Paris. As in, France.
I had stored my second large suitcase with the receptionist the night before since I'd be coming back to the Euro Hotel on Monday. That left only one suitcase to wrangle for the weekend. After dressing quickly, I opened the door of my basement room to find Amanda had come to see if she could help me. Together we klunked my bag up the stairs, met up with Judith, and at 5:20 a.m., the three of us walked the several blocks in the dark to St. Pancras train station. I couldn't believe how busy it was! Taking the 6:15 a.m. Eurostar to Paris on a Saturday was obviously very popular. It didn't seem to take long before we passed through security and were able to board the train.
The entire ride London to Paris? Only a few minutes over two hours. Judith let me know when we entered the Chunnel. I was surprised that portion of the trip lasted a mere 15-20 minutes. Don't know what I had been expecting. When we emerged, the French countryside didn't look much different than the English countryside we had just left behind, but knowing that I was in France for the first time in my life . . . priceless. We arrived at Nord station in Paris and followed the crowd inside the main station. Of course I had to take a pic of the train responsible for my journey.
And while I was snapping away, my two friends were sizing up the situation and deciding the best direction to leave the station and grab a taxi to our hotel. They're the ones in deep thought in the middle of the photo. You quickly learn that "Sortie" (on the sign in the upper right) means "exit" in French, and the Metro is the equivalent of London's tube.
A quick less-than-10-minute taxi ride brought us to our hotel, the Concorde Opera Paris.
We didn't trust just anybody on the street to take one of our cameras to get a photo of the three of us, so this is the photo I took of my two traveling buddies. Judith (on the left) and Amanda, just outside our hotel. They both look so Parisian stylish, don't they?
And here's the lobby when we stepped inside. Yes, we all stood there gaping while gawking and simultaneously making our way over to the check-in desk. Wouldn't you?
Amanda's room was ready, but Judith's and mine weren't, so we stowed our bags in Amanda's room and headed directly out onto the Parisian streets. First destination: the Sacre Coeur. For those of you who aren't familiar with this Paris landmark, let me clue you in if you ever visit and want to climb--yes, C L I M B--to the Sacre Coeur. It is a climb. Here's a typical city street as we made our way up. There are so many scooters/small motorcycles in Paris.
When Judith and Amanda informed me that we would have to climb these stairs at the end of the street, I asked them if a taxi could take us up. Or was there an alternate, less steep way? That's when Judith told me about the funiculaire. It's kind of like a tram on rails for going up. I only wish I had taken a photo of it. As we stood here, though, I told the two of them I thought I could make this climb, but I'd need to stop and rest quite a bit. They both said, no, we're going to find the funiculaire. And we did.
After arriving at the top, there were a few stairs left to climb, but they were a piece of cake. This is what awaited us after all our efforts.
We went inside but according to signs posted everywhere, they don't allow picture taking. That didn't stop some people from blatantly disregarding the signs. I didn't want to be disrespectful, though, so this is the only view you'll get. Unless you go there yourself.
This "statue" is actually alive. He was so cool!
When you turn around from gazing up at the Sacre Coeur and look at the view over the rooftops of Paris . . . wow. Just wow.
And this, my dear friends, was my very first sighting of the Eiffel Tower. There were no words.
We hung around for awhile, until our stomachs started demanding that they be fed. The walk to our café was scenic, through art stalls. Pfffft. Most of it was way too touristy and commercial/cheap looking. This photo was taken from inside our café looking out--kicked myself later for not taking one of the café itself as it was very charming. Le Consulat.
We walked through Montmartre, which was a much easier walk as it was all downhill. Again, I could kick myself for not getting any photos of the cemetery--the bridge we crossed went right over it. The place was huge!! These are some pretty cool places we saw on our walk, though. How do you like that car driving right up on the sidewalk?
So glad that Judith was in the know about this, as we came upon the street where Vincent Van Gogh and his brother Theo lived at one time. And we even managed to find the apartment building.
After that, it was on to the Moulin Rouge. Both Judith and Amanda said it was much more impressive at night with all the lights on. I'll take their word for it.
We finally made our way to Concorde Place (a very important part of French Revolution history), which was the beginning of the Tuilleries, an extremely large park with avenue-wide sidewalks and two outdoor cafes. This is the monument commemorating Concorde Place.
Then either Judith or Amanda pointed out the Arc d'Triomphe, so I had to zoom in on that!
As we walked through the Tuilleries, I guess I was too busy gawking and enjoying myself to take photos of any of it. We did stop at one of the outdoor cafes and ate crepes. Mine was laced with dark chocolate sauce and fresh sliced banana over it. I could have eaten at least three more, it was that good. But we had more of the city to see.
The Tuilleries end at the Louvre Museum. I think most people don't realize how large the Louvre is. I certainly didn't. All of the building that you see in the photo below is the Louvre. And that's just a part of it.
The glass pyramid is the entrance to the Louvre. Once I realized how large the place was, and how little time we had in Paris, I made it a goal to get back to Paris in the future and devote no less than two full days just to the Louvre.
More of the Louvre.
It was then time to walk back to our hotel, or at least catch a metro train, so we strolled over to the Seine, which runs alongside a large part of the Louvre. The river was extremely high and fast flowing, so we opted not to go stroll alongside it but stayed streetside instead.
We ended up taking the metro back to our hotel, where we rested up (and updated Facebook and TwiMoms posts, of course!!) before deciding to head across the street from our hotel to dine at the Café Marco Polo for dinner.
We all then called it an early night. Tomorrow on the agenda: the Eiffel Tower and Musee D'Orsay.
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