Paris

Our first day in Paris was a whirlwind of sightseeing. Ater being delayed a day in the Dallas airport we were so glad to find our hotel and our friends. We met our traveling partners, Chip and Kristin and joined up with Davy, who would be our travel guide of sorts in Paris. After getting a bite to eat at the crepe/panini stand and strollong around the neighborhood we were staying, we headed off to the Eiffel Tower. It was chilly and the lines were long so we decided to come back later to go up.

We decided to take the long walk from the Eiffel Tower to Champ-Elysses and see the Arc de Triomphe.

After checking out the Arc de Triomphe, we headed back to the 5th. We stopped by a square close to our hotel for some picnic fare. We got some bread from the boulangerie, cheese from the fromagerie, picked up some sausage and a rotisserie chicken, and some salad and mushrooms. After picking up a couple bottles of wine we were set for our picnic. There weren't any parks by our hotel so we took our feast up to the room and ate. After eating, the guys went to Davy's hostel and Kristin and I took a nap.

After our nap, we all headed out on the town. Our hotel was right by the Latin Quarter so we wandered through the tight busy streets, intrigued by the restaurants that would smash plates as you walked by in an attempt to intice you into their establishment (amoung other things). We were on a mission to find a jazz club but never found one that was what we were quite looking for. We wallked on an appetite and decided to stop at one of the many crepe stands. Kristin and I shared a Nutella and banana crepe while Nathan and Chip got paninis. We wandered quite a while and ended up at the Pompido Center. By this time, Davy was running out of time to get back to his hostel before the metro stopped running. He headed out and we started meandering back towards our hotel.

We went to see Notre Dame lit at night and then slowly went back to our hotel.


The next day Kristin and I had big plans to get up early and go up the Eiffel Tower before the crowds made it in. That didn't happen. After breakfast at the hotel we went to Notre Dame again, this time to see the inside. After a tour and pictures we headed on, eventually making our way to the Louvre. We decided we didn't have enough time to go inside so we headed on instead to the Eiffel Tower, walking. We walked down rue de rivoli through the Tuileries Garden and wound through a couple neighborhoods to find the Tower right in front of us. We went up, were awed, took the paromaic pictures and headed back to our district to eat dinner and send the boys off to Andorra.