Paris-In-A-Day!

Brian had a trade show in Paris all week, so we flew in to join him for the weekend!

We got into the airport and then rode the train, transferred to the tram, and then walked the rest of the way to the hotel.  We all got to bed around 11:00pm - Brian, Owen, and me in the big bed and Hayden in a bed made of chairs right next to us.

Our adventure begins:

The boys always get up early, so we left the hotel and walked down the street to get some croissants and pastries at a local shop.  Unfortunately, since it was Saturday, the shop was closed.  So we went to the closest train station and bought 2 adult and 2 child Day Passes (19 euros) and rode the train down to the Eiffel Tower stop.  We walked down toward the Eiffel Tower and found a restaurant, Le Castel Cafe, to eat in a block from the tower.  We had 1 Cheese Omelet (came with fries), an American Breakfast Special (1 hot beverage + 1 cold beverage + fried eggs + croissant), and a Breakfast Special (hot beverage + cold beverage + rolls with butter + jam) all for a large price.  The prices in Paris were more than Bratislava or Vienna.  Drinks were even more than in Italy!!

We then walked over to the Eiffel Tower area.  It was gorgeous weather and all of the flowers and leaves are out.  It sure felt like walking around Washington DC though.....hmmmm.  The Mall was there, the capital, the monument.....was weird deja vu.  (Is that a French phrase, was it invented for those of us who copy them?).  It is a bit odd that spring seems to come to western Europe about a month before eastern Europe because of the sea.  Even northern Germany is way ahead of us.

After walking around and then under the tower, we went across the street to a stand on the river and bought a crepe with chocolate and bananas for a snack.  Then we walked across the bridge, stopped at the souvenir shop on the corner, then crossed the street and walked over the Trocadero/Palais de Chaillot.  We then hopped a train to the Arc de Triomphe.  This was similar to the arches we saw in Rome.  (I actually liked Rome better, but am glad we saw it.)  Then we waked down the Champ-Elysees and stopped in to have some overpriced crap pizza.  We then walked past the largest Louis Vouitton store I've ever seen - not that that is saying much - I really am not in to that.  There was lots of fashion around and many new movie posters - we didn't even know that some of these movies had even been made!!  It is a much more "current" city than Bratislava.  ;)

We were beginning to drag a bit at this point so we stopped at the Louvre and let Hayden take a nap.  He laid down on a bench between us and took about a 30 minute nap while we sat in the sun and watched the tourists.  Watching people take pictures at the pyramids at the Louvre was almost as much fun as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Once he woke up, we stopped in a cafe to refresh with some coffee and more crepes.  We did debate whether crepes in Breckenridge were better and we thought they were.  After Owen went into a sugar coma, we walked down to Notre Dame.

We met a nice lady there who was commanding a brood of pigeons who promptly sat upon us for some food.  We meandered around the local neighborhood and looked through the crap souvenir shops which Hayden loves and ended up at the park behind Notre Dame to sit down and relax.  After a bit of rest and Brian continuing to mutter something about a Fiesta Bowl snub, we left Notre Dame and walked across the river.

We ended up shopping a bit (found a really cool toy store) and stopping a couple of times for drinks before grabbing dinner at a local joint in the Latin section.  Owen had been looking forward to some quiche and our restaurant only had Quiche du jour (mmm, that sounds good).  We asked what it was for today and our waitress said "fish".  Owen wasnt up for trying fish quiche, so Brian ordered it and it was excellent.  By this time, it was 830 on a beautiful warm Saturday evening and the streets were packed with young people.  We noticed that we were one of the few people out with youngsters in tow.  We figured our day was rapidly ending so we hopped back on the train and went back to the Eiffel Tower and watched the lights come on (and twinkle on the hour).

We went back to the hotel and had a quiet Sunday morning and a rainy ride back to the airport for the flight home.  All in all, it was a good trip and we got to see all the touristy stuff.  We did notice how much more English you hear in Paris compared to Slovakia....our heads would turn every time we hear English as it is becoming more and more surprising to us.  Even the boys noticed...salut!


You can check out all of our pictures from the weekend here