Paris in the Springtime

I have been dreaming for several years of going to Paris but I honestly never really thought it would happen (I mean one of my college roommates and I planned on going backpacking through Europe after graduating, but that didn't exactly pan out...that was back in like 2005...) But on March 23rd I finally got to cross this off my list of things to do. Paris was absolutely amazing - everything from the weather to the buildings to the food.

Enough rambling, I know you want details. So here you go, I hope I can give you a picture of how fabulous it was and how much j'adore Paris. I also have to admit that I've totally been procrastinating on blogging about this trip. Mostly because there is so much to say, pictures to post and things to recap. I knew it was going to take forever and I didn't want to spend the time to really do it justice. I have decided (with the wonderful advice of my mom and dad) to splint the trip into parts. That way I can still get everything in that I want to say but not spend a huge block of time all at once doing it! So enjoy day one - fyi, it wasn't as exciting as day 2 and 3 so make sure you read those two days!

PARIS: Day One

I went to Paris with my friend Beth. Interestingly, Beth used to be stationed at Langley. While, I never was really introduced to her, we definitely recognized each other. Due to the fact that I would see her all the time at the gym, early in the morning before work started. Then randomly one day here at Landstuhl, I was leaving the dining facility after lunch and guess who I saw? I went over and introduced myself, explained our connection. I continued to run into her and got her to sign up to run the half marathon with me in Lux. When I needed a travel buddy to go to Paris I knew I had to ask her first. She was totally enthusiastically in, which was awesome! Unfortunately because of her work schedule, we had to wait and leave Landstuhl Friday afternoon instead of first thing in the AM. Luckily for me, that meant sleeping in a little, running in the sunshine, and packing before our trip (also sneaking in a few chapters of the Hunger Games. Yes, I reread it! But I had to read it before the movie came out so I could refresh my memory, you know what I mean?!)

We headed down the hill into Landstuhl to the train station and caught a train heading west into Saarbrucken. Once there we, boarded the I.C.E train, the one that goes 200+ km/hr, and headed into France and onto Paris. The first thing I noticed was that this train really did feel like I was going that fast. I had rode another I.C.E. to Munich a couple weeks ago, but couldn't really feel the speed like I did on this trip. It was so fun to watch the country side breeze by that's for sure! The other thing I noticed was how easy it was to tell when we left Germany and entered France. It was kinda weird, but everything seemed brighter, fresher, greener, and just more modern. It may seem odd and not plausible, but there is definitely something different about the two countries.

French Country from the Train Windows. I know you can't tell the difference from Germany, so you'll just have trust me on this. They are different. I promise. 

About 2 hours later we were in Paris, arriving at the main train station: Gare de l'Est. We got of our train, headed to the Paris Info office were we bought two day museum passes to get us into LOTS of the museums and major attractions for a set price. We then found the location of the office where you can rent a locker to hold your luggage (this is key for Sunday sightseeing once we checked out of the hotel) and then we were off. Our hotel was in the 'outskirts' of town, so it was time saving and much more convenient to ride the Metro to our hotel and into the city everyday. Because we knew we'd ride the Subway we bought the special 10 tickets for €12.70.

Let me just take a brief moment to explain the Metro system. It's actually really very simple. There are several (15-20) lines that run through out Paris. Each marked by their own color/number  and intersecting lines where you can change to another line is called a  'correspondence'. The direction the metro train travels is shown by the terminal stop at either end of the line. One ticket allows you to make as many correspondences as you want to get to your desired destination and still pay one flat rate. There is pretty much a train coming into each stop every 5-7 minutes, so it is an simple and fairly quick way to get around the city. Esp when you are carrying luggage and your hotel is several km away from the train station! s

Back to the travelogue. Once we got our tickets, we d descended the stairs, successfully found the right line going in the right direction, made a correspondence with such easy it felt like we were natural Parisians! ;) We left the subway and got out up into La Défense district, which was basically this huge pavilion courtyard with lots of skyscrapers and apartments all around. Oh, and there was this cool building called the Grand Arch which was a very modern looking Arc de Triumphe.

