Paris

Scott and I loved Paris! It was the most incredible adventure we've been on together. One of my highlights was simply holding hands through the streets of Paris and marveling at all of the history. Scott was a rockstar at figuring out the metro system. it was so convenient, yet my feet still killed by the end of the day. Europe is the one trip where you look better by the end from all of the walking.

The Eiffel tower was our first stop after checking in at our hotel. It was even more grandiose and impressive than imagined. It became our reference point because we could see it from almost anywhere. There are two levels of the tower. You have to buy a separate ticket at the first level to get to the very top.

View from the top level. A couple got engaged while we were up there.
View from the first level

The Seine River

My first of many crepes (this one was nutella and bananas)

Our Hotel was right by Napoleon's tomb

Hotel Latour Maubourg

We found this hotel at booking.com- giving us a better deal. It had great reviews and friendly staff members. It was a few blocks away from Rue Cler, which is a popular street in the Rick Steve's books. Our room was decked out in orange. I had to take a picture.

The 2nd day went to the Arc de Triumphe, Notre Dame, the Opera house (which was unfortunately closed for rehearsal--it was a favorite of Scotts. There was some pics in the last post), and lunch at Laduree, one of the famous pastry shops in Paris. Everything is delicious! There hot chocolate was made with chocolate shavings. I am definitely a hot chocolate lover and was in complete bliss. We went to the sacred heart in the evening and had dinner near by. We decided to do the Seine river cruise that night in case we ran out of time. On our walk to the river we saw the Eiffel tower light up and sparkle.

Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart) Catholics raise money to build this church during the time the Germans invasion. They felt they were being punished for their sins and hoped building this church would make amends.

Day 3 was one of our favorites... We had our Fat Tire Bike Tour to Versailles. Our 1st stop was to the Versailles market to pick out our picnic food. We sampled different meats and cheeses to create a baguette sandwich. Their strawberries were delicious. Our guide was from New Zealand. He told us we needed to DOMINATE the road, meaning not to allow any cars through our tour group.

Scott was very proud about taking this picture while riding on his own bike

My 1st baguette in France. perfection and cheap. The tour guide told me it was very french of me to walk around with a partially eaten baguette.

You can see much more of the gardens on bike than you could walking

Marie Antoinette's cottage to escape hustle and bustle of the castle

Our tour guide Carl

picnic on the gardens

Hall of Mirrors

The Louvre was open that night until 9:30, so we decided to squeeze it in. i found it overwhelming. there is so much to see and so many levels. we tried to hit just the highlights. They say if you were to spend one minute looking at each piece of art it would take 4 months to see everything at the Louvre.

Day 4... breakfast at the market in Rue Cler. We went to the train station to buy our tickets for Amboise. We spent the afternoon at Sainte- Chapelle, which is famous for their stain glass windows depicting Bible stories. That evening we went to my favorite museum, the Orsay filled with Manet, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh paintings and sculptings on a much much smaller scale than the Louvre.

A market on Rue Cler

Pastries for breakfast

Sainte- Chapelle