Joie de Vivre

Bonjour!! We just spent a few days in Paris, and it was absolutely fantastic. I loved it so much! The city is amazing… just everything you’d expect it to be (if you've never been). The history, culture, language, fashion, art, wine, food, architecture.... everything is just world class. There was so much to see, I feel like we hardly fit anything in in the few short days we were there!

I am obsessed with the food, especially the cheese, bread, desserts, pastries, chocolate… I guess pretty much everything. I’m surprised Terry and Jen didn’t have to wheel me home. The language barrier was pretty difficult to deal with, but we tried to be as polite as possible with our broken French and (mostly) everyone was nice (and hand gestures helped).

Unfortunately traveling in January does come with its drawbacks, like crappy weather. It wasn’t as bad as some of our other trips though. But you’ll see in the pictures that the conditions weren’t great for taking photos. Even though it was pretty cold, we ate outside for every meal because almost every bistro or restaurant has outside tables surrounded by heaters - which made for great people-watching.

The hotel we stayed in was tiny, and our room was especially small. It would’ve been no big deal, except one of the staff members really hated us for no reason. We got some good laughs out of it though, and he helped give us the true French experience. Here’s Terry holding our skeleton key, which we thought was hysterical – the keychain weighed about 3 pounds.


Anyways, we arrived in Paris on Friday evening, and here is the view of the Eiffel Tower basically from where our hotel was (actually, I took about 500 pictures, most of which were of or from the Eiffel Tower). Not a great picture, but I like the lights!


Later that night we went out to a scrumptious dinner and walked around to see some sights, like the amazing Arc de Triomphe...

And have an after dinner drink along the....

The pictures of the actual street are blurry, but it's really gorgeous and elegant, especially at night. And huge! The next day we were up early to sightsee, and we started at the Notre-Dame cathedral (which was so big Terry got lost).

It was absolutely gorgeous, inside and out. Here is of Joan of Arc...

And, here on the outside, this little guy is the hunchback of Notre-Dame!! (according to Jen's high school French teacher anyways). Unconfirmed, yes, but I choose to believe it.

Here's Jen in the pretty garden behind Notre-Dame.

After a yummy lunch (more bread and cheese and coffee, of course)... we headed over to Les Invalides.

The Hotel National des Invalides was commissioned by Louis XIV as a home for wounded soldiers. The building is just majestic, and contains several war museums and churches, and still has the hospital for wounded soldiers.

Terry and Jen pose with Napoleon looking down on them...

And here is where he is buried. Napoleon's red tomb is housed in an open circular crypt, underneath a gold dome. It was pretty creepy.

Inside the crypt is Napoloeon II, looking at is his father for all eternity.

On Saturday night we went out to a very fancy French dinner at a restaurant recommended by one of Terry's co-workers. I completely forgot to take pictures there, I was too busy gorging on the amazing meal. There was a cat there though. Another cat city! Yikes. Anyways, on Sunday, Terry and I split from Jen and went to see Le Louvre. Jen had already been several times, having studied in France while we were at BC. I can't remember what this monument is, but it's across from the Louvre and I like it.

Below is the inverted part of IM Pei's infamous glass pyramid, featured prominently in The Da Vinci Code....

For those who've never been to the Louvre, it's absolutely enormous; they say it would take 9 months just to glance at every work of art there. Terry and I were there for hours and hours, but we did manage to see the most famous works, like Mona Lisa. I thought she was absolutely mesmerizing, but Terry pretty much thought she was overrated. You should've seen the crowd just in her room though! And she had several personal guards.

I wish I could've taken a picture of her, but I did manage to snap some other pricessless works of art at the Louvre. Here is the (enormous) and stunning Winged Victory of Samothrace...



and the Venus de Milo.

Here I am petting a random dog...

And after a few hours of statues and paintings and such, we found ourselves inside Napoleon III's personal quarters.

Jen met us outside the Louvre, several hours and coffees later. We were completely exhausted from all the walking!

But in the afternoon, we manage to keep going and headed over to Montmarte - a tourist trap for sure, but my favorite part of Paris (of the places we saw anyways). Montmarte overlooks Paris, and is a village that was taken over by bohemian artists and writers in the 19th century. The basilica of Sacre-Coeur stands atop Montemarte.

There are a ridiculous amount of steps to get to the top, but the view over Paris from the terrace in front of the building is breathtaking!

The place du Terte (a tiny, cafe-bordered square) is filled with artists and their easels, all of whom try to sketch you or sell you their work. It was bustling, despite the cold weather.



Here are Jen and I, still in Montmarte, in front of the most famous cabaret of all - the Moulin-Rouge. Later that night we sort of bistro/bar hopped for dinner and drinks, and I was incredibly exhausted by the end of the night after such a long day.

And finally, on our last day, the Eiffel Tower! It's incredibly touristy, but you really can't go to Paris without a visit.

There are three levels, and you have to take a series of lifts to get to the top. Unless you (are crazy and) walk up the whole thing.

Here are some foggy views from the top...

And, finally, we had a little photoshoot as we walked to have our final Parsian meal before catching the train back to London.