Europe Trip 2012: Part 1: Paris

I have been so excited to blog about my trip to Europe, but it seemed like such a daunting task. We were on vacation for 24 days total, and I'm sure you can imagine the amount of pictures that we took!

Our trip started after work on October 19th. We got off early and a friend drove us down to the airport.  (side note: I love airports! I will sometimes plan trips with layovers when it would be just a little more expensive to fly direct so that I can see more airports. That much.)

We took off from Seattle around 4:30 p.m. and showed up in Reykjavik, Iceland very early the next morning.

Pillow that they gave us on the airplane. We flew IcelandAir to Europe. They were great! 

The sun coming up over Iceland right before we landed. 

I was very excited to get to Reykjavik because it was the very first country outside of the United States that I have ever been to! My dad was in the Coast Guard while I was growing up, so I have been very lucky to see almost all of MY country, but I had never gone outside of it until this trip.

Getting my passport stamped for the first time nearly brought me to tears.

My very first passport stamp, in Reykjavik, Iceland. 

After a short layover, we were on our way to Paris! Paris, which I have dreamed about visiting since I was a child! We landed at CDG and found our way (using very broken French) to the right train and headed into town. Sitting there, with all of our heavy stuff, thoroughly exhausted from not sleeping on either flight, I just stared out the window and watched the outside scenery become more city-like, still kind of in shock that I was actually there.

I loved how easy the metro system was in Paris. It was so easy to get around, even for those of us who don't really speak the language. We bought the kind of tickets that you could use as often as you wanted over three days, so we didn't have to worry about how much it was going to cost to take several metro rides to get around.

We went directly to our hotel first, which was a little bit on the outskirts of the city, to unload our stuff and rest. It was called Nadaud Hotel and I would definitely recommend it to anybody who wants to go stay in Paris, not spend a fortune and easily get around. It was quiet and clean and literally a two minute walk from the metro line. It was also just a five minute walk from a delicious bakery, where we had breakfast in the mornings and very close to Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, where Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison and many others are buried.

The view from our hotel in Paris. 

Although we were very excited to be there and explore, a quick nap was in order! I had that gross, dehydrated, somewhat nauseous feeling of somebody who has been up for way too many hours. After we woke up, we were off to see one of Paris's most famous sights, the Eiffel Tower!

We hopped on the metro, and got off just across the river for the Eiffel Tower. An amazing smell hit us, which we quickly found out was a food stand serving up crepes with Nutella inside. As I made plans to make this my dinner, I walked around the corner and there it was... the Eiffel Tower. It was dark and late and cloudy, but it was absolutely gorgeous, all lit up.

The view coming around the corner.

We enjoyed our Nutella crepes and watched the Eiffel Tower twinkling, and then decided to take a walk and get a little closer... that's when the rain started! Not a misty, light shower, but a full on rain storm! We were having such a good time, so happy to be there, that we just laughed and ran from covered area to covered area back towards the metro and made our way back to the hotel. It was an amazing first night in Paris!

Foggy, but so pretty! This was before we got drenched by a rainstorm that came out of nowhere.

The next morning, we went to the cemetery after stopping for pain au chocolat at the bakery (it was AMAZING). We wandered around, looking at the beautiful monuments and getting incredibly lost before we found Chopin, who was who I really wanted to see. We got stuck along with a little tour group at his grave and learned absolutely nothing, as the guide was speaking in rapid French. It did add to the ambiance nicely, though.

Inside the cemetery. 

One of the beautiful monuments. 

Me and Chopin! 

Next, it was back to the metro (I do miss the amazing public transportation in Europe. I wish Seattle would put in a subway system that has a stop right outside my house.) and headed to Sacré Cœur (The  Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris). From the outside, it was very pretty, but it was ridiculously hot outside and there were many, many stairs to get to the top. When we walked inside the church, I had to stop myself from crying. It was absolutely gorgeous. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but you'll have to take my word for it. It was amazing.

Sacré Cœur.

Outside Sácre Cœur. 

Once we had enjoyed the church, we walked around the little shopping district nearby. One of the souvenirs I had planned to get while we were in Paris was a bottle of French perfume. I planned to wear it during our entire trip, so that whenever I would smell it again, it would always remind me of our vacation. We found a little shop called Fragonard and found a very pretty perfume, for only 14 euros. I had been thinking that it was going to be a lot more, and was pleasantly surprised by the price. (I just went and put some on now to smell while I'm writing. It is so nice!)

