Paris: Day One

After the airport fiasco (see previous post) and a pretty good flight, we arrived at Beauvais airport about 1 hour north of Paris. We flew with RyanAir (a really cheap airline that goes all over Europe) so they provided a shuttle bus to a metro stop on the west side of Paris. We were dropped off at midnight and hadn't eaten since earlier in the afternoon so we walked about 1 km to find food, ate "dinner" and then caught a Taxi to our hotel (south of where we were dropped off), arriving at about 1 am. And at this point, I was very glad we'd left HD at home - can you imagine? Anyway, the hotel room was really small with a really small bed, but since we weren't planning on spending much time there we weren't too concerned. Needless to say, we crashed.

On the shuttle bus heading out of Beauvais. (Not sure what's up with the blue chin...weird.)

Tuesday morning we woke up ready to take on the city. We took a metro from our stop to the Eiffel Tower. We wanted to walk around there a bit and maybe grab some breakfast. Seeing the ET for the first time (as an adult) as we walked around the corner of the buildings was amazing...it was a "reflect moment" as my little brother calls it. Just kind of awe-inspiring. I would have a few more of these moments before leaving. We walked up the Parc du Champs-de-Mars taking pictures along the way and enjoying the beautiful weather.




Our plan was to come back later that evening so we could go to the top at sunset, so we headed in search of breakfast. Of course, by this time, it was nearly 11 am, so instead we took the Metro to Champs-Elysees to see what that was all about. And we loved it! It really is a lot like 5th Avenue in New York - only much bigger. We just window shopped - of course, the place is the second most expensive street in the world. Matt enjoyed the tech and car stores - yes, car stores right on the street - and I enjoyed the clothing stores and Sephora! We stopped for lunch at a little restaurant that I would recommend to anyone heading to Paris (Mom and Dad) - the name is Pomme du Pain. It's a little sandwich and pastry store. They serve sandwiches on yummy baguettes and really yummy pastries. (In fact, we liked it so much that we went back the next day for lunch.)

Pain au chocolat - yum!

At the end of Champs-Elysee is the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc itself is impressive and rather massive, but I was even more impressed by the traffic going around the Arc. So glad I never have to drive in that - I was nervous just watching people drive. But Matt and I had a good time taking pictures (silly ones) in front of the Arc. Our feet were a little sore, so it gave us a chance to relax. We went under the street to stand underneath the Arc before headed back down Champs-Elysee. More window shopping for the next hour or so.
When we finished with CE, it was about 3:30 so we had an hour or so to kill before we wanted to head back to the Eiffel Tower for sunset. So, we took the Metro to Concorde and sat by the pond in the Jardin des Tuileries. They have green medal chairs all over the place, so people were just sitting there chatting, reading, eating, etc. Matt and I both took a brief nap - it was the perfect temperature with the sun shining on our face. Of course I took some more pictures and then we headed on the RER to the ET.

Okay, about the metro...it really is convenient, although not exactly user friendly. Matt and I both felt that other metros (namely Rome and DC) were a little bit easier to get around. Having said that, though, I really would recommend the metro to get around Paris. If you can figure it out, it's the best way to get from sight to sight. And it's fairly cheap. A day pass was 5.60 Euro. Matt and I both bought a day pass, knowing we would use it well. However, after our first trip, Matt's card stopped working. Somehow it must have gotten demagnitized. It was really frustrating for both of us because at every stop, instead of just going straight through, we'd have to go to information, try to explain the problem, ask for a new card (which no one would do) and then they would make it so we could get through - but only at that station.

By the time we got to the RER station and it didn't work, Matt was fed up. He actually kicked the bar that let's people through. NOTE: I think that is the first time I've seen Matt that upset or frustrated...but it was HILARIOUS! You should have seen the looks on people's faces after he kicked the thing. Classic! If only I'd had my camera out for that. But it went on like that for the rest of the evening. At the station for our very last trip, the women at information FINALLY gave Matt a new card...didn't do a lot of good, but at least we got our point across!

Okay, now for the rest of the story. We got in line to buy tickets for the top of the Eiffel Tower. We were told it could take up to 40 minutes just to get tickets, but it actually went much faster. We did have to wait once we were inside to get the "lift" to the second and first floor, and then another wait to take the lift to the top, but with two adults, it's not so bad. Again, although I love my child and she has been an angel, I was glad that she wasn't with us...it would have been tough. Anyway, when we got to the second floor we took a few pictures before getting in line for the top. After a brief ride up, we were there ready with our camera. Unfortunately, the clouds had started to roll in so the view wasn't as clear as we'd hoped, but we still got some beautiful pictures. After the initial pictures, we sat down and waited for the sunset so we could get some nighttime pictures. Paris really is an impressive city from that view - absolutely gorgeous. We picked out all the spots we'd been to or hoped to go to and just tried to take it all in. It's almost overwhelming. After an hour or so at the top, we headed back down and then walked to the Palais de Chaillot for some more pictures.

2nd story

From the top!
Paris at night...unbelievable!

Another interjection: The "salesmen" between the ET and the PC are crazy! They were all up in our faces trying to get us to buy something. Seriously, we were stopped or approached by no less than 15 men, all trying to sell the same thing. I considered buying a little (about 5 inches tall) Eiffel Tower that lights up for HD, until I found out the price - 10 Euro (about 15 dollars)! Ya, that wasn't happening. But these guys were relentless. We almost had to be rude to get them out of our faces. Yikes. Okay, on with the story.

One of the reasons we wanted to take pictures on Palais de Chaillot is because my brother (on his mission in Paris) took a picture there and sent it home (you can see it on our homepage). We LOVED the picture and wanted to recreate it for ourselves. Unfortunately, we got there a little late, so the pictures aren't in the same light, but they still turned out well.

By this time it was about 8 pm and we were famished. We decided to take the metro out to Republique for dinner at a Brazilian restaurant, but when we arrived the restaurant wasn't quite what we expected. Luckily we found a little Italian restaurant (Pizza Pino) where we ordered pizza from the cutest waiter ever - seriously, he was so cute and so friendly. He is originally from southern Italy and I think enjoys talking to all his Italian customers.

We finished dinner around 9:30 so we took the metro back to our hotel - and boy were we tired! We were both limping a little bit on our sore feet and probably looked pretty scary. As soon as we got back to the hotel, we crashed.

(I'm still working on part two and you know I have more pictures, so watch for the album on the sidebar, however, I'm done for tonight...)