J’adore Paris: Paris Days 2-4
Okay, I’m seriously behind on the blogging so next few posts will be super long. (As I write this, I’m two hours from landing in MSP.) I started day 2 of Paris by waking up early and getting in a run. Afraid to get lost, I ran alongside the Seine for about an hour. As I headed back, the rising sun made some nice photos of Notre Dame.
After everyone was up, we headed to the Paris catacombs. Buried deep under Paris (below the metro and water sources) lies a tomb holding remains from over 6 Million people! I knew very little about it and had zero expectations of what I’d see. It was definitely freaky! The wait was 2 hours, but worth it!
After lunch (where most of the group indulged in mussels and frites), we headed to the Eiffel Tower. I found it much larger than what I was expecting. Among our group, I was the only one interested in taking the stairs up. The stairs took me up about halfway. I skipped going to the top because it’d cost more money and the required elevator was already at an hour wait.
Me taking the Eiffel steps up. Great workout!
View from the steps
Great view from the top of the tower. Somewhere in the green grass is the rest of my group!
Me and Kristine in front of the Eiffel Tower
From the Eiffel Tower, we walked to the Arc du Triumph. What a sight! It was a huge! I can only imagine how much the structure weighs, how it was built, and what a sight it would have been as the Allied Forces marched through the Arc during WWII.
After leaving the Arc, we walked down the Champs Elysses. A beautiful street, it was packed with people, cafes, and name brand stores for shopping.
Apparently THE place to get macaroons is Laduree. The Parisien institution is given credit for creating the double-decker macaroon. Needless to say, the place was packed!
During our walking, we came across a funny abbreviation of the word ‘assorted’. Haha
We were all pretty spent for our first full day in Paris so we decided to make it a relaxing movie night! The new Wolverine movie had just come out, so we decided to catch an evening show.
Photo of a Paris metro line sign. Very comprehensive and easy to use once you get the hang of it.
Wolverine movie poster in the metro
Ship and Jennifer in the movie theatre. Compared to what I was used to, it was pretty small but comfy. In the pic below, Jennifer is doing a Wolverine pose while Ship didn’t get the memo. Hahaha.
The next day (Sunday) was another full day. We would head to the Louvre and catch a quick McDonald’s breakfast.
McDonald’s menu. I was hoping to grab a sausage egg McMuffin, but no such luck.
The McDonald’s we went to did have a café, so it sold an assortment of French pastries including macaroons! Much cheaper than the high end artisan stores around town.
Because the admission on this Sunday was free, the place was packed! The line wait was being quoted at 4 hours! Courtesy of prior research, Kristine knew there was an alternative less-used entrance. We found it and only waited an hour!
Of course we had to take pics in front of the Louvre pyramid!
The ‘shorter’ 1 hour line. Woo hoo! No need to wait 4 hours!
Inside the Louvre and this really long hallway.
As expected, the Mona Lisa was the star of the show.
After fighting a mob, I was able to get pretty close.
More art
Later in the day, a few us wanted to take the train out to Versailles. Outside of proper Paris, the trip via train would be about an hour-and-a-half. Velma, Jessica, Kevin, and I went.
The place was packed! And it didn’t help that the weather was hot! Overall, I thought the palace was cool but not my favorite. It felt ‘old’ and musty. In contrast, London’s Buckingham Palace felt 100% move-in ready. Also I didn’t like that Versailles allowed photo taking. Braving the crowds that tried to photograph everything was kind of annoying.
The famous hall of mirrors!
2+ days into Paris, I still hadn’t tried the famed Laduree macaroon, so to my surprise, they had a small shop inside Versailles. Woot woot! I indulged. They were pricey! But yummy. Salted caramel was the best one by far!
The day was long (especially for us that went to Versailles). I was looking forward to a relaxing dinner on an outside patio. We went back to the St. Germain Blvd. to grab dinner. My sea bass was delicious!
Monday morning, I convinced Velma to wake up early. Like 530a early so we could take the metro to the Trocadero stop and take photos of the Eiffel Tower basked in the early morning sunrise.
I also wanted to get a cool photo (possibly for a FB cover photo!). Thanks to Velma for waking up and indulging my 30+ takes.
The rest of the day was for shopping and catching some more Paris sights before catching an evening departure on the overnight sleeper train to Barcelona. For lunch we went to a steak and frites joint. I got the ribeye rubbed with roasted garlic.
Our last stops in Paris were a quick visit to Moulin Rouge and the nearby Sacre Coeur. I didn’t get a chance to see a cabaret show at the famous Moulin Rouge, so something for next time!
As we walked around the inside of Sacre Coeur, mass happened to be taking place! Me and Kristine joined just as communion was being served. A very cool experience indeed!
Group selfie in front of Sacre Coeur.
Before hopping on the train, we grabbed dinner near the train station. This would be the end for our eightsome! Jennifer and Ship would be flying back home the next day and not joining us for Spain and Italy. Thanks for coming Jennifer and Ship! And now there were six!
Sleeper train cabin for Kristine, Will, Jessica, and Velma. Me and Kevin slept in the cabin room next door.
