the bikes back in. We rode the bikes along the Seine to the Musee d'Orsay, which is the impressionist museum. This was hands down my favorite place in Paris. It was so beautiful and seemed much more peaceful than the Louvre. The paintings are dreamy and it's kind of crazy that you are seeing Monet, Degas, Renoir, and Van Gogh in person.

Monet

Degas

Renoir

Musee d'Orsay

Van Gogh

After Orsay we rode bikes through the Tuileries Gardens and up the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. At the edge of the gardens and the avenue is this ferris wheel, in the background is the glass roof of the Grand Palais which we wanted to go see but didn't have time.

We had lunch at the Arc de Triomphe, which was more baguette sandwiches and big bottle of apricot nectar, and some pastries. Then we rode down to Trocadero Gardens for a view of the tower. We wandered around taking pics until after sunset then rode the elevator to the top to look out at the city lights. It was a little bit windy and cold once we got to the top but the view was pretty hard to beat. We even saw a proposal. When we were researching for our trip Luke saw something that said there was ice skating on the Eiffel Tower. That was the one thing he really wanted to do but then everything we read said all the ice rinks closed down in January, so when we saw it was still going on (and was free) Luke was pretty excited.

Yes, we went ice skating on the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower on Valentine's Day, and drank hot chocolate which wasn't the thick stuff but the normal Swiss Miss style.

Day 4: In the morning we went to the Sainte-Chapelle. We were one of the first ones in. It was so beautiful and so quiet. It was just a room full of beautiful stained glass. We tried to go early to the Louvre to catch a few things we missed but wanted to see, but they were delayed in opening and didn't tell us why, so we went over to Orangerie museum to see Monet's lilies covering 8 long walls. It was calm and uncrowded so we spent a few minutes taking it in then got back on the move. We took the metro to Montmartre (left our luggage at the train station) then walked up a long hill and climbed a bunch of steps up to Sacre-Coeur and climbed a bunch more steps in a very narrow stone column up to the dome. It was good exercise and a cool but crowded place. We had enough time to go back to the Louvre for the last few things we wanted to see before catching the speed train through the chunnel to London.