Our trip to Europe included two cities, both London and Paris. The first four days of our trip were spent in London while the last two days were spent in Paris, with plans to visit Paris again. Of the two cities, we both enjoyed Paris a lot more than London, as the history shows in the architecture and general feel of the city. London is nice and has history, but to me, it seemed like just another big city. Paris was a place of its own. Not speaking French made travel on the Metro and reading maps a bit more of a challenge, but overall, we had a great two days there.
Our first day in Paris actually started us out in London, with a ride on the Eurostar train to Paris’s Gare du Nord train station. The whole trip only took a little over two hours and brought us safely through the Chunnel under the English Channel. The train slows for safety while in the tunnel to around 100 mph, but above ground, we were clipping along at almost 190 mph. The ride was quiet and smooth, and with the scenery zipping by so quickly, was exhilarating as well.
We bought a two day pass on the metro at the train station and headed out to our hotel. Once again, our hotel was close to a station: about a two minute walk, which made it nice for our travels to and from the hotel. We stayed in a nice, quaint little place that had two twin beds that we pushed together, had free wifi, and small balcony to take in the amazing views of the streets of Paris.
If you are going to Paris and want a nice and affordable place to stay, check out the Moderne St. Germain. With half the day already gone, we took it slow with a stroll through the Louvre. It is an absolutely monstrous place, even bigger than the British Museum we saw the day before in London. Of course, we saw the Mona Lisa, after fighting for a chance to get up close enough for a peek. The art was beautiful, but the descriptions were all in French, so an audio tour the next time might be in order. We then walked the couple of miles from the Louvre down the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. The walk was long but beautiful and provides the classic view of the Arc by looking down the street to where it meets the large roundabout at the Arc. Eight streets come into that one roundabout that encircles the Arc so to get to the middle, an underground tunnel gets Arc visitors safely to it. The view there was spectacular and as night descended, it provided great views of the lighted Eiffel Tower. After the Arc de Triomphe, it was time for dinner and we found this great, tiny little Italian place named Pizzaria Pepone. Pricey, but great food, with pizza and French onion soup for Laura (of course French onion while in France, right?) and spaghetti pesto for me.
The following day was our only full day in Paris and because we were tired from our sightseeing in London and now Paris, we again took it slow with just three things we wanted to do that day. We started off with a tour of Notre Dame, just a few minutes walk from our hotel. It was a long wait and had lots of steps, but it was beautiful, like St. Paul’s in London. We could take pictures inside, and enjoyed great views from the top of the bell tower and within the cathedral. The French revolution did a lot of damage to a lot of Paris back in it’s day, and Notre Dame and the Louvre didn’t escape unscathed. It’s a shame that the peasants tore up so much history. For example, Notre Dame had statues of the kings of Israel and Judah, but the peasants thought these were French kings and destroyed them. No wonder the peasants acted stupidly — they were ignorant of a lot of what was around them. Oh well. The stained glass was tremendous and the view of the gargoyles was neat to see from atop the church as well.
From there we took a river tour up and back down the Seine. It was a good rest for our feet and we got to see a lot of the iconic images of Paris. It dropped us off near the Eiffel Tower and we were able to get lots of pictures of it as a backdrop. Going up the tower was expensive and crowded, but worth it. The line to get in was about 90 minutes and we stayed up there for about and hour. There are three levels to it and of course, we had to see the top level. The views of the city, especially at dusk, were amazing. The tower itself is amazing and is much larger than we had imagined from the pictures. The structure is so well designed that the weight of the tower at it’s base is no heavier than a person standing on his tippy-toe, or about 250 lb. per square inch. It was our last day in Paris, and the views were so beautiful, it was hard to leave to come back down, however the cold wind was a good motivator. Once back down, it was time for another nice dinner in a small cafe off the street.
The next morning came early as we were getting more and more tired each day. We took the train to Charles de Gualle airport but missed our first two opportunities to get a seat back to New York — as we flew standby. The third flight was a charm and we again, were able to sit next to each other for the seven hour flight back to the States. Once in New York, we caught a cab over to LaGuardia airport just in time to get us on a flight back home to Columbus, Ohio. That was nice because we didn’t have to wait around in New York and got home quickly.
Tired as we were, it was a great time, indeed. We definitely want to go back to Paris someday and see all the things we missed. This trip to London and Paris was more of a sightseeing adventure and not very relaxing. With the cruise we took in June, we’d like to alternate vacations between running around and seeing things, and doing nothing while relaxing somewhere like on a beach. It’s good to get out and see the world, especially while we’re young and have the energy. There is so much to see here in the U.S. but so much to see abroad as well; there just isn’t enough time and money to do it all.
You can read about our time in London here, and you can click on the photo at the top of this post to see more photos from our time in Paris.