Day 4
We left London and took the night bus to Paris. Little did I realize that driving in the city would almost make me hurl, but the bus ride was a million times better than the flight we slept like babies. From my research I did ahead of time on how the bus would cross the English Channel, it was either going to go on a ferry or underground, but everything was pointing towards underground, which would have been wonderful as we would not need to get off the bus, this however was not the case. We took a HUGE ferry across, where we found a spot and slept. This was also Brent's first time with half a sleeping pill, it hit him hard.
Day 5
We arrived in Paris an hour ahead of schedule, then there was a time change so we got there bright an early at about 6am. We slept wonderfully and therefore we figured why not walk the short 4.5km from the bus stop to the hotel. It was long, but I was so glad we did it. There was no one anywhere. We walked Champs-Elysees seeing wonderful sites such as the Arc du Triumph and Tuileries Gardens. Once we arrived at our beautiful hotel we picked up our museum passes around the corner and set out for our day. From there we cross the Alexander Bridge to the Eiffel Tower. We then strolled through the Champ de Mars and then to the Rodin Museum. With knowing nothing about Rodin prior, I actually loved it. It was an old hotel that he wanted converted to show his statues both inside and around the grounds. Here we had a wonderful sandwich for lunch and then made our way to the Orsay Museum. At this point the fatigue was hitting us and we were reaching a museum max. We walked through most of it, picking out the famous works we wanted to see and then walked back to the hotel. Here we showered and had a power nap, we felt guilty because we were in this beautiful wonderful city, but the late nights in London were starting to catch up to us. After we went for a walk and found the royal palace and then hit up a grocery store around the corner from the hotel for dinner. We were shocked and pleased by the cheap price of bread, cheese and wine.
DAY 6
DAY 7
We left London and took the night bus to Paris. Little did I realize that driving in the city would almost make me hurl, but the bus ride was a million times better than the flight we slept like babies. From my research I did ahead of time on how the bus would cross the English Channel, it was either going to go on a ferry or underground, but everything was pointing towards underground, which would have been wonderful as we would not need to get off the bus, this however was not the case. We took a HUGE ferry across, where we found a spot and slept. This was also Brent's first time with half a sleeping pill, it hit him hard.
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| On the boat from London to Paris. |
Day 5
We arrived in Paris an hour ahead of schedule, then there was a time change so we got there bright an early at about 6am. We slept wonderfully and therefore we figured why not walk the short 4.5km from the bus stop to the hotel. It was long, but I was so glad we did it. There was no one anywhere. We walked Champs-Elysees seeing wonderful sites such as the Arc du Triumph and Tuileries Gardens. Once we arrived at our beautiful hotel we picked up our museum passes around the corner and set out for our day. From there we cross the Alexander Bridge to the Eiffel Tower. We then strolled through the Champ de Mars and then to the Rodin Museum. With knowing nothing about Rodin prior, I actually loved it. It was an old hotel that he wanted converted to show his statues both inside and around the grounds. Here we had a wonderful sandwich for lunch and then made our way to the Orsay Museum. At this point the fatigue was hitting us and we were reaching a museum max. We walked through most of it, picking out the famous works we wanted to see and then walked back to the hotel. Here we showered and had a power nap, we felt guilty because we were in this beautiful wonderful city, but the late nights in London were starting to catch up to us. After we went for a walk and found the royal palace and then hit up a grocery store around the corner from the hotel for dinner. We were shocked and pleased by the cheap price of bread, cheese and wine.
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| Notre Dame. |
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| At the Tuileries Garden. |
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| First sight of the Eiffel Tower! |
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| Up close and personal. |
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| Loving sandwiches at the Roden Museum. |
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| Gates of Hell. |
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| Thinker. |
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| Night walk findings. |
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| Dinner from the supermarket. |
(Please note this is the first and last day after my straightener died that I tried to do my hair. I brought zero product for natural hair and I by no means have hair that can just do its own thing. That is my rant, it still makes me mad.) So we started at the Louvre arriving just before it opened and following the crowds to take a look at MonaLisa. The Louvre was huge and confusing and kind of frustrating, but also magical. We went from there to the Pompidou Centre (modern art) picking up some french pain au chocolate along the way. We then hoped on the subway to head up the Arc de Triomphe. We got in line while still somewhat underground not realizing that the second you get outside you are like ten people away from being inside the Arc, and the second you go in the Arc you are continuously climbing a spiral staircase. We called this stair day, but we had no idea what the evening had in store. The view from the top was wonderful, seeing all of Paris laid out. From there we went to Sacre Coeur Basilica, hitting up the little shops leading up to the church. This allowed us to stumble upon a fantastic chocolate shop where we bought macaroons and the best melted chocolate and Chantilly cream EVER. If I could only eat one thing the rest of my life I would eat that. We then walked around the Montmartre District and found a cute little restaurant that opened to the patio to sit and watch the world pass by and eat some fantastic French food.
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| Selfie with Mona. |
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| And again with Venus de Milo. |
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| Pushed out of the way by tourist groups. |
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| First Pain de Chocolate. |
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| Top of the Arc de Triomphe. |
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| BEST THING EVER! |
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| Sacre Coeur Basilica and macaroons. |
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| Falling in love with French food. |
The weather had been warm leading up to this day. We decided to dress a little lighter and not be stuck carrying our coats all day, this also turned out to be the coldest day ever. We went to the Palace of Versailles where it apparently is about 10 degrees colder and and mainly outside. It was fantastic. Granted, it would have been even better if we dressed appropriately, but we made the best of it. We pushed our way through the crowds for the main rooms, but the rest was even more impressive if you ask me and even better because at times there were almost no people anywhere at times. We spent the day strolling around the grounds, going from room to room and building to building taking our time. We played in the gardens, we discovered new areas on the map and we got lost a number of times. After walking further than we had any day yet, we then decided on the way back to the hotel to get off the subway a stop early to see the Eiffel Tower lit up. I heard that it sparkled, but without proper research I did not realize that it did so for only five minutes every hour on the hour. So we missed it sparkling, but it was still beautiful. We then proceeded to walk back to the hotel instead of getting on the subway again. By the end of the day I was pretty much crying from walking so much and being so tired, but it was so worth it. Such a wonderful day exploring.
