Paris!

So our first trip out of town was to Paris! We went this past weekend. It was a little bit of a last minute idea, we didn’t even have a hotel booked until Friday night! We did find a hotel though, near the Montmartre area & the Gare du nord. We left Saturday morning. The first thing we did, other then buying our metro pass was go to the Sainte Chappelle. It is something that I have always wanted to see. It was quite beautiful; the picture I have included is the interior stained glass rosette window, facing the rear since the altar was undergoing some restoration. Then from there we walked to Notre Dame. The area was packed with tourists and the line-up to get in was immense. Last Saturday was a holiday in France so that was why there were so many tourists, and is the reason for us having a difficult time finding a hotel.

So we didn’t go in the Notre Dame Saturday. We walked around the back and then along the Seine having a picnic gyro lunch. After that we went to see the outside of the Louvre and continued down to the Tuileries Gardens. We had a beer in the Gardens before making our way to the Arc de Triomphe. By this time we were quite tired and went via metro to check into our hotel. After a rest we went up to the Sacre Coeur. It was also quite packed. It was such a beautiful day I think everyone in the city was outside relaxing. The view from the Sacre Coeur was phenomenal. After sightseeing around Montmartre we took the metro over to the Eiffel Tower. As we walked around the base of the tower everytime Andre and I would hold hands a man would appear trying to sell us a rose!

The next day was a Sunday so not very much was open. Andre and I had anticipated this and planned to go to the Flea Market, which was supposed to be the biggest in the world. Well we couldn’t find it! So after searching around we decided to go to the Louvre. We saw many wonderful paintings and sculptures. All of the biggest and most famous are kept in the same area.

That night we walked along the Seine and watched the sunset. We crossed the bridge to get a closer look at the Grand Palais and found a huge market of local farmers! It was very cool. They had closed the Champs-Elysees for the event. An artist had also made a giant installation titled “Nature Capitale” (you can look it up at www.naturecapitale.com if you are curious) It was a lot of fun. People were just sitting in the middle of the street; apparently the Champs doesn’t close very often and is quite an event! We ended our night by going to see the Eiffel Tower at night.

We left the next day, Monday afternoon. In the morning we went to see the interior of Notre Dame and then for a bit of shopping at the Galeries Lafayette. We had lunch at an Italian Pizzeria before heading back to the Gare du nord to catch our train home to Arras!!