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Published: September 9th 2014
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I'm already slacking here with this travel blog. These days have been jam-packed and very long so it's been hard to find the time to even have a free moment, but I have some down-time now. Here is a recap from yesterday:
We got up early and had a quick breakfast in the hotel before meeting our Parisian tour guide, Ann-Clair. We love Ann-Clair. She's feisty and honest as can be but also super knowledgable . This woman clearly knows her stuff and she crams in every ounce she can. I will do my best to recall the majority of what we have done with her, but I know I'm not doing it justice.
To start, Ann-Clair took us on a four-hour driving tour of Paris. It was great because we were really able to see many highlights of the city and she stopped to let us out at many points during the tour. The first part of the tour was spent in Montmartre, which is a northern quarter of Paris that is up on a hill. She called this the "Artists' Quarter" because this has always been known as an area where many artists have lived and worked.
At one point we even drove by the house of impressionist painter, Renoir, as this was a place where many impressionist painters once lived and worked and I'd love to go back and explore the area again if we have time. It was a lovely part of the city and I think if I ever lived here in Paris, that's where I'd want to live. There were quiet winding streets with beautiful iron balconies overflowing with flowers all over the quarter. I must admit that we did see these types of balconies all over Paris but for some reason, they were even more charming in this quaint little area. Anyway, on the outskirts of this quarter we saw the infamous Moulin Rouge and then drove up the hill to see the Sacré-Coeur, or the Sacred Heart church. I actually had been here once before on my brief 24-hour tour of Paris back when I studied abroad in 2008, but it was still quite stunning. The church is all white and stands at the top of a hill, but what I didn't know is that it was only built in 1919 - less than 100 years ago. It looked as if
it could be older, but a quick exploration of the inside showed many beautiful mosaics all in excellent condition - definitely not old art. It was very pretty though and I'm glad we stopped. Outside the Sacré-Coeur, we walked around to a little courtyard where artists were beginning to display their work for people to admire and buy - Montmartre is still apparently the "Artists' Quarter."
We drove back down the hill and past many landmarks that I'm sorry to say I can't quite remember. (There are so many things to do in see in this city, I don't know how anyone could possibly do it all in a week - you would have to be here for a month going somewhere every day to do all the amazing things this city has to offer.) We did drive through the Louvre and I just could not believe how big it was. I avoided it my last trip because I knew I wouldn't be able to do it justice in such a short trip but it's just so enormously massive that we're not going to do it justice either. We do have a half day tour on Wednesday, so more
to come on that.
As we drove through the Louvre we learned that the original Paris was just this tiny island on the Seine where Notre Dame is located. That was our next stop, but on the way we pulled over to see the original love lock bridge. Insane (see picture) - I could not believe how many locks were on that bridge! It was comical! I had brought a lock to put on it but of course forgot it that day - we may be back or we many just lock it on another bridge since the majority of bridges in Paris have locks attached to them and there barely seemed to be room on the original. Still TBD. We hopped back in the car and drove over to Notre Dame where we got out and toured inside with Ann-Clair. It's a beautiful church on the outside and I think that's what I enjoyed most about it. Inside was nice as well - we got to see some beautiful original stain glass windows but it was quite crowded and not as ornate as some other churches I've seen on the inside. Still worth seeing though! After this pit stop we got back in our car and explored some of the Left Bank of the Seine with Ann-Clair.
We saw many more important buildings that we were not able to spend much time on but they all were architecturally very beautiful on the outside. We drove past the Jardin du Luxombourg, a large park with gardens and a palace, which was a Ann-Clair described as being in a park that didn't feel like you were in the middle of such a big city. We noted it as another place we wanted to revisit. Our final stop was to see the Eiffel Tower, or as Ann-Clair referred to it, "Mademoiselle." (French doesn't have a word for "it" and because the word "tower" is a feminine noun in French, she said some locals lovingly refer to the tower as "Mademoiselle.") We drove up by the Trocadéro, which was a building built for France's second World Fair (Eiffel Tower being built for the first) to get a better view. After taking some pictures of the view, we ended our drive by passing through the Champs-Élysées and seeing the Arc de Triomphe once again. Ann-Clair dropped us off at a cafe she liked for lunch and after enjoying some French fare, we then went back to the hotel for a break.
I definitely needed a nap because I was still jet lagged so mid-afternoon, Drew and I decided to explore more and my parents went to check out some shopping. We walked down about a mile and a half back over to the Jardin du Luxombourg. I have to say, I was stunned by the sheer number of people hanging out in the garden - the Parisians really and truly value their leisure time. It was a very nice park though and after wandering around for a while, we finally found a nice little bench to enjoy a little leisure time ourselves. It turned out to be very relaxing and enjoyable especially because we were already overtired from our mix of jet-lag/busy morning.
We headed back to the hotel for dinner. Apparently this hotel has an incredible restaurant called "Le Meurice" which we didn't actually know about until we arrived. Dad, being Dad was able to get us dinner at the Chef's Table which was so cool because we had a special room to ourselves with a window into the kitchen. We chose the Chef's Tasting Menu which did not disappoint - it was eight courses (including two desserts and a cheese plate!) and some of the best food and wine I have ever had in my life. Truly a wonderful Parisian experience that lasted three hours! By the time we got back to our rooms, we were ready to pass out. Definitely a great day!
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