We slept in a little, it felt so luxurious after not sleeping for so long. I think because we pushed through the day we didn’t feel the jet lag so much. We had decided we would take the big bus tour today and try to get the overview of Paris. We got on board and felt like pinching ourselves that we were truly in Paris. We drove first by the Louvre, Notre Dame, the bridges of the original islands, by many historic buildings and down the champs d’ Ellysee to L’Arc de triomphe and lastly to the Tour d’Eiffel. We then made our way to the Opera house. We passed many museums on the way, the original American church in Paris which we later found out had Tiffany windows. So many palaces and crazy history stories. The tour guide was recorded and tried to dispell many American/cultural myths about Paris. People watching has been incredible the whole trip. So many fascinating things.
We got off the tour and went to Starbucks to charge up. We decided to head to Notre Dame, the L’arc de triomphe and the Eiffel Tower but got on the wrong bus that was to the seedier side of Paris. The good news… the first stop was the Moulin Rouge which just happened to be right next to our hotel so we decided to skip the rest of the tour and head back to the main bus station to start again this time to get on the right bus and go to Notre Dame. The inside of the church was very pretty and surprisingly quiet since they ask you to be silent for people that are praying. We took a bunch of pictures. There are art artifacts everywhere within the building. I am sure you could spend a whole day there. We tried to go up to the bell towers where there is suppose to be one of the best views of Paris but the line was already closed. Not this time I guess. We headed back to the tour bus and did a little shopping while we waited.
We headed back to the Champs d’Ellysee where some of the most expensive shopping in Paris is. They have car showrooms there and I would like to get back to take some pictures for Chase. There are Café’s everywhere where you can watch people walk by and get something to eat. We got off the train. We tried our selfie stick here but unfortunately couldn’t get it to work. We are no the only ones with a stick by the way everyone seems to have one especially the Asian tourists. You go under the street to the arch. Then you walk up a twisting stair case with many fit people who are not stopping but climbing rapidly to the top. The French guy laughed at me when I almost passed out and had to take a seat. No really I felt like Abby was taking me up that trail on the mountain bike again. But we made it and are sure we will lose a few pounds before we get back. We then headed to the Eiffel Tower. It was night time and for the first 5 minutes of every hour the tower sparkles with Pixy lights. It’s almost magical. There are several views before we make the stop. We stood in line for a while to get tickets to go up. We took the elevator to the top. The first elevators go diagonal to the second level. It is like the haunted house at Disney where everyone climbs into a one room elevator. The second elevator is smaller and goes straight up. There was a line but also views of Paris. The top of the Eiffel tour at night was beautiful. It wasn’t that windy and almost warmer than below. There is a champagne bar on the top. Since we haven’t eaten since breakfast we decide to abstain but it looked like fun.
After we got to the bottom we decided we better head to get something to eat. We wanted to try and catch the Parissiene Boat Tour before we headed home. It was almost 9pm. There was a crepe stand and we ordered mulled wine, a ham and cheese crepe, a strawberry and cream crepe and water before we headed down to the boat. The boat tour was beautiful on the Sienne passing the bridges of Paris. People were walking and sitting by the river. Some were even fishing. We passed many of the earlier tour points but got a little different perspective and some rest for our feet. The hardest part of the day was trying to find the metro since the bus tour had stopped running. We asked information and they pointed us in the right direction. My mom has been very trusting but it is unnerving going down dark streets when you are not sure where you are going to find a Metro you don’t really know where it is. The Metro app which I downloaded would work great if I had internet/wifi access. So we pulled out our map and tried to read the street signs and metro signs. We wandered upon the station and felt relieved. We were worried about how to get to the Eurostar station. We had asked at the Metro earlier but Mom and I were worried that we needed to go to the coast to catch the train to London. We decided to check out the earlier directions since it was just 3 stops away from our Hotel stop. We found a couple of gentlemen who were giving information, in broken English we agreed it was the right place we had to be in the morning. It was now 11pm at night and were headed back to the hotel to try to sleep before our early train.
There is so much we still want to do in Paris. Eat, drink wine and see some art. We feel like we haven’t scratched the surface but feel like there is so little time to get it all in. So we will see.