A weekend in Paris - the original one

I had the most AMAZING weekend! The MOST amazing time!!! I went to Paris – the original one!!! I’ve lived in England for almost 10 years now and I had never been on the continent. Paris is less than 2 and ½ hours by train away from me, but I’d never been. It’s always been something I wanted to do, but never done it. So when Matt surprised me with a trip to Paris, I was gob-smacked! I had the BIGGEST smile on my face that I couldn’t get rid of! The down side to going to Paris was a 5:30am start on Saturday morning, but I really didn’t care – I was on my way to PARIS!

I met Matt St Pancras train station where we caught the Eurostar. I’m certain my over excitement was annoying to witness. Poor Matt had 2 days of a scarily grinning Karen. After a short trip to the hotel to drop off our bags, we went to Bastille (if I remember correctly Bastille is an area of Paris where the French Revolution started) where we had lunch in a lovely little French cafe. The weather was a bit miserable (ok more than a bit - it was cold, windy and rainy) but my smile was not dampened in the slightest - I WAS IN PARIS!!!! After lunch we braved the weather for about a minute to run across the street to another little cafe where Matt had been before to get some coffee and cake. Matt's much more familiar with Paris than I (what am I saying - he knows his way around Paris - I didn't know a thing about Paris!) and I was just blindly following him as he showed me around (he made a great tour guide).

We went to the Notre Dame Cathedral,

the Louvre (the hotel we stayed at was very near here),

and ended Saturday's sight seeing walking up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triumph. As we walked up the Champs Elysees evening fell and the Christmas lights we switched on. Let me tell you - the French know how to do Christmas lights! City of Lights is right!

view from Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triumph

in front of the Arc de Triumph

I was pleased to find out that you could go up the Arc de Triumph ... not as pleased to know there were 274 steps to climb to get to the top though. Arg, what a work out!

Matt climbing the stairs - we were around stair 80 here

The view from the of the Arc de Triumph was worth every stair! It was breath taking!
the Champs Elysees from the top of of the Arc de Triumph

The visibility due to the night and bad weather wasn't spectacular, it was spectacular!

The Eiffel Tower from the top of of the Arc de Triumph

Cold, wet, hungry, tired and in Matt's case pain (he had twisted his neck funny/ trapped a nerve on the train ride to Paris - he was a trooper and I can't remember him complaining once, but you could see he was in quite a bit of pain), we looked in vain for shelter in a taxi. After walking back down the Champs Elysees we managed to find a free taxi who took us back to the hotel.

view of some of the lights from the taxi - the lights were amazing!

We took advantage of the spa at the hotel in hopes of curing Matt's neck (see above). The pool was luxurious and the massage after was just divine! I've never had a proper massage before - it was just so amazing! I was so relaxed at one point I forgot I was in France having a massage. Matt asked me if I enjoyed the massage to which I responded with a goofy grin and a "uh huh". Divine. De-vine!

(Hotel pool)

Sunday was cloudy, rainy and cold again - but again it didn't matter as we were still in PARIS! And, and, AND we were going to the Eiffel Tower!

The imposing structure itself - hidden by the clouds when we arrived

Matt's not a huge fan of photos, but he tolerated my picture snapping quite well.

At the bottom of the Eiffel Tower before going up

Matt preferred this picture "moody Matt" - I prefer the smiling version (above), what do you think?

on the elevator going up the Eiffel Tower

view of military academy(?) from the top

as you can tell from my hair, it was pretty windy at the top!

Me at the top (if you squint really hard and look to the right of my left ear, you'll see the Arc de Triumph

Back on the ground I was trying to get a picture of the Eiffel Tower, but I was teetering very close to the edge of the road with cars coming by. This is the kind of picture you get when you hear "quick, move, move now" as Matt tried to save me being splashed by a passing bus.

Attempt number 6 - How magnificent it is! (the structure, not my picture)

After the Eiffel Tower it was to the train station via the Hard Rock Cafe (I accidentally started a bit of a collection of hurricane glasses from the Hard Rock Cafes, so it's something I have to keep up now). We were at the train station in plenty of time, but due to my incredible time wasting skills were were told off by the lady on the gate. This was a new experience for Matt as he's normally hours early. Sadly enough this is a normal occurrence for me while traveling. I push the time limits a bit too much!

I had an incredible time! I'm still smiling!!!

This was actually the first photo I took in Paris (right outside the Notre Dame) Can you see the banana Christmas tree - I thought it was hilarious!