Paris

Our Parisian adventure started when we hit the road on Friday morning around 0930. The drive took about 5.5 hours (a bit longer than we expected because of some lousy weather along the route). With our handy GPS system, we easily found our quaint little hotel in the southeastern part of the city. (Side note - This post will contain only a fraction of the photos we took...to see the complete collection of photos, please follow the link at the end of the post).

After we got checked-in and rested a bit, we popped a bottle of wine and enjoyed the cool nighttime view from our balcony. We then made our way over to the Arc de Triomphe. Here's a view from our balcony and our view upon exiting the Metro station at the Arc stop:

The Arc was absolutely breath-taking. It was rather cold/windy/rainy that evening, but the most inclement of conditions couldn't damper the awe of the moment. After poking around the base of the Arc for a while we realized we were able to go on to the TOP of the Arc. Yay! We made our way up the (what felt like) million stairs, did a quick spin around the small museum at the top, and then stepped outside and drank in the lovely view.

Once we had all of the Arc we could handle, we made our way back to the Metro. It was time to meet up with our friends! Friends?! In Paris? Even though we'd never been? Yep. Don't you love small world stories? (I hope so, because you're about to get one). Our sweet friend, Penny (my brother Nick's mother-in-law), has a friend, Anthony, who is currently studying at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. When Penny heard we were going to Paris she put us in touch with Anthony. Anthony agreed to meet us out for some drinks on our first night in town. Coincidentally, Anthony's friend, Frank, was also visiting that weekend. We met up in Anthony's neighborhood, ordered some delicious wine and then after chit-chatting for a while realized that Frank works with my fabulous sister-in-law, Elli (Nick's wife/Penny's daughter)! Small world, right? Here's a shot of the 4 of us:

Anthony and Frank were so much fun and generously answered all of our new-to-Paris questions. Thanks for the good times, guys! We parted ways with our new friends and made our way back to our cozy hotel. We had a big day on the horizon and needed our rest.

The next morning we were up and on our way to breakfast by 0930. Very near our hotel was a darling café, Les Deux Moulins. We both ordered the house le petit dejeuner (breakfast). Take a peek for yourself:

The night before, Anthony and Frank both raved about the croissants so we were DYING to have some. Luckily, le petit dejeuner included a croissant, bread, orange juice, coffee, AND a ramekin filled to the brim with butter! The croissants were everything we hoped they would be...buttery, flaky, and well, buttery. With our bellies full of butter, we made our way to the Louvre on the Metro. (Side note - We absolutely, hands-down, LOVED using the Metro in Paris. It was so easy and so convenient). We hopped off the Metro at our stop and walked towards the Louvre (which is HUGE by the way). Once we reached the entrance courtyard we paused for some fun photo ops:

We had been told by a few different people that since the Museum is so big it's best to choose exactly what you want to see and then go seek those pieces out. We did just that! My most favorite work of art (ever since I wrote a paper on it sophomore year at LU) is the Nike of Samothrace (also called Winged Victory of Samothrace). She's majestic, powerful, and beautiful. I knew I had to see her. We also really wanted to see the Mona Lisa, Venus di Milo, and some other paintings. Here are our 3 favorite girls at the Louvre:

Walking around the Louvre for a few hours made us quite hungry (i.e. - our butter-reserves were low), so we hit the fantastic café in the Louvre for lunch. Bon appetit!

Our next stop was Sainte-Chapelle. Sainte-Chapelle is well known for its immense and magnificent stained glass. The cathedral is currently under renovation, so we weren't able to get the full effect, but what we saw was spectacular.

This next photo was taken with my awesome zoom lens. This is a close-up of the center from the above left photo:

We sat in silence inside Sainte-Chapelle for almost 45 minutes. It was a very peaceful, powerful silence. Afterwards we were ready to head home and rest before our evening out. On our way home we made a quick visit to the Seine for a self-portrait and snapped a quick photo of the very cool, old Metro sign:



We took a (glorious) two hour nap and then got all primped for dinner. We ate at this wonderful little restaurant right next to our hotel. Unfortunately I didn't bring the camera that night so we don't have pictures, but I can tell you what we had. We started with a yummy bottle of red wine, Brian ordered the scallop and chorizo brochette and I had the steak with a Roquefort dipping sauce. Both were divine! Bellies full (once again), we moved to an outdoor table to enjoy more wine and the mild winter air.

The next morning started slightly later than the previous day, but nonetheless we were ready for some new adventures! Since our le petit dejeuner was so delightful the day before, we decided to go back to Les Deux Moulins for another round. This time we tried an omelette and a croque-monsieur:



I almost fell out of my chair at the sight of the croque-monsieur. Beauty on a plate, if you ask me. The omelette and croque-monsieur were both as delicious as they look. Butter-reserves full, we hit the Metro; we were on our way to Notre Dame.

Notre Dame was gorgeous. See for yourself:



Due to some unforeseen stomach issues (we think it was all the butter), we didn't stay at Notre Dame as long as we would have liked, but we'll be back next time! Once we were back to feeling like our old selves, we hopped on the Metro headed for the Musee D'Orsay.

Swoon! The Musee D'Orsay had the most remarkable collection of well known works of art I've ever seen. Everywhere you looked there was a familiar face: Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Manet, Gauguin and so on. After we absorbed as much art as we could, we went back to the hotel to rest up for our last evening in Paris.

Around 1930 we decided to make our final trek of the weekend to see the Eiffel Tower. We had heard it was stunning at night. Believe you me, we were stunned.



The very top was closed unfortunately, so we rode up to the 2nd level and we were pleasantly surprised at the amazing view it provided. You may have seen from the little video we posted that we brought two small bottles of champagne with us. A toast on the Tower. The full moon slowly crept from behind the clouds as we clinked bottles. Cheers to a lovely, lovely time in Paris.


If you'd like to view the rest of our photos from Paris, please click on this link:
Paris Photos