We went to Paris last weekend. We left Thursday night - getting to our hotel a little after midnight - and came home Monday night, getting home about 12:30am. Our feet and legs are so tired from walking, I think it's going to take a few days to recover! But we had a blast! We LOVED Paris! Just in case anyone is wondering, we DID fly the dreaded Ryan Air. I think flying Ryan Air is kind of like labor pains. You absolutely hate it while you're doing it, but then when it's all over you sort of forget how bad it was - until you have to do it again. While we were standing in line waiting to check in my husband asked me if I would fly Ryan Air again. I told him, "Now is not the time to ask me, wait until we get home - then ask." Each time this question is asked of me I think, "Never again." Then the next time comes and we do it again because, darn it, their prices are so much lower than everyone elses, you think "Well, surely these low fares over-rule any discomfort." Maybe I can do it just one more time to go to London. Oh, and Batman was on our flight. He had a black jacket with his "Batman" logo on the back (yellow and black) and a BRIGHT yellow scarf around his neck. :0) I think he was trying to tell us something with his "scarf statement".
There is a section of Paris known as the "American" section, called "Rue Cler". We didn't stay exactly in this area, but we were only a block or two away from there. We stayed about 2 or 3 blocks from the Eiffel Tower in Hotel de la Bourdonnais. This was a quaint old hotel that has been remodeled. I kept telling my husband that we needed to get a picture of the spiral staircase but we never did. This hotel only had twin beds or double beds (no queen or king-size beds - over here in Europe you'd say "king" or "super-king" - there is no "queen"). Since we are used to sleeping in a king-size bed (super-king) we opted for the twin beds pushed together. I called them the "Twinkie Beds" because first, they were 2 twin beds side-by-side (like Twinkies), but the main reason was because it felt like you were trying to sleep on top of a Twinkie. They were nice soft beds (I hate the concrete-hard beds most hotels have), but it almost felt like there was a hump in the middle of the bed. I was trying to explain this to my husband and he said that must be what they meant by saying there was "no side support on these beds". They weren't bad, just took a little getting used to.
Out hotel room had French provincial style furniture and 2 windows with "french doors". Even the shower had french doors which was not a good thing, because then it leaked water onto the floor. :0+ The hotel offered a breakfast every morning - eggs, bacon, toast, cereal, crossants, a raisin type roll and another flaky roll with bits of chocolate in it, as well as yogurt, cheeses, fruit, juices, etc. Their breakfast was quite expensive - 15 euro apiece! We ate there the first morning. The next day we bought milk, juice, bananas and donuts and took to our room. We put the juice, milk and some water and cokes outside on our patio to keep them cold during the night. :0)
The first day, we went straight to the Eiffel Tower. All we had to do was walk up the street our hotel was on (about 1/4 of a block) then over about a block to the Champs de Mars (say "shawn du mar") which is the park behind the Eiffel Tower. I can't tell you how excited I was to walk through that park seeing the Eiffel Tower in front of me! I was very surprised to find armed military guards with machine guns patroling the Eiffel Tower. There were about 5 or 6 of them. This was in addition to the regular Paris police officers on bicycles riding through the park. Later it dawned on me that the armed guards were there because of terrorists. I know it was thought that famous landmarks could be attacked by terrorists after 9/11. Since we had slept in a little because of our late arrival, it was about 10:30am when we got there. There was already tons of people there, but I didn't think we had to wait in line really that long. We bought tickets to the second level and took the elevator up. It is like a tram and holds lots of people. It goes kind of side-ways and up. It is a double-decker tram and lets people off on 2 different levels at once. You have to pay to get into the Eiffel Tower. I think it was 11 Euro apiece for us to go to the 2nd level. If you want to go to the very top, you have to pay 18 euro more at the second level to go on up to the top. We opted not to go up there, since the 2nd level was high enough. It is an incredible view, as you will see from these pictures. You can see most of Paris.
They had gift shops on all the levels, and down on the ground there were lots and lots of guys selling every size of Eiffel tower you could want. There was also Cleopatra and King Kong there. :0) These people dress up and come and stand and I guess you can take your picture with them if you give them money. Cleopatra was not Cleopatra in her customary dress. She was more like Cleopatra in a sarcophogus. She was wrapped in a gold lame type fabric. My husband said (because it was so cold) that he hoped for her sake that her gold lame was made out of space-blanket fabric. Also under the Tower there are concesssion stands where you can buy lots of stuff to eat, but the best is the crepes they make right there. You ask for a crepe with sugar, or a crepe with Nutella. If you don't know what Nutella is, it's like chocolate in a peanut butter type jar. You spread it on like peanut butter. In fact, your grocery store might sell it right next to the peanut butter.
After we looked around on the second level, we walked down the stairs to the first level. We ate lunch there and had literally the best hot chocolate I have ever had. It had a big swirl of real whipped cream on the top. Even though we got hot chocolate a few more times in Paris, that was the best! After we ate lunch at a little sandwich shop there, we saw a bigger restaurant as we were leaving.
One thing I kept thinking at every tourist stop we went to in Paris was, "If this is how many tourists they have now - in this freezing cold weather - I can't even imagine what summertime is like!" I think the Eiffel Tower was my very favorite thing to see while we were in Paris!
In the pictures below, you'll see a glass monument with pilars. It's the Monument to Peace and has "peace" written in 32 languages - one language on each pillar. You can go in there and record your own personal message of peace. Also, just know that in the Champs du Mars since it is winter there is no grass, no flowers, and the fountains are turned off. The faraway shots are from the 1st and 2nd levels of the Eiffel Tower. In one of the pictures of the city, look for the building with the gold dome roof. That is Napoleon's Tomb. Also notice the "vendor" selling his ring of Eiffel Towers - there were many of these guys, all selling the same thing. The river you see is the Seine. Sorry these pictures aren't in better order. Just when I figure out how to do Bloggers pictures, they go and change it. :0+
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