Paris day 3

Paris day 1 and day 2

We didn't have a whole lot planned for our last day in Paris. We started out by heading over to Sacré-Cœur.

Sacré-Cœur is located at Montmartre, the highest point in Paris.

The basilica was really crowded and we didn't go inside. It was pretty to see though!

We then walked down the hill a little ways to the Montmartre area.

Montmartre was a really neat neighborhood! And it also had some great souvenir shops. Most of the souvenir shops we had found in downtown Paris were pretty pricey - like €1 for a postcard! Anyways, we shopped and ate some snacks before heading down to the Louvre. 

I didn't take any pictures inside the Louvre. I was very unimpressed with the Louvre. I'm not really into art anyways, and it was really hot inside, so that didn't help. (Does anyone in Europe believe in air conditioning?) We did see the Mona Lisa and again, I was unimpressed. There was a big line which was mostly a sea of people taking pictures of it with their phones. And most of the other paintings in the Louvre was just of naked people and freaky babies. And then there was this one that was like a cannibalistic baby thing? Anyways, it was all very strange! 

I definitely think I preferred the Musee d'Orsay over the Louvre. It had more variety of art, whereas the Louvre had pretty much all one style and it was WAY more crowded. The Musee d'Orsay was less crowded so you could actually look at stuff, and the building itself was interesting since it was in an old train station.

After the Louvre, we walked through the mall which is under/near the museum, we ate dinner, then walked to another mall and walked around there for a bit before heading to our room.

So that is the end of our time in Paris. I definitely liked Paris way more that I thought I would. The architecture is beautiful! Paris is definitely an extremely pretty city. Although very crowded with tourists! I think if I ever return to Paris, I would like to go in the fall or winter so there would be less people. Anyways, I am so glad we were able to go there! 

Stop by on Wednesday for the next part of our trip when we head to the Normandy region! 

Paris day 2

Once we left our apartment, we wandered around Paris for a little bit before finally stopping for lunch at a cafe. Then we headed into the very famous Ladurée.

Ladurée was a pretty neat little store. The colors were fun (lots of mint green and pink) and all of the desserts were so pretty to look at! 

We each picked out a macaron (I got a chocolate one.). Then we went outside and tried them. They were really good! I thought Ladurée was going to be overrated, but it was SO worth stopping by! The macaron practically melted in your mouth! And they were not as expensive as I would have thought. I think they were about €2,50 each.

We then walked up the street to L'eglise de la Madeleine. Which is a church that looks like a Roman temple on the outside. I didn't get a very good picture of the outside, otherwise I would have posted one! The inside sure was pretty though! The lighting wasn't the greatest, so it was hard to get decent pictures.

 Next, we walked to Printemps; which is a large department store in Paris. (We went to the Printemps Haussmann location.)My brother wanted to check out their rooftop deck, which has a great view of Paris.

I recommend stopping by if you want a great view of Paris. It wasn't very crowded and the view was great!

 Printemps (which means Spring in French) is celebrating their 150th anniversary, so the outside of the store was decorated in tons of flowers. There were actually over 5,500 flowers decorating the façade! It was quite pretty!

 The rooftop deck was a cafe, so we got some ice cream. I mean, it was pretty hot outside, so why not? (It was really good by the way!)

 As we were walking down the street, we came across the Lindt chocolate store. We went inside and checked it out.

 They had so many flavors that they don't sell in stores. Such as orange, strawberries and cream, champagne, coffee, and a ton of other flavors! Unfortunately it was really hot out and we still had a lot of places to go, so we didn't buy any chocolates.

 We then headed to the Musée d'Orsay.

 A couple Van Gogh paintings at the Musée d'Orsay. 

If you're a Doctor Who fan, you will probably recognize the painting on the right as being from the Vincent and the Doctor episode. Unfortunately the other two paintings from that episode (Starry Night and the sunflower painting) weren't there. And those were pretty much the only painting I wanted to see, so I was a little disappointed. Oh well.

The ballroom inside the Musée d'Orsay.

The Louvre. 

After the Musée d'Orsay, we walked by the Louvre, and then by some other Paris attractions. 

What was once the love lock bridge. The locks are now removed though.

Pont Neuf and  Ile de la Cité. If you are a fan of The Bourne Identity (like I am!) you might remember that this is where Jason Bourne is supposed to meet his CIA contact. 

Conciergerie, which is a former royal prison. This is the prison where Marie Antoinette was held.

Palais de Justice.

Our last stop for the day was at Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. It was pretty crowded with people and the cathedral itself was closed for the day.

On Monday I will be posting pictures from our last day in Paris!

Paris - Day 1

We took the train from London to Paris and arrived late afternoon. As soon as we got on the metro, a guy tried to pick-pocket my dad! The metro was crowded and my dad thought someone had accidently bumped into him (there was a guy standing behind him with a backpack.) but then my dad said he felt fingers in his pocket so he brushed it away and when he went to see who it was, the guy was exiting the train. Honestly, the guy is probably lucky my dad didn't catch him or there would've been trouble! Fortunately we told my dad before we left that he needed to keep his wallet in his front pocket. So if you carry a wallet in your back pocket, make sure you put it in your front pocket when you travel!

Anyways, we arrived in Paris, took the metro to where our Airbnb was, got into our room, and then took the metro down to L'Arc de Triomphe. 

It was SO crowded! And it was pretty hot there too. Definitely a change from London!

The Arc was definitely bigger than I thought, and very detailed. It's amazing to think that every single tiny detail had to be hand carved.

La Défense as seen from L'Arc de Triomphe.

While we were taking pictures of the arc, we heard a band playing. We thought that was kind of odd, but then we noticed that the underneath of the arc was blocked off. We noticed that the band was Australian, and we figured it must be an Australian D-day ceremony. So we watched the ceremony for a little while.

After visiting L'Arc de Triomphe, we started heading toward the Eiffel tower.

The view of the Eiffel tower from Palais de Chaillot.

You really don't realize just how big the Eiffel tower is until you are standing almost under neath of it. It's huge! It's definitely something you have to see in person!

Dinner at a French cafe.

We headed back over to the Eiffel tower once it started getting dark. And right as we were arriving it started sparkling! Every hour on the hour the Eiffel tower sparkles for about 10 minutes. It doesn't really show up in pictures, but it looked pretty neat!

We all really enjoyed our first day in France! Paris is definitely a very neat city. I really liked the architecture and the charm.  

Check back on Wednesday for more pictures of our time in Paris!

Have you ever been to Paris?