The last time I was in Paris was October of 2001. My roommates and I had just spent a week in Spain during our fall break, and we had decided to spend a night in Paris before flying back to London. (Only, it was much more complicated than that. Originally, we booked a plane ticket into Madrid and out of Paris. We had ambitious notions about taking a train ride through the country to see both Spain and France before our flight left from Paris. The only problem was, we found out once we got to Spain that these trains run over night, so we wouldn't be able to see anything along the way. We found a travel agent in Seville, who helped us book a flight back to Madrid and then Paris, so we could make it back for our flight to London. This meant we ended up with one evening in Paris.)
During that time, we took a very long walk, which ended exactly where it had started -- i.e. we got lost, we saw the Eiffel Tower, and we took a touristy boat trip down the river so that the major sites could be pointed out in a number of different languages. We also had some sub-par Italian food and some great
crème brulée. It was nice to see somewhere new, but I certainly wouldn't say it was the best travel experience ever. And, although I was excited about taking the trip with Mr. Traveler, when it came time to plan our vacation, there was nothing jumping out at me as a "must see". Eventually, I decided I wanted to visit the Louvre, but other than that, we'd just have to see what to do when we go there. It was surprising, then, when we managed to pack in non-stop sites each of the days we were in Paris, and I never grew tired of the city. It helped that we had amazing hosts who helped us plan out our days and shared with us some of their favorite things to do from an insider's perspective.
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On Friday, we arrived around lunchtime after our ride on what I would like to call "the Valentine's train". (Check out the picture below and see if you can tell why I gave it this name.)
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| Valentine's Train |
Mr. Traveler's cousin (Cousin C - for future reference), his wife (A), and daughter (baby L) met us at the train station. We headed to the Jewish Quarter to eat at one of their favorite falafel places (I'm sorry I don't have the name or a picture to share with you. We were tired and hungry from the train ride and not really ready to get out the camera.) We each had a falafel sandwich (in a pita), which lived up to the rave reviews given by Cousin C and A.
After lunch, Cousin C and A gave us the option of tagging along on their errands or taking off on our own. Since we didn't have a plan in place, we decided to tag along. We quickly made our way through a 6 floor department store and then walked up and down the
Avenue des Champs-Élysées.
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| Arc de Triomphe at the end of Champs-Élysées |
We ended up at the
Arc de Triomphe, where we talked and watched Baby L play on the steps of the monument. Isn't she adorable?
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| Cousin C and Baby L |
Then, we headed back to Cousin C and A's place, where we stayed for our trip. They were amazing hosts the whole time! A fixed some taco soup, which was really good (especially since we only get Mexican food if we make it over here), and helped us plan an itinerary for the following day. Once she started mentioning museums and sites that they enjoyed, I really started to get excited about seeing Paris. Before we went to sleep, we had a plan for the following day, including Metro stops and changes for each site.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of our adventure, where we visit Notre Dame, the Orsay, the Eiffel Tower, and much much more!
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