Paris - Day One - Part Two!

I left off with our visit to the Notre Dame.  We didn't get to go inside....the lines were very long (about a 2 hour wait), so we decided to just do a walking tour of the area. 

From Notre Dame, we left the Cite' Island, crossed the Seine to the Right Bank and headed for the Musee de Louvre, the most visited museum in the world. 

 Unfortunately, we wouldn't be part of that head count....turns out the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays!  Such is our luck, right?  Well, truthfully, there was no way we'd be able to see all of the 35,000+ objects that are on display, especially on our first day.

It truly is a sight to behold.  Although it does seem a little odd at first to see the very modern Louvre Pyramid sitting square in the middle of architecture with so much history, it is truly spectacular!  It was commissioned by the former French President, Francois Mitterrand.  It was created due to issues with the original entrance to the museum, which could no longer accomodate the massive number of visitors each day.....it is now the main entrance to the museum.  Isn't it beautiful!?

The architecture of the buildings and in the surrounding area are amazing, too!

Once you turn around and face the other direction, you see the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel....not to be confused with the larger Arc de Triomphe. 

They look similar, but the Arc de Triomphe is much, much larger.  The architecture is unbelievable, and it's much more accessible, since you don't have to cross multiple lanes of unbelievably fast moving cars!

Amazing, isn't it?  Everywhere you look in Paris, there is amazing architecture!

From there, we moved on into the Tuilerie Gardens, which cover over 60 acres!  Even though it was winter, it was still beautiful and there were lots of visitors! 

The views are superb from the gardens....most of Paris is so built up, that it's usually only at heights that you can get a great view.

The gardens are filled with ponds, water fountains and lots of sculptures:

Dennis especially liked one of the ponds!

(Roundtrip tickets to Paris, $1600, Cost to use public toilettes, $1.50, Photo Op in Tuilerie Gardens....Priceless!)

 Originally, the gardens were the site of the Tuilerie Palace, which was burned down in 1871.  The fire lasted over 48 hours.  There are efforts now to rebuild the palace in hopes of restoring the "harmony" of the gardens, from the Louvre to the Champs Elysses.

Next up....a more contemporary art display at the edge of the gardens by Louise Bourgeois.....born in France in 1911, she married and moved to New York in the 1930s and is a very well know artist.  We were drawn to the "Welcoming Hands", each one displayed on top of granite stone columns.  I couldn't resist taking pictures of them, but what was most irresistible was putting your own hands in theirs.

"Picnik Show"

Next up....La Grande Roue....the ferris wheel at the end of the gardens, just before the Champs Elysses.  It was built for the millenium celebrations and was only supposed to be there for a year.  The owner refused to remove it, so it was dismantled in 2002, but starting in 2007 it comes back for the end of the year festivities.  I'm so glad we got to see it!

With tired/cold feet, we'd found ourselves at the Champs Elysses. 

 It is 1.25 miles long and is the most expensive strip of real estate in Europe and is one of the most famous streets in the world.  It boasts high end stores such as Louis Vuitton....

...Prada, Hermes and Chanel.  And right in the very center of this beautiful avenue sits the Arc de Triomphe.

Commissioned in 1806 by Napoleon to commemorate his victories, it wasn't completed until 1836 and is engraved with the names of the generals who commanded French troops during Napoleon's regime.

We decided to jump on a bus and ride around the Arc for better views.....I, for one, was not keen on the thought of trying to cross the traffic from the 12 streets that merge into the circle for a close up!

By this time, it was getting late, so we decided to head back to our apartment and check out the neighborhood for a bite to eat! 

Next up.....Paris - Evening One!

Paris - Day One!

So, here's the deal.....we woke up on Monday, December 28th at 6 am (12 noon Paris time), left Virginia at 3 PM (9 PM Paris time) and arrived in Paris at 6:30 AM (12:30 AM US time) on December 29th.  We were finally finished with checking in at the apartment by 9 AM (3 AM US time) and decided to unpack, then hit the streets! 

First stop.....breakfast!  Now, keep in mind that Parisians start their day completely different than we do.  It starts off with cafe' (strong coffee, cream or not), and maybe a croissant or some other form of pastry.  On the other hand, WE were looking for some substance, hoping it might compensate for our lack of sleep.

Just a few doors down from our apartment was a cafe....made sense to us!  Dennis, Brad and I chose a ham and cheese omelette....

Melinda went with the special, braised endive with a cheese/cream sauce and frites (french fries).  Melinda picked the best meal that day....her endive was delicious!!  The omelettes.....not so much!

My omelette didn't have any cheese, and Dennis' and Brad's wasn't much better.  OK.....we're in Paris....surely there is fab food somewhere!  We just kept on rollin'!  With a little food in our bellies, along with some serious cafe' (coffee), we set off on our first tour of Paris.

First stop....the Metro!  The Metro is Paris' subway system....and wow, is it intricate!  We purchased a pass which gave us access to the Metro and the bus system for a full week....life saver!  The entrance to the Metro was less than a block from our apartment, next to a beautiful church.

The Metro system in Paris is awesome.....you can get anywhere in minutes and the maps are very easy to read and understand.  Below is our station!

Wow....we spent a ton of time on these!  I have many memories of my time spent on the Metro..some that make me smile and one that makes me shiver (more to come on that later!).

The obvious choice was the obvious choice.....go where all tourists go!  Central Paris......on the Seine!

Yes....it looks just like all of the travel books....really! And the Seine is just beautiful.....the water may be a bit muddy and it runs very fast through the city, but it's beautiful!

Next stop....the Cite' Island in Paris....home of the Notre Dame (Our Lady of Paris in French)....it is the cathedral of the archdiocese of Paris.  Construction began on this beautiful structure in 1163....can you believe that?  It was completed in 1345....dang! Now that's history!

