I love Paris in the springtime

On a last minute whim we decided to head to Paris for the weekend. It would have been a shame to miss the city of lights when we live so close. Of course we loved our time there. Mike had been before but Jay and I had not. Paris is a beautiful city! It's also very large with many, many people and a plethora of grand buildings and fascinating historical landmarks. Really you could spend a month on vacation there and still not see everything, but our three day weekend sufficed for now.

Our stay started out a little bumpy. Upon arriving in the city on Friday night around 9:30 we made our way to an office building where the key to our booked apartment was supposedly waiting in a mailbox. After finding we had mistakenly been given the address to the company's old office we wrote down the address to the new office, provided by a flier on the door, and hurried on with the help of our trusty GPS. Really, how can you drive in Paris without one? No luck. The key was not in the mailbox. No one was around to help. The phone numbers we had were either fax numbers or simply wrong and to top it off the office building itself was quite sketchy and we had no intention of waiting around to see who might show up. After receiving help from a very kind staffer at a neighboring hotel we were still unable to reach the company we had rented the apartment through. We drove on to the apartment itself, hoping by some miracle the key was in a mailbox there. When we couldn't even get the street door open we decided it was time to give up. It was 11:30 by this time and Jay was more than tired of being in the car. We found a decent hotel for an extra 30 Euros than we had originally planned on paying and were in bed by midnight. Of course Jay decided to wake up at 5:00 am the next morning with no intention of going back to sleep. How does that happen? I mean he only had 5 hours of sleep too, right? After giving up on forcing Jay's eyes shut we decided we may as well get out on the town. Even after a leisurely breakfast and long showers we were still out before most other tourists were even awake. I suppose this is one advantage to having an 18 month old alarm clock.

Our first stop was the Louvre. Being out on a beautiful day in the grand city made the whole fiasco from the night before well worth it. The Louvre was fantastic. I knew it to be an obviously famous museum but seeing it in person was a whole new experience. The building itself is magnificent. I was astonished by the sheer size of the palace. It is the result of several building projects completed over the span of 800 years. And how glad I am that controversy over the Pei Pyramid did not stop its construction because it truly is a fascinating piece of art. The giant pyramid is not only bewitching outside but equally impressive inside while standing underneath the 70 feet of glinting glass.
After enjoying the warmth created by the rays of sun captured and reflected by in the 673 glass shards we bought our tickets and headed toward the exhibits. Throughout our visit we were constantly surprised by the child-friendly atmosphere. The museum staff was very helpful, specifically pointing out paths to elevators and places of interest for us. The Louvre is huge. No, that's an understatement. It is colossal. I've never been inside a larger museum in my life. There is so much to see it is impossible to even find half the things you would like to. Saying that we did manage to track down several of the more and less famous collection pieces. We saw the Egyptian tombs, Antioch's Venus de Milo, some beautiful Islamic art, The Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Medieval moats, Napoleon III's apartments, the Coronation Crown of Louis XV, The Wedding Feast at Cana by Veronese, and of course Di Vinci's Mona Lisa (like my attempt at the Mona Lisa smile?). Just looking at the museum's website since we've been home makes me realize all we missed! Truly though you need several trips to see and appreciate all you would like to and with a toddler in tow I'd say we did pretty well. By the way, here's Jay's favorite statue - the boy wrestling a duck was just too cool.
Once outside the Louvre Jay was overjoyed when we let him out of his stroller to explore. He kept trying to throw his binki in the fountain near the pyramid until we gave him some one cent Euro pieces (even these are practically worth a quarter now!) to throw in instead. We then wandered down the Champs-Elysées checking out all the over-priced fashion and basking in the warm sun. We also stopped for some traditional French crepes on our walk which we thoroughly enjoyed. When we arrived at the Arc de Triomphe we admired the huge arch and marveled at the crazy multi-lane roundabout that surrounds it. By the way, driving in Paris is insane. The Arc itself was very grand. It was built to honor the soldiers who fought for France during the Napoleonic wars. The tomb of the unknown solder also rests underneath the arch with an eternal burning flame burning nearby in remembrance of those who fought in World War I.

