Paris 2.0: Day One

On Friday I woke up early, and loaded my bags into the car… in the pouring rain.  I was hoping that it would be clearing soon so that Kristin and I would have a nice day in Paris.  I hopped on the TGV and was at Charles de Gaulle airport in a quick 35 minutes.  Of course, I had to walk across the entire (or so it seemed) airport to get to Kristin’s terminal.  We found each other quite easily, thank goodness.  We walked back across the entire airport to where we could catch the RER into Paris center.  Of course the dumb French machines only took coins, and we didn’t have nearly enough in order to buy our two tickets, totaling up to €18! After attempting to pay with three different credit cards, the fourth one finally worked! We were on our way into Paris!

Our map of Paris (after day 2)... thought you might enjoy this Dad!

Once we got to the metro and transferred to the appropriate line, we made it to our hotel.  We quickly dropped off our bags and took the metro over to the right bank.  We did lots of walking around, seeing the neighborhoods and I showed Kristin lots of the cool parts of Paris.  We walked around Notre Dame Cathedral, we found a bridge of love where the fence is completely covered in locks, put on by couples.  The tradition also includes throwing the key into the Seine below.  We had nice salads for lunch (Parisien for me, and warm goat cheese for Kristin) , stopped by the Louvre where Kristin saw her favorite painting (The Astronomer, by Vermeer), and then over to Ile St. Louis for a drink at our favorite Brasserie.  I bought Mme. Bertillon’s famous ice cream… I tried the coconut flavor, and we both approved. 

Kristin and Vermeer

To kill some time before dinner, we took the metro over to the Arc de Triomphe.  There was a ceremony that occurs daily.  It’s when the flame under the Arc is extinguished.  There drummers, and veterans, along with school children who all took part in the ceremony. 

 

Arc de Triomphe

We walked down the Champs Elysées and made it to Bistro Henri.  I wanted Kristin to experience true French cuisine while in Paris.  She had pork tenderloin and I, of course, ordered the honeyed duck :) We briefly stopped by the Eiffel Tower but decided we were both too tired to climb to the top.  It had been cloudy and sprinkling on and off all day, and we decided we wouldn’t see too much from the top anyways. 

The Bridge of Love

Back at our hotel we settled in after a long day.  The only disappointment of the day was discovering that our “mattress” wasn’t a mattress: it was a brick wall.  I think it was one of the fake mattresses they use in big stores to showcase duvets etc…. but it was for one night, and we survived!