Oh La La, Paris in Review!

One month ago today, I was in Paris with my friend Erin. We were likely strolling around the city, seeing the sights. Stopping many times to see if we could spot our new friend, the Eiffel Tower from where we were at that moment. Maybe eating a croissant or a lemon tart, enjoying a glass of wine. You know, just a regular ole day in my life! NOT! Today I am sitting at home, put my daughter on the bus this morning after asking her to ‘get going’ one hundred times. THAT is a regular ole day in MY life! So my mind will wonder back to those glorious 10 days spent in a land far far away, the land I only dreamt about till October, the land of Paris!

How do I even begin to sum up a wondrous 10 day trip to Paris!? I’m not sure, but here I go! On Friday October 19th, Erin and I said good bye to our husbands and children, as we took off to Montreal, en route to Paris! After a red-eye flight, we arrived at 8:30am Paris time. We hopped in a cab and off we went to find out hotel. We arrived earlier than check in, so we left our bags and took off on foot, to see what we could see and *hopeful* to maybe get a glimpse of what Paris equalled to me = the Eiffel Tower. Of course, it was raining that day, but we set out anyways! We ended up walking around for 7 hours straight! We were wet, tired, but THRILLED! We had seen so much in our first 7 hours! We managed to find our way to the L’ouvre, Champs Elysee, Invalides, Champs du Mars, Eiffel Tower (squeeeee!!), Arc du Triomphe, Moulin Rouge and Sacre Coeur, all in 7 hours! Now of course we didn’t spend much time at any place, other than the Eiffel Tower, but we managed to see it all!

Over the course of the next few days, we went ang visited Sacre Coeur, which was super close to our hotel. It was gorgeous even with the very long hike up steep and small staircase! That same day we went to the L’Ouvre. We spent about 2 hours there. Neither of us are huge art buffs, but we managed to see all the well known aspects including of course the Mona Lida and Venus de Milo. Also a very cool recreation of Napolean’s apartments. We took a bus trip (which was not the best, but came for free with our trip package) saw a lot of Paris we probably wouldn’t have otherwise had we walked everything. We spent a morning climbing  up the Arc Du Triomphe that gave gorgeous views out onto the city.

The good part of an afternoon was spent at the Eiffel Tower. We went all the way to the top, of course! It was so so so high up, 324 metres high in fact! It was amazing! We had lunch just looking out onto Trocadero. I probably took a good 100 pictures of just being up there haha! We took a ‘romantic’ dinner cruise down the River Seine. Was nice to see everything lit up at night time, which made me fall even MORE in love with the Eiffel Tower. It is SO gorgeous at night. Just awe inspiring really! We went to Notre Dame as well. Although after seeing Sacre Coeur, I found more gothic and dark. Still breathtaking in its own respect.  Toured and window shopped in Galleries Lafayette, which has to be the prettiest mall I have ever been in, even if the store it holds were too rich for my blood ! Had lunch along Les Champs Elysee, then spent time having heart palpitations in the 5 story Louis Vuitton store lol!

The Wednesday we were away, we took the train to London for the day! It was an amazing day too, a whirlwind trip to a city I would most definitely go back to! But more on that in another post! We also spent a day at Disneyland Paris, which I will review later this week! It was s fun filled day, and just like being in the Florida parks! The night before we left we went and saw Feerie, the show at the Moulin Rouge. I have to say, we were both very excited about seeing it and being at the Moulin Rouge, but were both kind of disappointed with it. It was very very cheesy! We went in expecting Vegas showgirl type show, and it was not that really although it tried lol. We were both still glad that we went, even with it not being what we had hoped!

We saw a lot in the 7 full days that we had in Paris. We walked A LOT! Which was good, cause we ate well too! We ate a lot of croissants and pains au chocolat for breakfast, and I indulged in steaks with bearnaise sauce a few times! The wines were good and inexpensive! Cheaper than pop, so hey, we drank what cost less lol We spent a lot of time walking and seeing what the Parisian lifestyle was life. We weren’t rushed, it was fantastic! My biggest con for Paris was how unsafe I felt out, at night especially. We were constantly holding our purses tightly, and watching for ’sketchy’ looking people where ever we were. I have to say that it took away from the whole Paris experience I had always hoped for, but still would go back and had a fabulous time.

I think I did everything that I wanted to do in Paris, I didn’t leave feeling like I missed anything. It was an amazing time, a trip I thought I could have only dreamed of. I have to say, I lost my cool and I totally cried the last time we went to the Eiffel Tower. I honestly never thought I would be there. It took my breath away that I achieved something I had wanted to for so so SO long! I used to long for Paris when I would see the Eiffel Tower, now it makes me smile and takes me back. Hoping one day, I will return again!