Last Friday morning (I know, I know, I'm a week behind) we woke up around 9 a.m. to grab some breakfast and get a headstart on our day. The breakfast was just as one might expect in France: lots of bread and cheese. Mostly bread. Go figure. We got ready and packed our stuff and then left our luggage downstairs in the lobby, did our official check-out, and then went out to explore.
The day before, we had purchased tickets to do a
bus tour of Paris, which is a great bargain and goes all over the city. Before this trip, I'd always thought such things were kind of lame, but it really was the best way to see as much of the city as possible in such little time. So we headed a few blocks over to
Notre Dame, in order to catch our first bus. Along the way, we marveled at how insanely beautiful the city really is.
And then we were off! We saw so many amazing sights and historical places and gorgeous buildings that it's nearly impossible to list them all, but aside from not having enough time to visit
Moulin Rouge,
Sacre Coeur,
the Catacombs and the various cemeteries in Paris, I'm relatively certain we hit up most everything else.
After exhausting ourselves shopping on
Champs-Elysees, we stopped at the
Arc de Triomphe for a meal of bread, cheese and jam, during which we were endlessly harassed by beggars and gypsy-folk. The quick solution for dealing with this problem - as my brother taught me - is to only answer their questions in German, as they are looking to prey on unsuspecting Americans.
After lunch, we continued on our way, heading to the Eiffel Tower yet again, which I took way too many pictures of. We didn't go to the top, because we didn't care to pay that amount, and I'm certain I'll be back again one day, although perhaps it will be a romantic occasion of sorts (one can only hope) during which I'll really want to go to the top. But for me, just seeing it was enough.
Moving on, we continued to see the sights including gorgeous architecture, eccentric building fronts, fabulous fountains and all kinds of big statues.
We even happened upon some of Johannes' teammates on a
Segway Tour!
Not long after, we happened upon my store!
And then came some more "big sites" such as the
Louvre and the
Palais Royal, the
Bastille monument
At some point in the midst of all this, we went into Notre Dame to check it out. As expected, it was insanely intricate and gorgeous (although I might love Kölner Dom a bit more, but we'll get to that later... We were lucky enough to stop by at a time when the choir was rehearsing, and the experience of hearing live music in the cathedral was quite something.
After completing our sightseeing, we grabbed a bite to eat at a local cafe and had some wine, then grabbed our stuff at the hotel and made our way to the Metro in order to get to the airport. And that, of course, is an entirely different story...
No comments:
Post a Comment