We flew AirFrance out of Houston straight to Paris, arriving at 8:30 in the morning. It was the easiest trans-Atlantic flight I've had so far. I slept most of the way, and when we were close to arrival we looked out the window (approx 7:30 am) and it was still dark. Huh? Ok... We landed and it was still dark. Apparently the sunrise in Paris this time of year doesn't occur until 8:45 in the morning. Weird!
We grabbed our luggage and then jumped into a taxi and headed for our hotel. I found Hotel de l'Avre online with great reviews (8/10), and it included breakfast and was within walking distance from the Eiffel Tower. I knew from our experience in Verona for our first anniversary in August 2010 that "walking distance" in Europe can mean 30 minutes or more, but Google Maps told us it would take us 20. Deal. We arrived at the hotel only to be told that our room wouldn't be ready until 2 or 3 pm, and it was 10 at the time. This is my only complaint about the hotel, period. So we dropped off our luggage (the guy took it and asked if we packed for a month, ha!) and left to wander Paris.
Now, if you know me, I travel comfortably. This means sweatpants and a hoodie with tennis shoes. I may look frumpy, but it's comfortable. Arron, on the other hand, can fly in a t-shirt, jeans, and boots. Don't know how, but he can...
So here we are, walking around Paris, looking frumpy and jetlagged and just plain old nasty. And then we get our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, and it is gorgeous. I didn't have my new Canon Rebel T2i that Arron bought me for Christmas (seeing as it was packed in my luggage that was sitting at the hotel), so I have no "first glimpse" pictures for you. :(
We walked around Paris until 12:30 and decided we were just too tired to walk around any more. We went back to the hotel to try to nap sitting up in their small lobby. The guy (who I felt was in charge of everything while we were there--maybe the owner?) took pity and gave us a room that had opened up early. We grabbed our luggage and headed up to the room #38.
When we got in the elevator to go to the 4th floor (in Europe the bottom floor is always 0), the elevator was so small we literally had to cram ourselves in--and it was just me and Arron, plus our carry on luggage and two suitcases. Now we knew why the guy thought we were crazy... We settled into our room (just a bedroom and bath with a closet, so tiny but cute) and fell promptly asleep.
After about six or seven hours of sleep, we woke up hungry.
Arron playing with his Christmas gift, an iPad 2.
Commerce Street, the next street over from our hotel.
Lots of little cafes to sit in!
We wandered around, looking at menus outside the cafes, trying to find one that wasn't overly expensive. When we got to one, a guy who was standing outside told us we'd love the food, and that it was owned by his best friend. Sure, why not?
Where we had our first French dinner.
Arron had beef sirloin and I had a leg of lamb. It was delish! After we finished, we headed toward the Tour de Eiffel.
Our first glimpse!
Just so beautiful!
Everybody at once: "Oooohhh..."
Every hour, it lights up with 20,000 blinking lights. We were trying to find the best setting on the camera to capture them.
Looking out over the Seine River.
Multiple failed attempts to get a picture of both of us in front of the tower...
The road our hotel was on.
Our little hotel!
I'll update soon with the rest of the day-by-day plays! Ciao!
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