After Husband and I ran the marathon, I was finally able to focus on my next big bucket list goal, traveling to Paris!! I had been dreaming of Paris since we made the airline and AirBNB reservations over the summer, but dreaming in blurry images. I saw myself in the cafes on my Pinterest “Paris” board and going up the Eiffel Tower and wandering around holding Husband’s hand. That was sort of the extent of my dreaming. As it got closer, people started asking some very good questions, like “what do you want to see?” Umm, the Eiffel Tower, some museums, and stuff. “Have you made any restaurant reservations?” Umm, no.

The time between the marathon and the Paris trip was only two weeks, so it seemed to pass very quickly. I reviewed some guide books I had bought earlier in the year, I made sure I had all of our travel details printed out for us and our close family members, and I crowdsourced what we should see and where we should eat on Facebook. I got tons of great advice from friends and friends of friends and quickly had a great list of things to see and places to eat.

We traveled to Paris on WOW! Airlines. No one I talked to had ever heard of this airline, as it just opened at a few airports in the U.S. earlier in 2015 – specifically, Boston, D.C., and Philly. But it wasn’t scary at all – just really cheap. We brought one carry on for a little extra money and one full size suitcase for more extra money, but it was still the cheapest option by far to get to Paris and a relatively good, but no frills, flight. But the coolest thing about it is that it is an Icelandic airlines, so we had a short layover in Iceland. I loved it! We arrived in Iceland at 4am their time and were completely goofy from our 5 hour flight and Husband and I had ONE goal – buy his grandma a magnet. We stopped at an ATM and got some Kronor. I still have no idea how much money I took out. I chose the middle of the three options which was like 40,000 Kronor. I assumed the options would be similar to those in the U.S. of $20, $40, and $60 or something. I think I may have actually taken out like $200 though. Whatever. We bought two magnets, some coffee and food and still had a bunch of Kronor leftover.

Then back on the plane to Paris! This flight actually had an in flight movie, which was an unexpected surprise. It was an Icelandic romantic comedy about a one night stand. Bonus. I napped off and on, so this comedy seemed even wackier to me. Chris told me they made it in the end, but apparently the woman was sent to jail for stealing money from a bank.

We made it to Charles de Gaulle airport, found our way to the RER train, bought some tickets and made our way, with a wrong turn or two to our stop, which was a short 5 minute walk to the apartment on Rue du Grenelle. However, the short 5 minute walk took a little longer than expected since we couldn’t find the right direction to walk – we came up from the metro to an intersection of like 6 streets. Which was is Avenue Bousqet? I mustered up the nerve to try to ask someone in French, but they didn’t know. Eventually we realized the street signs were on the buildings, not like at the corners in the U.S. Meanwhile, I am grinning from ear to ear – WE ARE IN PARIS! I looked back and realized that my husband was a portrait of misery. Yes, we were both rolling our suitcases, but he had the bigger one and the roads were cobblestones and we’d been awake all night for the most part and I realized that my enthusiasm for being in Paris was not shared at that particular moment. So I grinned silently, taking in all the buildings and signs! We finally made it to the apartment building, got in without a problem, and immediately collapsed on the bed and slept for 3 hours. We woke up a few hours later, about 5pm Paris time, and showered and changed and walked around the neighborhood. We got some dinner and spotted the Eiffel Tower and I was in heaven! I AM IN PARIS LOOKING AT THE EIFFEL TOWER!

 

 

Our game plan for our first full day in Paris was to walk around the left bank, specifically the St. Germain des Pres, the Latin Quarter, and le Jardin du Luxemborg. We got some crossaints from the boulangerie across the street and had our first introduction to Parisian coffee, which was expresso. No drip American coffee here. We ate our crossaints and sipped our expresso and I was in heaven.

Our first day’s adventure was basically us wandering around and getting lost and being on the lookout for certain touristy sites, but not caring too much about where we were going. We walked past one of the nearest tourist sites to our apartment, Les Invalides – a collection of 5 museums, including a golden domed building that housed Napoleon’s tomb. From there, we walked along the Seine to the Musee d’Orsay and took some photos of the bridges and found the Locks of Love. We went on the Ile de la Cite, which featured an amazing garden area that jutted out into the center of the Seine River. But the Ile de la Cite is of course much more famous for being the home to the Notre Dame church, which we happily stumbled upon. Wow. I’m not a big church person, but the architecture and sculptures were amazing. Plus, being a huge Scooby Doo fan, I was loving the gargoyles. (Sidenote: None of the gargoyles came alive).

I knew Shakespeare & Company was near Notre Dame, so we hunted for it for awhile and eventually gave up, started looking for Cafe Flore and eventually gave up, and had lunch. During lunch, I had wifi, so I found how to get to Shakespeare & Company and realized that if we had walked another few blocks, we would have made it to Cafe Flore. But getting lost in Paris is not a bad thing. We saw cool shops, came across other monuments and museums, and saw a dog wearing a small hat.

Finally, we made it to Shakespeare & Company, an English bookstore that was small and old and amazing. I loved it. I wanted to buy all the books and stay there for hours. But we didn’t. Instead we bought a few books and had them stamped with the store’s seal. I love bookstores. I think I have a secret desire to own a bookstore, which works with my husband’s secret desire to own a coffeeshop.

We continued our wandering, now towards the Luxemborg garden. The clouds broke for a bit and we enjoyed sitting in the park with the sun shining on us. We walked and had more coffee and walked more, arriving back at the apartment around 5pm, relaxing for a bit before going out to dinner nearby. In searching for restaurants in our area, we came across a blog, called the Hungry Traveler, and realized that one of his favorite streets in Paris with several great restaurants, Rue Cler, was around the corner from our apartment. We tended to end up at our apartment late afternoon, so eating dinner in our area was a common occurence. But that wasn’t a hardship with so many great restaurants around the corner!

After dinner, we wandered around a little more and then came back to the apartment to make a plan for the following day. Next up, the Eiffel Tower and the Catacombs!