DAY 8
This day actually ended up being one of my favourite in Paris. It was somewhat unplanned as we had rearranged our schedule earlier in the week to ensure we made it to the train station on time and we therefore had extra time and stumbled across our favourite museum on the entire trip as a result. We started the day with a walk along the river to Notre Dame. We took the traditional pictures outside of the Louvre which we did not have time to take any other day when we walked past it multiple times. Did I mention how wonderful our hotel was? It was only about a two minute walk away from the Louvre, perfect location. So we walked past the Louvre again, crossed at the lock bridge, which had just started to fall in a few weeks prior, they actually had boards on parts to try and discourage people from adding their locks and then we went to Notre Dame. From there we toured the Crypts underneath, which they found when renovating that there were old city walls under ground. And then we had Mexican! It was wonderful Mexican, like the best I have ever had Mexican, like I dont like guacamole and I loved the guacamole that we had there. We went there on recommendation of my sister in laws friend who lived there for a few months and it really did deliver. We then toured the Pantheon which was underwhelming because we had it confused with the other pantheon which we would later see in Rome, but at the time we were very confused, also the dome was under construction so that was an entire section we did not get to see. From there we wondered towards the Luxembourg Gardens where we sat and watched kids play with sail boats in the pond. We then watched some old men lawn bowl as we debated what to do next as we still had a few hours before we needed to head back to the hotel to get our bags and get to the train station. While wondering the gardens we saw a poster for a piece of art on display at a museum, I recognized the art as a piece from Gilmore Girls when they do the living art episode and Lorelai flinches. We sadly realized that it was not included in our museum pass, but that made us think of the museum we saw a line for the first day, l'Orangerie. It was right by the subway and close to our hotel, so we figured we would give it a try. It was incredible. The museum was remade to have two large rooms that were natural light and circular. Each room contained four of Monet's Water Lilies, and they were breathtaking. The museum was small but fantastic, it was easily laid out (bad layouts were one of my biggest frustrations especially when exhausted and not wanting to waste my walking) and had so many great pieces of art. From the museum we picked up our bags at the hotel and made our way to the train station for our night train to Venice. We got the train station early, only to be evacuated after settling in due to left baggage. After a little unnecessary worrying about catching our train, we settled in for a drug induced sleep.
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| Freezing at Versaille. |
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| BA at Versaille. |
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| Hall of Mirrors. |
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| Grand Trainon Gardens. |
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| Wonderful fountains. |
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| Versaille. |
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| Eiffel tower at night. |
This day actually ended up being one of my favourite in Paris. It was somewhat unplanned as we had rearranged our schedule earlier in the week to ensure we made it to the train station on time and we therefore had extra time and stumbled across our favourite museum on the entire trip as a result. We started the day with a walk along the river to Notre Dame. We took the traditional pictures outside of the Louvre which we did not have time to take any other day when we walked past it multiple times. Did I mention how wonderful our hotel was? It was only about a two minute walk away from the Louvre, perfect location. So we walked past the Louvre again, crossed at the lock bridge, which had just started to fall in a few weeks prior, they actually had boards on parts to try and discourage people from adding their locks and then we went to Notre Dame. From there we toured the Crypts underneath, which they found when renovating that there were old city walls under ground. And then we had Mexican! It was wonderful Mexican, like the best I have ever had Mexican, like I dont like guacamole and I loved the guacamole that we had there. We went there on recommendation of my sister in laws friend who lived there for a few months and it really did deliver. We then toured the Pantheon which was underwhelming because we had it confused with the other pantheon which we would later see in Rome, but at the time we were very confused, also the dome was under construction so that was an entire section we did not get to see. From there we wondered towards the Luxembourg Gardens where we sat and watched kids play with sail boats in the pond. We then watched some old men lawn bowl as we debated what to do next as we still had a few hours before we needed to head back to the hotel to get our bags and get to the train station. While wondering the gardens we saw a poster for a piece of art on display at a museum, I recognized the art as a piece from Gilmore Girls when they do the living art episode and Lorelai flinches. We sadly realized that it was not included in our museum pass, but that made us think of the museum we saw a line for the first day, l'Orangerie. It was right by the subway and close to our hotel, so we figured we would give it a try. It was incredible. The museum was remade to have two large rooms that were natural light and circular. Each room contained four of Monet's Water Lilies, and they were breathtaking. The museum was small but fantastic, it was easily laid out (bad layouts were one of my biggest frustrations especially when exhausted and not wanting to waste my walking) and had so many great pieces of art. From the museum we picked up our bags at the hotel and made our way to the train station for our night train to Venice. We got the train station early, only to be evacuated after settling in due to left baggage. After a little unnecessary worrying about catching our train, we settled in for a drug induced sleep.
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| Walking by the Louvre. |
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| Paris Love Lock Bridge. |
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| Notre Dame. |
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| Notre Dame. |
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| El Sol y La Luna. Best Mexican EVER! |
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| Pantheon. |
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