Gare de l'Est main entrance

Just outside the Métro waiting for tickets and then going down to catch our train. Line 4, correspondence @ the Louvre, line 1 to la Défense and our hotel!

The Grand Arch

Défense District and 'courtyard'. The arch and our hotel are behind me.

Our hotel room. (Beth's Louis Vuitton bag...definitely NOT mine. haha)

The hotel we stayed in was so nice. A Marriot hotel actually (thanks to Beth's Marriot points ;) ) and was  just on the other side of the arch. We quickly checked into our room, dropped our things off and headed back outside. Our objective for the night was to get a brief over view of the city by taking a boat tour along the Seine. We wanted to walk there so we could get an even better feel for the layout of the city. The tour launched from the base of the Eiffel Tour so we left our hotel, looked for the Eiffel Tower and headed for the major monument. Here's what we saw during our walk through the court yard, over the Seine, down Ave de la Grand Armée (which turns into Champs-Elysée after you pass the Arc de Triomphe) and turned south to find the Eiffel Tour. Here's what we saw along the way....

This was a large metal sculpture in the courtyard by the hotel. I thought it looked kinda similar to the signature sculpture in Grand Rapids at the Calder Art Plaza. As I got closer, it didn't really look as close as I thought.  

This is the view at the end of the courtyard looking down the Ave de la Grand Armée. See the Arc way off in the distance. It was soo cool to get to the edge and look out and see that! :) 

Looking out over the Seine as we walked over the bridge and into Paris proper.

We stopped for dinner at a small little cafe down the main street. We were STARVING (by this time it was like 7:00 pm) and we weren't sure how long it would be until we got to the Eiffel Tower to catch a boat tour. The last tour left at like 9:00 so we really didn't have time to sit down and eat somewhere. So we grabbed something quick, scarfed it down and continued on. I had a spinach and cheese quiche (delicious) and Beth had something called a fougasse, which from all the different types they had for sale was kinda a French pizza. Beth had one topped with chevré (mmmmmm goat cheese!) and tomatoes. 

We made it! Isn't it pretty?!?

Looking up to the top at the base. I was amazed. It looked so cool glowing at night. They have a light show that goes off on the hour every hour until like 1 or 2. It's a bunch of sparkling, glittery bright white lights all the way up and down that sparkle and blink for 5 minutes. It's pretty sweet looking on top of the yellow light that stays up through out the night.

Once at the base, we picked one of the many tour companies: Bateaux Parisien, which just happened to be leaving the dock in 5 minutes (perfect timing). The tour was 60 minutes long and went all the way down the River from the Eiffel to Notre Dome passing by Musée Orsay, the Louvre, Les Invalides, the Planitarium, the house where the mayor of Paris lives and passing under several of the bridges that cross over the river. Unfortunately not very many of my pictures turned out in the dark of the buildings, so you'll just have to wait for the next few posts to see more of Paris. (I need to take a photography class once I get back so I can learn about camera settings and such to get better night/low light shots to turn out. That and maybe get a different camera...). After the tour it was about 10:15 at night already, so we found the nearest metro stop and rode home to our hotel and passed out so we could get a good jump start on our busy Saturday.

On the boat, waiting to launch. We sat on the back, open roof, feeling the wind blow through our hair! Pretty cool to do in March, huh?

Beth & I on the boat.

Looking back toward the Eiffel Tower as we travel down the Seine River. There were a lot of people still out walking down the sidewalk waving and shouting at us. I found that kind of funny because there was a boat that left every hour during the day, and that was just from this company! These people acted like this was the first boat they ever saw carrying people down the river!

A building along the way. I can't remember which one...maybe city hall or something.... :/

One of the many bridges crossing the river. This just happens to be the oldest of them all.

And to cap it off, a black & white of the Tower. It looks even cooler in B&W, I think. Isn't it so majestic looking?? 

Day one, done. Day Two and Three coming soon to a blog near you. Stay tuned!