Paris!

Wow. I can't believe it's been a month and a half since I last blogged.. and I am two and half months behind. In some ways, I feel like we are still recovering.. but I know that's not true. It's just that I'm still working on blogging about the trip and working on the album. I feel like I need to get those things done before working on more current things. So before I forget any more than I already have.. here's a little blog on our time in Paris.

We woke up really early and hauled all our luggage down the empty streets of London to St. Pancras, the International Train Station in London.  

The train ride to Paris was great.  It wasn't too long.  But it would have been a little better if we had a window seat.  We did wander down to the food train an hour or so into the journey for some coke and pastries. yum.

We arrived in Paris, to a whole new world.  Very different than London.  Of course, we wandered around a lot trying to figure out where to exchange our dollars for Euros, purchase metro rail tickets, decipher the french signs, etc.. Finally we made it onto a train heading to our hotel.  We were so lucky to have beautiful weather while we were in Paris.  The sky was a beautiful blue and the sun was shining brightly.

It was so crazy to experience warmer weather in Paris than we did in Africa.  ha.

After we checked into our hotel (totally old school hotel.. as in, we had REAL keys that we had to leave at the front desk when we left) we headed over to the Eiffel tower.  It was in walking distance.  and it is HUGE.  We finally got to it.. and then we had to walk and walk and walk so we could get back far enough to take pictures of it!  

Getting close!

We had a little bit of an issue while we were at the Eifell Tower.  We decided to take a little rest in the lawn and just enjoy the beauty and sights of Paris, especially the Eifell Tower.  While we were relaxing... all of a sudden, 30 of the trinket sellers started running in our direction.  Aaron was pretty sure they were being chased by a police officer.  So I hopped up quickly to move.. Aaron stayed in our spot.  In literally less than 45 seconds.. my little point n shoot was dropped (by me) and picked up by one of the running men.  So depressing.  

After recovering from losing my camera (and swinging by the hotel to backup my SLR and pick up my other point n shoot).. we made our way towards Notre Dame.

What a beautiful building.  I loved the architecture.  Since we had less than 24 hours in Paris, including sleeping time, we just swept through the city and didn't really go in anywhere.

We decided to grab a banana and a strawberry crepe from a street vendor and then enjoyed it while sit on a step admiring Notre Dame.

After enjoying Notre Dame for awhile, we headed over to the Louve.

It was so amazing from the outside.  I can only imagine how awesome it is inside.  Though we did get a little bit of a glimpse through a huge glass window.  One day, we'll be back and we will wander around inside for hours!

Of course we had to get some pictures with the pyramid! :)

After cheesing it up for photos, we rested in the nearby grass and snapped a few more photos and rested our feet.  We couldn't believe how big the Louve is! It kept going and going...

After the Louve, we headed over to check out the Luxembourg Gardens and Palace.  And again, we enjoyed just relaxing in the gardens.  Paris is a HUGE city.. so we had to rest every time we got somewhere! ha.  It was so beautiful and filled with tons of people soaking in the beautiful day.

That evening, we headed out for dinner and a show (Eiffel tower sparkling light show!) but decided against a fancy restaurant, purchased some coke, bread, and cheese at a local store and grabbed some grass right  in front of the Eiffel Tower.  We got to enjoy each other's company, people watch, and watch the sunset in Paris. It was fabulous.  And then we got to see a sparkling light show.

After enjoying the tower, we enjoyed some fabulous dessert at a little restaurant right by our hotel.  And coffee (coke for me).

We really enjoyed our time in Paris... just wish it could have been longer! (and that my camera hadn't been yanked...)