La Ville-Lumière

I had kind of given up on doing recap posts from our trip to Europe, but I was feeling so guilty about it I decided I could squeak out a few more while it's still somewhat fresh in my memory! The first will go through our last days in Paris...

So where did I leave off? We arrived in Paris, had a wonderful dinner and first sighting of the Eiffel Tower, and then headed back to the hotel. Here's where things went downhill. I spent the next 24 hours extremely sick and unfortunately could not leave the room, let alone get up and walk around. It was really bad and I have no clue if it was food poisoning or just travel related. Luckily Tom didn't get [as] sick as I did, but neither of us felt 100% for the rest of the trip. I was really upset that we had to skip our day of visiting Versailles, but that just means we have to go back.

After 24 hours of sickness, I eventually woke up feeling decent and hungry. There was no way I was leaving Paris without having a croissant, so I sent Tom out for some pastries.

The chocolate croissant was amazing! 3 months later I can still imagine the buttery, flaky awesomeness of that croissant.

After breakfast we got ready and headed out for a big day of sightseeing. We left our hotel and walked about 10 minutes to the Arc de Triomphe. It was huge! Way bigger than it looks in pictures. The line was too long to go up to the top, so we just walked around for a while admiring the gorgeous engravings.

From there we walked down the Champs-Elysees, taking in the high end shopping and TONS of people. I loved this street, there was so much room for pedestrians! There was also a horse jumping competition going on which was an interesting little side show.

There I am sitting on a bench resting with a gatorade because I was still a bit of a sickling. As you can see I'm wearing my winter coat. The weather on this first half of the trip wasn't cooperating much. It was pretty chilly and started to rain at various points.

For lunch we went to La Cuisine de Bar, which was featured in Food Lover's Guide to the World as having the best sandwiches in Paris! This place was so cute, and the sandwiches were delicious!

The lunch special included a soup or salad, sandwich, and drink (wine). I ordered the soup and a mozzarella and tomato open faced sandwich. Tom ordered the salad and the salmon open faced sandwich.

After lunch we continued our sightseeing and went over to the Louvre. I was really nervous about a long line but it went surprisingly quickly -- we only waited for about 10 minutes!

The Louvre is ENORMOUS! You could probably spend a week in Paris doing nothing but exploring the Louvre and still have lots to see. We didn't want to spend a crazy amount of time in the museum, so we did some casual exploring, making sure to hit up "the big 3": Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory.

There is so much more to see in the Louvre than just these three pieces of art and I wish we could have devoted an entire day to exploring. Personally, I don't really understand the hype around the "big 3". I'm no artist, but there were tons of statues and paintings that seemed far more intricate and beautiful than the 3 combined! I know that history and mystery both play a huge role in the infamy of the 3 pieces, but I guess it just doesn't make sense to me!

After the Louvre we walked over to the Notre Dame Cathedral. On the way, we experienced one of the funniest moments of the trip, hands down. While waiting to cross a street I noticed a cute little puppy sniffing around the leg of a man standing next to it (not the owner, just a random guy). All of a sudden, the puppy lifted up its leg and started peeing on the man! He didn't notice for a few seconds and looked really confused once he realized what happened. Too funny! I actually can't believe that doesn't happen more often.

Anyway, we walked along a beautiful route to get the Cathedral. I so loved Paris and wish the weather was just a tiny bit nicer -- I can't imagine how beautiful things would be with the sun shining!

We arrived at the Cathedral and I was blown away by the gorgeous architecture and design. It's truly an amazing church and I even felt a little spiritual upon entering!

After the church we stopped at a place I had been dying to try in Paris. Here is the description I found for L'Avant Comptoir: At this elbow-to-elbow, standing-room-only “hors d’oeuvres bar,” the bread basket is communal, but the foie gras skewers and boudin noir macarons are just for you.

Unfortunately I was feeling far too ill even go inside at this point, but I'm happy that Tom was able to enjoy a crepe from the window!

Another reason to plan a return to Paris!

Our next stop was to go to Sainte-Chapelle. Unfortunately by the time we arrived there was a concert underway so we couldn't go inside. I was really looking forward to seeing the stained glass! Next time.

Eventually we made our way over to the Eiffel Tower once again to take the trip up to the top. On the way it started raining a bit, but a little rain wouldn't stop us!

The wait was only about 20 minutes, which wasn't nearly as long as I anticipated. By the time we got to the top the sun was setting, and it was amazing to watch the lights of Paris come on as the time passed.

This was I think my favorite part of our time in Paris. The view was just incredible, pictures cannot even begin to do it justice. We decided to splurge and ordered some champagne to celebrate our trip and making it up to the top!

The Arc de Triomphe from the top of the Tower!

I'll never forget the feeling of being up there! It was so amazing!

Such big smiles after on the way back to the hotel :)

We called it an early night because I still wasn't feeling great. Luckily in the morning the sun was shining and I was feeling much better! Tom unfortunately was not.

We decided to make the best of our last half day in Paris by going to see Moulin Rouge and the famous Sacre Coeur.

I was so excited about Moulin Rouge!! It's still my favorite movie of all time and I really wish we could have went inside to see a show (reason #250953258 to return to Paris!)

Loved this metro station. Our last day in Paris was so gorgeous -- blue skies and 70 degrees!

So excited!

After Moulin Rouge we walked over to La Basilique du Sacre Coeur. The Sacre Coeur sits on top of a big hill and has an incredible view of Paris. There were tons of people around and it was just a really cute area. I would have loved to spend more time there exploring!

We totally lost track of time and cut it REALLY close to missing our train to Brussels! Luckily we managed to catch a cab and arrived at the train station just in the nick of time.

I really loved Paris but did NOT like being sick. I hated to miss out on Versailles and on the food in the city. I was so looking forward to eating in Paris but the sickness made me skip out on a lot of meals. Next time I will be more prepared!

And yes, there will be a next time. Coming up, Brussels!