Overall, the drive there wasn't too horrible. One case of motion sickness early on causing some ruckus and a small child with a piercing voice struggling with sleepiness but not sure what to do besides cry kept me from sleep for the majority of the trip. The price you have to pay!
Arriving in the center of Place de la Concorde at about 9:30 we sprinted off the bus thankful to be away from the lackluster parenting showcased on the drive down. We grabbed the metro into Sentier, where Bruce had found a nice brunch place to get a good meal before traversing the city by foot. The small restaurant called "Lockwood" is located on a small side street near the 3rd arrondissement.
The waiter there, from London, served us and a few other tables, all of whom spoke English, which I found interesting. Seems like a hidden gem of foreigners. The small menu made our choices easier for the morning. I ordered an avocado toast, which turned out fabulously and it's super simple! Bruce got the honey, nut, and berry pancakes, which was, and I quote, "some of the best pancakes [he's] had in recent memory". Sounds like a great rating to me! From there we wandered through through the streets taking in the cafes, fromage shops (we could smell these before actually seeing them), fresh food stores and little boutiques as we walked towards the river.
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Traveling with Bruce is great because he and I are both very relaxed tourists. We don't feel the need to wait in huge lines to get into the big touristy areas, but actually prefer to find the small, hidden gems of the city. By walking around and pulling each other into places or streets that look intriguing as opposed to having a set itinerary to the minute, I feel that we not only get more out of the trip, but its also just much more relaxing. We walked through a park and along the water to the Notre-Dame, stopping outside the gigantic cathedral taking in the minute details of each sculpture and gargoyle.
I could have easily stayed there all day browsing and enjoying being completely surrounded by pages and pages of books. If I lived in Paris, you'd know where to find me on a daily basis. With just our day trip, however, I forced myself to pull away from the bookshop (with a canvas bag gift for me). From the bookshop we walked through the town to the Pantheon, a giant Grecian-style building with tall columns, where we stopped in a British pub (random) to get a pint and Bruce tried some Scotch eggs (interesting).
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We continued walking past the Pantheon towards Luxembourg park where we strolled through the massive gardens. The weather was sunny, so there were tons of people out running, playing other sports, walking, and overall enjoying the outdoors. Paris, we noticed, definitely worked hard to have lots of green spaces implanted into the city. Every few blocks there was a small (or not-so-small) park! A great jogging city as we've seen as well. Although the dust/sand there might make that difficult on especially windy days. The tornadoes of dust would sweep across the sidewalk and park walk-ways as we toured the city. My strategy was either turning around completely or hiding my face into whoever was nearest to me. Usually it was Bruce.
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By this point we had walked nearly 5 miles, about half of the distance for the whole day (although felt a lot longer than that!). Instead of walking the rest of the way to the Eiffel Tower, we grabbed the metro for a few stops. The trains in Paris tend to stop randomly on the tracks with no explanation. We were thinking that Parisians must have a pretty relaxed attitude about timeliness? I would put an hour into my schedule just for train-lateness-possibility so I could be my usual, 10minute early self (Kaitie can attest to that...). Anyway, we made it out to the street and walked up a block before turning a corner and seeing the gigantic iron structure towering above the gardens and geometrically-cut treeline. I've been to the Eiffel Tower before when I was younger, however it is never as big as you think it is until you're right there staring up at it. Looking around I saw people from all over the world traveling to get a view of this incredible landmark. Again, we didn't wait in line to go up, feeling like seeing it from below was just as fabulous and much less time-consuming. After getting numerous photos, and of course taking photos of other travelers (one had us take a snapchat of her and her boyfriend...definitely a first...) we began the walk to the Arc de Triomphe. On the way we saw a series of tents set up and decided to check it out. Turned out to be a little market with some food stands, clothes, jewelry and other knick-knacks. A nice little detour on our route. Once we reached the Arc, I was again blown away by the size of the structure. Pictures just can't to justice to how immeasurably ginormous the arc is.
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The Arc stretches over the famous shopping street, The Avenue des Champs-Élysées. This is where you'll find high-end shopping names and the fancy people who buy things from those places strutting along the street (in fur coats might I add...). We didn't purchase anything, but enjoyed people watching and talking about how much we wouldn't want to go in any of the shops. Glad we are similar in that way.
We walked all the way to the end of the street where it meets with the Place de Concorde (our drop off and pick up stop). By this point we were reaching our 9 mile mark and my feet were definitely aware of that fact. With one last monument on our list, we forged ahead through dust storms and armies of men selling small metal Eiffel Tower trinkets towards the massive glass pyramid of The Louvre. If we had a few days in Paris, I would definitely use one to walk around this beautiful museum, however our time-line and bodies couldn't handle it on this trip. We decided to end our day by sitting in a sunny table at a cafe parallel to the parks around the Louvre eating a cheese plate and some snails (delicious!), having a drink and enjoying the last few hours of our day.
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From there we walked back to the Place de Concorde, grabbed a few chairs and sat to read until it was time to board the bus once more. I loved having a bit of relaxed time before getting on the bus rather than rushing around and being worried about missing it. The ride home....well...I don't want to end this blog on a bad note...but let's just say the ride home did not involve a lot of sleeping on anyone's part due to a certain small human mentioned in the beginning of the post.
Overall, an absolutely amazing trip where we saw a lot, walked a lot, ate a lot, and enjoyed the city...a lot....
I love being able to do this trips to such iconic places without too much effort! Can't wait for our next adventure. Until next time! xoxo
German of the post:
"Haben Sie keine Angst um Ihre Kinder zu beruhigen werden nicht"
"Don't be afraid to sedate your children"
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