Isn't it fabulous!!!  Oh, wait until you see it at night!  In the meantime, here are a few more shots...

From there we walked the streets towards the Louvre, where there were many
"street vendors" making sandwiches and CREPES!!!

Some were filled with savory fillings, such as cheese and ham, but most people ordered the Nutella with other fillings.  We were still a little full from our breakfast and decided to wait for our "crepe experience".

Next we headed down the streets of central Paris toward the Louvre....

but not before taking in the activity on the Seine.

Next up?  The Louvre and the rest of our Day One in Paris!!!

*Sorry.....I promise not to drag out every day into several posts, but this really was the longest day.....our first!  Go figure!  See you soon!

Special Birthday Wishes.....

This is a special day for some very special people and I wanted to take a moment to wish them all a very happy birthday!  Birthday greetings go out to Denise Sutton, a very special lady and dear friend, Debbie Moore, a new old friend and GBHS classmate, Harriet Sadler, a great lady of real estate, and Omar Higazi, my favorite of my son's friends!  I hope you all have a very special day!!!!

Paris - Getting there!

We were all pretty excited to begin the trip we'd been planning for almost a year.  We were packed and ready to go early on the morning we left.  Our flight didn't leave until almost 3 pm, but because security at airports had tightened since Christmas Day, we decided to get to the airport early. 

We met Melinda and Brad at the airport just as they were getting the tickets for our flight....first to DC, then to Paris.  It didn't take long, so we moved on through security and headed to the bar!  Time for Bloody Mary's and a couple of post trip pics!

The trip to DC was pretty uneventful....I mean, how much can happen during a trip that lasts less than an hour!?  We were a little concerned about making our connecting flight because there wasn't much time to get from the domestic terminal to the international terminal, but we were worried for nothing....piece of cake!

The trip from DC to Paris was....uhhh.....it was looooong!  There were several movies to watch, but none that really interested me.  We were in the "economy" section, which meant our knees were right up at the seats in front of us.

I'll go ahead and tell you now that we were lucky enough to get Economy Plus seats on the way home....5 inches more room and it was WORTH IT!!!

We arrived in Paris at 6:30 AM Paris time....Brad had no problem getting his "snooze on"....Melinda "snoozed" a little and Dennis and I "snoozed" not at all.  Dennis was seated by himself four rows in front of us....had a great seat, but not so great a seat mate.  But once we landed, there was plenty of adrenaline to keep us all going.

We had arranged a taxi with the company that rented us the apartment and were happy to see him when we arrived.  He loaded up our luggage....

....and we headed into the city......just in time to miss the traffic rush hour! 
But we were a little earlier than we were expected, so our "greeter" was about 30 minutes behind us.  The taxi driver dropped us (and our luggage) off at a cafe down the street from our apartment where we tasted our first cafe au lait!!!  Ummm........ div="">

It was raining and it was cold......the cafe hit the spot!  But before we were finished our "greeter" came through the doors to "greet" us.  He went ahead of us to make sure the heat was on in the apartment while we finished our warm drinks, then joined him.

The apartment looked just as we'd expected......it was actually a little larger than I'd thought it would be, but just as special!  I was soooo excited, especially once I had a minute to go through the wonderful kitchen!

We unpacked our bags and then decided to hit the streets of Paris?  Sleep?  Who needs sleep????

Next up.....our first day on the streets of Paris!

Home Away from Home~~

So, we're back from our trip to Paris......I can't tell you how disappointed I was that the internet connection was so weak that I was unable to "blog" at all!  My goal was to post in the evenings about our daily adventures....so much for planning, huh?

I've been anticipating these posts for quite sometime, so without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to our "home away from home"!!!

This is the entrance to 7 Rue Notre Dame de Lorette, in the 9th arrondisement of Paris.....not a very touristy area, which I just loved!  Soooo....come on in!

Now you know that my heart just skipped a bit when we opened the door to this:

It's just sooo Parisian!  Then you take a few more steps, look to the left and THIS is what you see:

We spent quite a bit of time "chatting" in this area!  And those 4 windows to the right???  They were OUR windows!  And when you look up, this is what you saw:

Those are our neighbors up there!  Well, actually all but one were gone for the holiday.....it's a Parisian thing.   Then you walk through the door to our building's lobby (hmmm.....very small lobby), you see this:

I told you it was small.....but then you look up and this is what you see!

Isn't that beautiful!  We were fortunate enough that our apartment was on the first floor, so we didn't have to climb them, but they sure were lovely to look at! 

Still, it was hard not to look back at the courtyard....I would so love to see it in the spring, wouldn't you?!

Now for one of my favorite rooms......yep, the kitchen!

Although the wine opener was a little weak, the glasses were small and the coffee cups even smaller, this kitchen had everything we needed to be comfortable. 

Then there was the beautiful dining room and living room:

....and the bedrooms.....

.....and the bathroom(s).....

I guess you could say there is no such thing as a "full bath" in Paris.   The bathtub is is one room and the "toilette" (pronounced twahlette) is in a separate room called a water closet.  I actually like it this way!

We were all very comfortable here in this lovely apartment.  It was so nice to come "home" after a long day of walking the streets (and climbing the stairs) of Paris to a "home" and not a hotel room.  We even had a washer and dryer, so we didn't have to bring as many clothes as we would have otherwise.

So, if you're planning a trip to Paris and want a great place to "live" while you're there, my advice is to contact parisaddress.com.  They were great to work with, very accomodating and very patient with us.  They even arranged our taxis to and from the airport!  Thank you very much!  I hope to see you again soon!

Note:  Pictures of the dining room, living room and bathroom are from the parisaddress.com website.  Mind didn't come out so well.