On Sunday morning we went to the good 'ole Starbucks again for some coffee and breakfast. Next stop on our grand tour was Notre Dame. We decided to walk there and it was rainy again (it ended up raining the whole time we were there except for the day we left--of course!). The funny thing was that the rain just added to our adventure though--we didn't care that we had soaking wet shoes and pants--we just enjoyed every minute of being in Paris. Back to our walk to Notre Dame--we finally made it and took a few quick pictures in front then got in line to get in. Once again luck was on our side and we didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes to get in! SWEET! Once we were inside it was AMAZING! They had a service going on so we had to be silent as we walked around but everything was beautiful--from the stone to the glass windows. We spent a little bit of time walking around the entire lower level and then headed outside to get in line to go up the towers. Even though it was pouring rain we had a great time in line and we waited for about an hour--during the wait we checked out the gargoyles that were spitting water (which had it not been raining we wouldn't have seen!), bought a 4th umbrella so we each had one, got some hot chocolate and hot wine, and people watched. It was finally our turn to go up and we got our tickets and headed up. (I should also mention it was really cool throughout the weekend-most places we went offered a discount price for Cam and I since we weren't 25 yet--BONUS! Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower were included!) So we make our way up this itty bitty narrow stairs which were really neat! When we finally made it to the top we spent some time checking out the different views and then checked out the bell! It was hard to get really good pictures in there because it was so dark but we tried...after the bell we went further up to the highest point on the tower and checked out the views from up there. It was really fun to recognize all the different things we had seen from up high. It was a neat perspective!
First stop up the tower...
Once again those are just a few of the many pictures I have...I plan on showg you all lots more when we get home!
After Notre Dame it was lunch time! We went to this pizza place that Kerry and Melinda had found the night before when they were out exploring. It was some GOOD pizza!
After lunch we headed out on our adventure again--next stop was Hotel des Invalides. We decided that it wasn't too far to walk so we were on our way! It took us about 30 minutes to walk there but it gave us the opportunity to see different parts of the city. Once we arrived we checked out some of their exhibits including Ancient Armor and Weapons, Napolean's Tomb, and World War I and II Exhibit. We saw a bunch of cool things and the guys really liked the manly exhibits! ;)We tried to leave early enough to see the "Thinker" at the garden next to Hotel des Invalides but we were late by two minutes and the guy wouldn't let us in to buy a ticket ;( Oh well.
Here are some pictures from Hotel des Invalides.
After we finished up at the Hotel des Invalides we tried to hurry over to see the "Thinker" but as I mentioned above we were late by 2 minutes and the guy wouldn't let us in. So after that we headed towards the Arc de Triomphe.
We strolled down the Champs Elysees and it took us about 30 minutes to get the the Arc but it was really cool. I had a great time walking down the street and looking at all the different shops and people. We finally made it to the Arc at about 6-6:15 pm and we checked it out. We took some pictures and then called it a day for our feet. We took a taxi back to our apartment where we rested for a little bit.
After we rested we went out to dinner at a place right across from whee we were staying and the food was delicious! I had French Onion Soup, Cam had snails and salmon, Kerry had snails and duck, and Melinda had pork. It was awesome. After we finished eating we made a quick bathroom stop and we were on the road again-this time to the River where we were hoping to catch a late night boat tour of the city. We barely made it in time and the boat ride was awesome--we sat on the top and although it was a little chilly and windy we had a great time. The announcer would say something in French and then repeat it in English so we were able to follow along with exactly what they were saying! We got to see all sorts of cool bridges, buildings, the Eiffel tower, among many other things. After the boat ride we started packing up to head home.
So basically that sums up our two full days in Paris. A very brief summary though.
Monday morning we got up and ate breakfast and then checked out a bakery where we got some yummy bread. After the bakery we walked down the streets for a little bit before getting a taxi and heading to the airport. We got to the airport early but it worked out well because we ate something and then people watched for a little bit. Our flight was nice and short-- we actually got into Toulouse about 20 minutes early. We took a bus from the airport back to our hotel in Toulouse. Once we made it we hung out, ate some snacks like cheese and crackers, and Kerry and Melinda got packed up for their week in Italy.
On Tuesday we checked out Toulouse with Cam, Kerry, and Melinda and I have a few pictures from that but I will save them for my next post. I have to get going to the store now so I will leave you all with this post for now! ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment