To be perfectly honest, neither Eric nor myself have ever had an deep desire to visit Paris. But here’s the thing- we live 2 1/2 hours away! There’s no way we can be 2 1/2 hours away from Paris for 4 years and never visit. And so we went! We walked to the train station in our village, hopped on the regional train that took us to Saarbrucken, hopped on the ICE train, and got off 2 hours later in Paris. Based on the recommendation of a friend, our hotel was directly across the street from the train station, which made metro travel beyond easy. We (potentially over)paid for unlimited access to all public transportation for the weekend, and spent three days doing whatever struck our fancy. The first day we headed over to the Eiffel Tower. We chose NOT to stand in the ridiculously long lines in order to go UP the tower, but you know us, we generally are content with admiring from the exterior anyway. We stayed long enough to watch the transition from day to dusk to night, that is, from regular to sparkly to glowing. It was chilly, chilly, chilly, but well worth it! Afterwards,with only a business card and a map, we attempted to find a tiny hole-in-the-wall place that had been recommended by our hotel. After several wrong turns and one particularly sketchy alley, we arrived. The food was incredible, the servers were friendly, and yes, Abbi was the only baby in the place.
2 hours on the train = extensive snacking and coloring
THIS is how we got there in just 2 hours!
The Eiffel Tower during the day...
...then at dusk, all sparkly
...then aglow at night.
The next day we headed over to the Louvre. We had no idea how long we’d actually be able to stay (toddlers and museums aren’t a great mix), but Abbi actually did an incredible job. Two things about the Louvre: 1.) it’s MASSIVE. As in, super massive. As in, by the time you walk back far enough to get the whole building in a frame, the picture is garbage anyway. 2.) It is a maze. Now, when you look at a map, it doesn’t look that complicated. There are three or four levels and it’s in the shape of a U. What could be tricky about that? Stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. It goes like this: walk a bit, 7 steps down, walk a bit, 20 steps up, walk a bit more, 10 steps up, turn a corner, 15 steps down. It’s tough to tell what floor you’re on when there are steps EVERYWHERE. It literally took us about a half hour to find our way out of the museum- and that was with attempting to follow signs and asking the occasional worker. After leaving the Louvre, we walked down the Champs Elysees, passing all the super froo-froo designer shops till we reached the Arc de Triomphe. We had a bit of time left in our day, but it was pretty much absorbed by letting Abbi walk back to the metro station on her own. She burned a lot of energy…and a LOT of time. For dinner we headed over to the Notre Dame Cathedral where there is a pedestrian area full of restaurants upon restaurants. Yummy!
Getting our fill of culture at the Louvre
Eric's solution to the 14 million steps at the Louvre- better him than me!
Our last day was spent at the Palace of Versailles. At first we thought our day might be a dud as Versailles is closed on Mondays. However, while the palace may be closed, the GARDENS are not! We spent the better part of the morning and early afternoon wandering about the gardens. It was so lovely and, at least for me, was the best part of the trip! Afterwards, we attempted to go see a chocolate exhibition, but by that time it was getting close to time for us to catch our train. We grabbed one more dinner by Notre Dame and then headed to the station. Our trip home was not nearly as smooth as might be expected. The ICE train was 3 minutes late getting into Saarbrucken, which, when you only have 6 minutes total to make your connection, is not good. Add that to the fact that our platform number wasn’t printed on our tickets, our platform was on the other side of the station, and the train number was different than what it was supposed to be and yes, we missed our train. We had to wait an hour for the next one, which then had some mechanical problems. Long story short, we arrived home at 11pm. Our reflections on Paris? The people were nicer than we expected. The city was cleaner than we had been told. The food was excellent, albeit expensive. We got great pictures. We saw the sights. Paris? Check!
Looking out at the gardens from the Palace of Versailles
From the gardens, looking back at the palace.
What a fine way to spend a beautiful afternoon!