After seeing the Arc de Triomphe we tried to locate the office for our apartment again. Having no luck the second time we gave up and went in search of a hotel for our next 2 nights. While doing this we stumbled upon a beautiful little pedestrian street filled with all sorts of yummy bakeries, fruit and vegetable stands and aromatic restaurants. We found a nice little hotel, unloaded our car and could finally rest easy knowing we had a place to stay for the next few days. We ate a wonderful Lebanese dinner and then decided to at least drive by the Moulin Rouge. We snapped a few pictures and then headed home for some much needed rest.

Our second day in Paris ended up being quite rainy. Roaming through the city wasn't nearly as fun in the rain but we still enjoyed ourselves. We also took advantage of the awesome Metro system a lot more. The first thing we did was take a walk along the River Seine in search of the famous Notre Dame. When we crossed over the river on one of the huge bridges we noticed some very tall, skinny and fashionably dressed women who we assume were models. I guess there's probably a lot of models in Paris. Speaking of models - does anyone every watch America's Next Top Model and marvel at how unattractive the girls are? Anyway, we saw several beautiful buildings on our search and even wandered past the St. Germain Cathedral.
We found Notre Dame and admired the grand cathedral, especially the cool gargoyles guarding the roof-tops. We didn't see Quasimodo or Esmeralda but they were probably taking refuge from all the rain.
After the Cathedral we tried to find a Metro stop so we could head over to the Eiffel Tower. A very friendly Parisian stopped and asked if we needed any help. When we told him of our search for the Metro he kindly directed us to it and went on his way. We made it to the Eiffel Tower area and stopped at a little French cafe for lunch. The owner was SO nice. He talked to us all about the United States and where he had visited. He even went so far to tell us he thought America to be the best country in the world! Mike and I strongly believe the French to be very, very nice people. It's too bad they get such a bad rap because all the ones we met were extremely friendly and helpful.
After lunch we headed on to the Eiffel Tower. It is so much bigger than I expected it to be! I was blown away. It's amazing to think it was built in the 1890's. We read that during the time of construction it was just as controversial as the Pei pyramid was 15 years ago. The engineer who created it, Eiffel, actually presented the plans in Barcelona first but the city thought it was too strange and expensive. Oops! In France it was only supposed to be a temporary exhibit for the World Fair but it ended up being a great communication tool since antenna could be placed on top and so it was left standing. Good thing since it is now arguably the most recognizable structure in the world and draws millions of visitors to it every year. It was wonderful to finally be one of them!
While near the tower we bought some sugar roasted peanuts. We didn't realize until it was too late that a small bag was 10 Euros!!! I guess you have to get ripped off at least once while on vacation. We headed back to our hotel to dry off and ended up taking a nap while Jay proceeded to pour out the entire 10 Euro bag of peanuts onto the floor and then place half of them into daddy's shoe. What are you going to do? We then headed back out into the rain and found a little Japanese restaurant to eat at for dinner. It was so good! Jay especially loved the miso soup and Mike commented several times that if he were to live in Japan he would be more than happy with the food. We rushed Jay home in the pouring rain to get him to bed. While he slept we watched The Bourne Identity since we were in Paris. It was fun to see many of the major sights in the movie that we had just seen in person.

Before driving home our final day we went to see the Palace of Versailles. Unfortunately it is closed on Mondays but we were still able to admire the outside and the seemingly endless gardens that surround it. It was freezing cold so after seeing all we could we hurried on to find a place to eat. Can anyone tell how much I love eating by reading my posts? We found this amazing French bakery and I mean amazing. We've decided the French and Luxembourgers have the very best pastries we've eaten. We had panini sandwiches and then shared a raspberry tart and an apricot pastry. All of it was mouthwatering! And so ended our enjoyable trip to Paris. Can't wait to go back again someday!