Day One Highlights.... Arrival to Paris - Eiffel Tower - Museum D'Orsay - Sleeping Until Noon
Bon Jour everyone! We made it safely to Paris, and are actually at the end of our second day here. But I thought I'd break the blog up into each day's events - so that the entry might not get too long. Eric also wants to add his thoughts, so you might have to check "Older Posts" to see all of our entries.
I have to be honest and say that when we fist arrived in Paris, I was disappointed. It seemed like any other big city. The airport was old and dirty, and the drive into Paris was strewn with graffiti-ridden highwys. When we entered Paris, the streets looked like those in San Francisco and New York, that have the cheesey discount electronics stores, and the dirty looking drugstores (who shops at those anyway?) But, as we made our way into the heart of Paris, OH WOW!!!
We are staying in the Rue Cler neighborhood which is amazing beyond words! There are fresh fruit and flower markets, bakeries and tons and tons of fun cafes. We love it! Our hotel room is very tiny, but clean, and we are happy with it. The shower is funny- very tiny. I think Europeans must be much smaller than us wide-hipped Americans - I felt like I barely fit in the stall.
In order to avoid jet lag, we followed Rick Steve's advice and kept busy. We walked to the Eiffel Towe (OH MY GOSH!!! It was so incredible, and that's when I felt like I was truly in Paris!) We climbed up the 400+ steps to the observation deck on the tower. WOW!! Paris is a HUGE city.
From the Eiffel Tower, we walked to The Museum D' Orsay. It was amazing. It was open late, so there wasn't a crowd, which was really nice. We saw many amazing Impressionist paintings, and even saw Whistler's Mother ("She looks great, by the way," is Eric's joke of the day.)
We stopped for dinner at a fun little street side cafe - they are all over the place here, and remind me of one of the things I miss from California (family and friends being the other!) Eric has been very adventurous with food - having escargot, and some salmon tartar thing that looked like head cheese. I, on the other hand, have been very typical, having pasta and....... a cheeseburger for dinner! I know. How un-French can you get. Oddly enough, they seem to be on most menus that we've seen. And hey - at least I'm eating! :-)
So, we kept ourselves busy until 9 pm, when we were absolutely passing out. By the way - the sun was still shining at 9 p.m.! We did such a good job of wearing ourselves out that we slept for 15 hours and didn't get up until noon!
So, on to day 2, and by the way - I'm not editing these posts, so please excuse spelling and grammar errors. :-)
Bon Jour everyone! We made it safely to Paris, and are actually at the end of our second day here. But I thought I'd break the blog up into each day's events - so that the entry might not get too long. Eric also wants to add his thoughts, so you might have to check "Older Posts" to see all of our entries.
I have to be honest and say that when we fist arrived in Paris, I was disappointed. It seemed like any other big city. The airport was old and dirty, and the drive into Paris was strewn with graffiti-ridden highwys. When we entered Paris, the streets looked like those in San Francisco and New York, that have the cheesey discount electronics stores, and the dirty looking drugstores (who shops at those anyway?) But, as we made our way into the heart of Paris, OH WOW!!!
We are staying in the Rue Cler neighborhood which is amazing beyond words! There are fresh fruit and flower markets, bakeries and tons and tons of fun cafes. We love it! Our hotel room is very tiny, but clean, and we are happy with it. The shower is funny- very tiny. I think Europeans must be much smaller than us wide-hipped Americans - I felt like I barely fit in the stall.
In order to avoid jet lag, we followed Rick Steve's advice and kept busy. We walked to the Eiffel Towe (OH MY GOSH!!! It was so incredible, and that's when I felt like I was truly in Paris!) We climbed up the 400+ steps to the observation deck on the tower. WOW!! Paris is a HUGE city.
From the Eiffel Tower, we walked to The Museum D' Orsay. It was amazing. It was open late, so there wasn't a crowd, which was really nice. We saw many amazing Impressionist paintings, and even saw Whistler's Mother ("She looks great, by the way," is Eric's joke of the day.)
We stopped for dinner at a fun little street side cafe - they are all over the place here, and remind me of one of the things I miss from California (family and friends being the other!) Eric has been very adventurous with food - having escargot, and some salmon tartar thing that looked like head cheese. I, on the other hand, have been very typical, having pasta and....... a cheeseburger for dinner! I know. How un-French can you get. Oddly enough, they seem to be on most menus that we've seen. And hey - at least I'm eating! :-)
So, we kept ourselves busy until 9 pm, when we were absolutely passing out. By the way - the sun was still shining at 9 p.m.! We did such a good job of wearing ourselves out that we slept for 15 hours and didn't get up until noon!
So, on to day 2, and by the way - I'm not editing these posts, so please excuse spelling and grammar errors. :-)
2 comments:
A cheeseburger? Awwwww, I am so disappointed ;-)
I must agree with Ed... a cheeseburger?! Dad says we can have cheesesburgers at home AND watch the Travel Channel :-)
Way to go Eric! Escargot & salmon tartar!
It ALL sounds FABULOUS... wish we were there, too!
LOVE, MOM
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