After that, we headed off to the metro station again and went hunting for Moulin Rouge! There was a stop not to far from it, and we walked along the quiet, little sex shop-lined streets and then there it was. We stopped, had coffee, took pictures and just relaxed for a while with all of the other people who had traveled from all over to see its bright red windmill.

The Moulin Rouge! 

With hubby in front of the Moulin Rouge.

Ever since Emily on the Devil Wears Prada set the desktop background on her iMac to the Arc de Triomphe, I had looked forward to visiting it in Paris. One of the neat things about it, is that when you come off the metro line, you come up from underground and it is RIGHT THERE. It's just right in your face as soon as you can see. And it is HUGE. I had no idea how large it was. It was way bigger than I expected it to be, seeing it on TV and in magazines. It was pretty amazing, and is covered in so many sculptures and details that are so beautiful.

Me in front of the Arc de Triomphe. 

One of my favorite sculptures on the Arc de Triomphe.

Memorial under the Arc de Triomphe. 

Look how tiny I am in comparison!

From the Arc de Triomphe, we walked down the Champs-Élysées. This is where the shopping is! The stores are so nice and pretty (and expensive!). The Sephora was MASSIVE. It was fun to walk along the busy street, on our way down to the Louvre.

Pretty fountain on our walk to the Louvre.

On the walk to the Louvre, we found one of my favorite souvenirs from our entire trip. There was an amazing street vendor who would look at you for about two minutes while using a tiny pair of scissors to cut your silhouette out of black paper. He was doing one of a girl about my age when we walked by and it was so amazing to watch. It only cost five euros, and I stepped up to be next in line. I sat very still while he stared and clipped and then I was all done. I love the silhouette and feel like it is a really unique treasure to bring back from our trip. Since we still had like 22 days left of our trip, I had to work really hard to keep it safe, but it made it home fine and is now framed with pretty paper in our living room.

My silhouette from Paris. 

After getting our exercise in for the day, we made it to the Louvre. The outside of the building is a piece of art in itself. It is a wonderful mix of traditional and modern. I had one of those moments where I couldn't believe that I was actually there!

The outside of the Louvre. 

The pyramid outside the Louvre. 

Underneath the pyramid. 

It was a little late in the day, but we didn't know if we were going to get a chance to make it back to the Louvre, so we decided to go in. We had to rush around a little bit, but it was totally worth it to get to see as much as we did. 

The Winged Victory of Samothrace.

I know that it's cliché, but I really wanted to see the Mona Lisa. We looked at the map and walked quickly through the still crowded building towards the right room. It was set up behind glass, and you couldn't get close, but it was amazing to be that near something that is so iconic.

Me and the Mona Lisa. 

After seeing the Mona Lisa, we headed off to see as much as we could of the Louvre, since it was almost closing time. There was so much more to see, and I definitely want to make sure that I go back someday and set aside a whole day to see all of the treasures that are tucked away in little rooms of the massive museum. For the time we had, though, it was awesome.

Wonderful angel sculpture in the Louvre. 

Pretty man sculpture at the Louvre. 

We were so exhausted by this time... we packed a lot into one day! We stopped by the shopping and food mall underground by the inverted pyramid. We grabbed a snack and walked around all the pretty shops.

We decided after we finished up at the museum to stop by the Eiffel Tower again to try to see it in better light, and I am so glad we did! We got there just in time to catch a BEAUTIFUL sunset happening over the Seine.

Sunset over the Seine with the Eiffel Tower. 

Then, it was finally time to head back to our temporary home, but not before we had Nutella crepes, a fromage panini and Orangina (made with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup and tastes WAY better than the Orangina we can buy at home) for dinner again. We dragged our exhausted selves back onto the metro and went back to the hotel and fell asleep watching French TV.  It was an incredible day!

View of the Eiffel Tower before we went to go grab dinner for the evening.

The next morning, we had to pack up all our things, as we weren't going to spend the night at the hotel again. We had breakfast at the bakery again, took advantage of having a shower and then said goodbye to the nice people who ran the hotel. We dropped our bags off at the train station lockers so we wouldn't have to carry them around and then we were off exploring again.

Cool trains at the station where we dropped off our stuff. We would be taking a train into this station at the very end of our trip when we came back from London to Paris. 

Our first stop after dropping off our things was to Notre Dame. It was so old and a wonder to see in person. It is crazy to think how old it is and try to imagine how it was made by hand without all of the modern technology that we have today.

