One Day in Paris

Spring Break 2018 was a French adventure! We drove and drove and drove some more before finally arriving in our Paris lodgings late in the evening. It was definitely poor planning on our part to start our travels on one of the busiest travel days ever. Our Chunnel crossing was delayed for over an hour so by the time we made it to our Eurocamp in Paris it was almost midnight. We got settled as quickly as we could and got some much needed sleep before heading out early the next morning for a full day in Paris. Thanks to the internet and travelers who are willing to share their wisdom, we had a good idea of how we could fit as much in possible in the one day we had to devote to the city of light. 

We'd never stayed at a Eurocamp before and probably won't again.  The price was right but these trailers were so tiny! There was barely room to navigate between or around beds.

A quick bus ride to the train station followed by a comfortable train ride into the city center and we were ready to begin our day in Paris. The weather was supposed to be grey and rainy. We were prepared for grey and rainy, but we were not prepared for sunny! Our poor pale English selves; we could barely keep our eyes open at first.

Our first stop was the Arc de Triomphe! We braved the traffic to stand in the median and take some pictures. This is the first of many photos that Jared didn't want to be in, but stood there and smiled for anyway because he's a good husband. The Arc de Triomphe was dedicated to the armies of the French Revolution. It's kind of like the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery in Washington DC. The remains of an unknown soldier are in the base of the arch and a flame of remembrance is lit every day. There's an observation platform at the top of the arch with more information and even a gift shop, but we were on a tight schedule so it was pictures and then it was time to find our way to the Eiffel Tower.

Our itinerary did have some wiggle room so wandered a little bit along the way. We drooled over the windows of bakeries and chocolate stores and window shopped our way through this amazing market filled with flowers, produce, and baguettes!

Thanks to Jared's navigation skills, we did eventually find the tower. When we visited Paris way back in 2002 we waited in line and went to the top of the tower. It was okay, but not so great that we felt the need to do it again. Instead, the girls rode a fun carousel, we ate baguettes, watched a street hustler and tried to figure out his secrets, and then got our Eifel Tower pictures. No waiting in line required!

I guess Natalie's selfie skills are still developing

Those baguettes only keep you full for so long and we needed some lunch to fuel our Parisian wanderings. We could have gotten actual french food, but Five Guys Burgers and Fries is hard to pass up even if the line is out the door and the exchange rate and novelty of an American restaurant in Paris makes our meal for six cost over $100. France passed a law last year banning free refills on flavored fizzy and non-fizzy drinks. The ban is meant to help combat obesity but it didn't help us combat our thirst at lunch. At first we weren't sure how they'd enforce the no refill policy. I mean, we ordered downstairs but filled our drinks and ate upstairs. Who was to know if we refilled our cups? Five Guys is smart though; they put microchips on the bottom of each cup and a little reader at the drink machine.  If you'd already filled your cup and went back for a refill, the machine would read your microchip and automatically switch off. We sat just across from the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine and had maybe too much fun watching people try to refill their cups and then get really confused when it wouldn't work.

Worth every penny!

Most of the afternoon was spent at the Louvre. There was such a long line to get in that we debated whether or not it was even worth it, but it looked as if the line was moving quickly so we went for it. Like most people, we headed straight for the Mona Lisa which, I have to say, was hard to really appreciate in a room packed with our fellow tourists. There were so many people in the gallery that we couldn't get close enough to the painting (which is kind of small) to see it clearly. We ended up walking around the Louvre for hours just looking at art and trying to find each kid's doppelganger in the paintings we saw.  

Next on our itinerary was Notre-Dame. Surprisingly, walking around a museum for hours makes people's feet awfully tired.  So we rode in a rickshaw to the almost 700-year-old cathedral and gave our feet a little break. Notre-Dame is another Paris sight that we'd been to before and didn't love the idea of going into again. The crowds around the cathedral itself were massive and we definitely subscribe to the theory that if you've seen one cathedral you've seen them all. So instead of stained glass and architecture, we walked to a nearby creperie for a treat! Eating crepes in the shadow of Notre-Dame is pretty Parisian, right?

Our final stop of the day was the Sacre-Coeur Basilica, which according to the internet would provide us better views of Paris than what we'd see from the Eiffel Tower. Well, from the top of the tower of the Sacre-Coeur the views were meant to be spectacular but by the time we arrived the tower was closed so we missed out on the views. Jared did manage to let a Russian tour guide know that her group was not going to cut the line no matter how much they kept trying to. That little exchange (complete with blade hand Larisa!) was probably my favorite part of our time at Sacre-Coeur. 

And there you have it, Paris in a day!