Our first day in Paris was gorgeous. We were a little hurried because we wanted to get back to the hotel in time to get ready for the Willy concert tonight. We are still unsure of how that will work (slight problem with our lack of French speaking ability) and our hotel lady has been so nice to try to call twice for us but says it is only a maze of options. We are going to try to head there early and hope for the best!
This morning we enjoyed breakfast at a casual 9 a.m. in the hotel, it was coffee (with warm milk, which was so nice), fresh juice, chocolate croissants, toasted breads, an assortment of cereals, fresh fruits and baguettes with nutella or jam. The jam I had was cherry and it was a delight, but there was also orange and they came in the cutest little individual size jam jars – so French chic! I grabbed the one I didn’t use, the orange, and brought it back to our hotel room – if I don’t eat it first I’ll bring it home with me.
We got lucky because apparently another couple who just checked out today bought a two day pass on the hop on/hop off boat tour. It cruises the scenic Seine and lets you off or picks you up at 8 different popular spots: the Hotel D’Ville, the Louvre, the Champs Elysses, the Eiffel Tower and several others. The lady at the hotel desk gave it to us to use today so we spend the day doing that.
We walked down to the Seine where we hopped on the boat and then hopped off at the Champs Elysses. From there we mostly wandered around in amazement at all the amazing architecture that is centuries old. We walked down to the Arc d’ Triumph and saw all of the couture shops there, including the flagship Louis Vuitton. They even let us in – of course we only browsed and quickly left.
From their we walked to the Eiffel Tower. We didn’t go up, we plan to do that tomorrow night so we can see it and the city all lit up. We did walk around it a bunch though before heading to the boat pick up next to it on the Seine. The Eiffel Tower is massive and surprisingly pretty up close. I expected it to be more like the Golden Gate pretty – nice on a post card but anticlimactic in person. To the contrary, it is beautiful and awe inspiring and it took us both several moments to take in the reality that we were actually there. I honestly never thought I’d get to be there.
The boat ride was pretty hot and we may have even gotten a little of a tan from it. We took it all the way back down the Seine to our original hop on point and walked as quickly as we could to get back to the hotel and get ready for Willie. We stopped in at a little grocery market and picked up a bottle of wine and beer and water, a baguette, a sandwich for Caleb and some cold chicken pasta salad for me. It was yummy and quickly devoured.
Off to Willie, will write more soon!
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- Just a small street, hardly any traffic – yea right!
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- The original Louis Vuitton.
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- Some radio tower we thought was cool looking – hee, hee
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- Hard to believe we were actually standing there!
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- Typical Parisian Scene, Part Deux
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- Typical Parisian Scene