Me in front of Notre Dame. 

Pretty statue in front of Notre Dame. 

Detail on the front of the church.

Unlike Sacré Cœur, they didn't care if you took pictures of the inside of Notre Dame. It was so dark in there, that it was difficult to get good shots, but I'm glad I at least have a few pictures to help me remember how gorgeous it was. There was information up in the church talking about the restoration efforts, and it said that the church was built 850 years ago. Let's just stop and think about that for a minute... 850 years! I still can't believe that I was inside.

Beautiful stained glass window inside Notre Dame.

More stained glass. 

Hubby and I inside Notre Dame. 

We sat in the church for a while to rest. Our feet were SO TIRED at this point. I'm so glad that we splurged for good shoes. I was never in a lot of pain, just achy feet and muscles from all of the walking that we did. It was nice to sit in the pews and just appreciate the beauty and history all around us.

Outside Notre Dame. 

Notre Dame. 

After Notre Dame, we walked back towards the river to find a little bookstore that Marc told me about years ago and that I always wanted to see. It is called Shakespeare and Company and is right next to the Seine. 

Shakespeare and Company bookstore.

If you know me at all, you know how much I adore books (and bookstores). This bookstore definitely did not disappoint. The front of the store was filled to the brim with newer books, but as you wandered back, there was a maze of small rooms filled with books to keep me occupied for the rest of my life! 

My favorite part of the bookstore was a tiny little room (about three feet by four feet) that you had to to squeeze past an iron gate to get into. There was barely room to turn around, and the walls were crammed full of poetry books. Of course, the books were nice, but there was also a part of the wall where people had put up notes. I read every one. Love notes. Sad notes. Advice and quotes. It was beautiful. 

My favorite note on the wall in Shakespeare and Company. A kind word from a total stranger. 

More notes. 

Since we still had a lot of the day left, we found a place to eat lunch (pizza... perhaps preparing our tummies for the next leg of our journey) and then made our way back to the other side of the river to visit the opera house! It was very beautiful. We sat on the steps for a long while, resting while watching the cars and busses and people going by. I loved to sit and listen to the conversations going on in a language that I can't really understand. It was fun being in a place where hearing conversations in my native language was uncommon.

That being said, we never had problems getting around in Paris. We know enough French to order food and find our way around and have short conversations. We always tried French first, and if we had problems, almost everybody we came into contact with in stores and restaurants spoke English. I think that it's important to try, though, and I think that it's appreciated if you don't go around just assuming that everybody speaks English!

We walked back down the Champs Élysées and walked into that massive Sephora. One of the things that I noticed in Paris is that it seems like all of the girls my age wear lipstick. The colors varied, but on the metro and in the streets, even if they looked like they had no other makeup on and were just in street clothes, all of the girls seemed to have gorgeous lips! I picked up a lipstick while we were there, another souvenir that I can use on a regular basis and remind me of my trip, rather than sitting a shelf gathering dust.

View of the Arc de Triomphe from the middle of the Champs Élysées.

Our flight from Paris to Rome wasn't until the next morning, but before the metro started running. Our plan was to spend the night at the airport the night before. We still had time to get down there, so we went to the Louvre again to get a snack and take advantage of some free wifi from the Starbucks. Since I had time to kill and free wifi, I decided to Skype my mom and sister and say Hi from Paris. We didn't get to talk to them long because the wifi was awful, but it was nice to say hello and show them the inverted pyramid. 

Me in front of the inverted pyramid. 

Then it was time to get to the airport. We picked up our stuff and took a train back to the airport. We got there and printed our tickets. By that time, it was around 11:30 a.m. and we couldn't even get through security until 5:30 the next morning. We settled ourselves in, bought some wifi to upload photos. I wrote in my journal and Marc downloaded the latest episode of the Walking Dead. We took turns taking naps and before we knew it, it was time to get up and get ready for our flight to Rome.

As I write this, and reference the journal/scrapbook that I kept while we were there, I feel strangely homesick for a place that I was only in for a few days. I guess that's just the travel bug!

I hope you've all had a wonderful weekend! Hubby and I got our Christmas tree last night and it's all set up and ready to be decorated! It smells so wonderful. We are going to string the lights and put on the ornaments after Dexter while we watch one of my ALL TIME favorite Christmas movies, A Christmas Story and drink peppermint hot cocoa. Good night!!