A Weekend in the City of Love

As some of you may know, last weekend Stef and I traveled to Paris. And to put your immediate questions at ease, there was no rioting going on and it wasn't scary at all. We even bought tickets and braved the Metro system - which is pretty easy to figure out once you pass the obstacle of buying the ticket. If you are 26 or under you can get a discounted ticket for the weekend, and you can also get into the Louvre for free on Friday nights! Which is exactly what we did when we arrived on Friday night, after a little drama of figuring out where we were going to stay.

We had originally planned on staying in a hostel, but of course their online booking didn't work and they didn't take reservations over the phone. So they said to just come there when we arrived, which we did - and of course there were no beds available. So we took our little suitcases and walked the streets of Paris looking for a hotel with an open room for 2 nights. We struck out at the first one, and the second one .. then we finally experienced the true meaning of "Third Time's the Charm". We got a room on the top floor with a mini balcony with a view of the top of the Eiffel Tower, shown here at night...

After our visit to the Louvre we found a cute little cafe and had some very yummy food. We shared a cheese plate, each got a glass of wine, and I got a french baguette with french ham and Stef got an omelet with cheese, ham, and potatoes. After we were full we took the Metro back to the hotel and witnessed a couple kissing to the sound of jazz echoing in the tunnels. A cute reminder we were in the City of Love.

We woke up on Saturday morning to a surprise - SNOW!! It was snowing in Paris! Here is the view from our hotel window...

We decided that for our first stop (after a lovely lunch of yet another cheese plate and glass of wine) we would go to the Eiffel Tower. I still could not get enough of the snow, being as this was the first real time I had been in the snow. Just look at it!

The Eiffel Tower looked awesome with a light layer of snow upon it.


The snow did however cause the lifts to freeze, so the tower was closed. There were also a lot of guards with guns standing around, and these middle eastern girls would walk around and pick out people who looked American (by the huge cameras around their necks or by their faces glued to huge fold-out maps) and ask them if they spoke English. Of course your first natural response is to say "yes", at which point they hold up a card they had written in English claiming that their brother or son was back home with leukemia and they needed your money to save him. The weird thing is that they held up a card with this on it. When they spoke perfect English to start with. We quickly became aware of their schemes and the next time we were asked if we spoke English Stef quickly replied "no", and they left us alone.

We next went to various other Paris sights. The Arc de Triomphe and The Champs Elysees
Notre Dame

Then we decided to make our way back to the Eiffel Tower in hopes that it had thawed out (since it had stopped snowing) and we would be able to ride to the top. When we got off the Metro we were struck with how beautiful the lights were on the Eiffel Tower at night.

We finally made it to the summit (and almost froze to death). These are an attempt to capture the view of Paris in the nighttime. It was eerily quiet in the city, maybe due to the recent violence that had occurred just weeks before.



After we conquered the sights of Paris we were famished - so we found a nice cafe near the Eiffel Tower to enjoy a dinner at. This time we got a bottle of wine. We sat there for 2 and a half hours just eating and drinking. It was great. And of course we got our new favorite cheese, Cantal, to enjoy at the end. After this it was off to our last night in our room, as modeled here by Miss. Stefenie:

We had planned to make Sunday our day of shopping, but were unaware that literally EVERYTHING is closed on Sunday in Paris. We were lucky to find a cafe that was open! We had a glass of wine and our last meal in Paris. We then decided to just head to the train station to wait for our EuroStar. During our wait we got to see a real-life documentary of Paris bums in the train station. It involved gift giving of some early 90's Nike shoes (sans laces), and the potential bribing of a young child with a piece of stolen candy. I was able to buy some cantal cheese from the station before we left, my last memory of good ole Paris.