by Natalie
Great day! We got an early start at 9:00 in the morning. Grabbed a baguette for breakfast (still warm from the oven...heaven) and took it on the go, meeting some folks at Notre Dame on Ile de la Cite for a Bike About Paris tour. It was an amazing time, a whopping four hour ride that brought us all over the back streets of Paris with a handful of major monuments thrown in. Pamela, our tour guide, had some great fun facts - cannon balls stuck into old palaces, pieces of the old fortress wall still in existence, bullet holes from the first World War visible in the walls of Hotel de Ville - all delivered from super-fun, light aluminum bikes. It was a blast. We had a fun surprise too; about three of the places she had pointed out we had already discovered, and we even rode by our apartment to boot!
After the tour, we walked a bit, grabbed a beer, and used our museum pass to visit Musee D'Orsay. Very cool building with tons of light - I found myself gazing at the architecture more than the paintings! We then made our way to Musee Rodin, only to find it was closing time. No big thing, we headed back to the apartment, showered and got dressed for dinner, and ate a dinner of steak frites on an outdoor terrace surrounded by a thick plastic ceiling and walls. Good thing too - the sky ripped open almost as soon as we sat down, turning the terrace into a veritable flood.
Thankfully the rain didn't last long. We walked down to Pont Neuf to catch a boat tour of the Seine. Ryan took some amazing photos with his fancy camera. In fact, he pretty much had that thing glued to his face! After the ride, we shared a romantic evening on the Pont des Arts bridge, where couples can "lock their love" by literally locking a padlock with their initials onto the wire structure of the bridge and throwing the key into the river. We plopped down on the side of the bridge, split a bottle of wine, and listened to young french guys playing flute and guitar, all the while flanked by the glowing Eiffel tower on one side, and the glowing pont neuf on the other. Not bad at all.
P.S. Had my first REAL chocolate croissant. All I can say is, WOW. No turning back for me now - chocolate croissants every day, at least once a day.
And a guest entry from Ryan:
Kind of glad we had not stopped by the Eiffel Tower yet because our first encounter was so epic. It was all lit up as we inched up to it on a boat on the Seine. Perfect way to see the tower for the first time. We will check it out later during the day and take the elevator to the top.
When I visited Paris I saw the Eiffel Tower from the top of one of the buildings. I can't remember which but I remember that one of the floors before we got onto the roof we were in a room full of information about buildings in Paris. Anyway the view from that roof of Paris and the Eiffel Tower was spectacular, especially when it sparkles and does that search light thing that Parisians hate, and also terrifying because we were really high. It was definitely one of the best ways to see Paris at night. By the way, it sounds like your trip has been wonderful so far.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds incredible! I think maybe you were on the top of the Arc de Triomphe, they have a mini-museum about two thirds of the way up the climb to the top. You are right, the views are incredible from there. We never made it to the top of the Eiffel Tower because it was closed, but the roof of the Arc definitely made up for it!
ReplyDeleteOddly enough I never made it to the top of the Arc de Triomphe partly because I was feeling cheap and partly because I'm afraid of heights. Which ends up being pretty ironic because I went to the top of Mont Saint Michel, The Eiffel Tower, and Sacre Couer (coure?). Actually... in hind sight, I have no idea why I didn't go the Arc de Triomphe since all of those places are higher... oh yeah I was being cheap that morning. Sounds like I missed out on a great view. I hope you guys visited Laduree.
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