Monday morning, May 21st, we got up early to head to the train station. We were taking the Eurostar from London to Paris, and this was my first real train experience. I was so excited. However, we were uncertain of what to expect at the station.
Going from country to country was definitely an experience of itself. With the Eurostar, we did have to go through very minimal security to get to our train. When it was time to board, we just hopped on and found our seat that we had chosen previously. I liked that we could choose because I don't like to ride backward.
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| St. Pancras Train Station |
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| Tyler about to board the train. |
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| Headed to Paris! |
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| I had one of the best salads ever for breakfast! Veggies were difficult to find. |
The Chunnel was exactly how Rick Steves described it in his book: a non-event. My ears didn't even pop. We went through it and then popped up in France. The train ride was a little over 2 hours long.
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| Gare du Nord--the train station in Paris |
When we got to Paris, things got interesting. We had to figure out where to purchase a Metro ticket. We knew which Metro line we needed to be on, but we had to purchase the ticket first. Unfortunately, the line we needed was out of commission, so we were going to have to find a different way to get to our hotel. But first...the pass.
I had read on a blog about the Navigo Pass. This was a weekly pass that you could purchase for roughly $22 per person, but I had read that it was only available if you got into Paris early in the week. Lucky for us, we got in on a Monday. We were in line behind another American couple who were on their honeymoon. We both got up to the machines at the same time. As we were trying to figure out how to purchase the Navigo Pass, I saw that they had purchased their 6-day Metro Pass for over $100 per person. When we finally figured out how to change the machine to English, we figured out that the Navigo wasn't an option. I wasn't about to pay over $100 per person when I knew that this other pass was available for $22.
So we hopped into the line that had a human to help us. I am so thankful that Tyler was with me because I have a horrible time understanding people with accents. I try so hard to hear what they say, but a lot of the time I end up looking like a fool for asking them, "What did you say?" about a million times.
We got our Navigo Pass and figured out that we were supposed to have a picture, about Passport size, to put with our pass. We decided that we were going to risk it and not pay $20 for pictures. Lucky for us, no one asked for proof of our pass.
We got on our train and finally headed toward our hotel. Y'all, if I can be honest with you, I had heard so many people say that Paris was dirty and the people were rude. So I wasn't expecting to love it at all. In fact, I didn't really care about seeing anything except the Eiffel Tower.
But....I fell in love. With the city, with the people, with the architecture....with everything!
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| This was the corner near our hotel. |
We stayed at Hotel Le Royal Rive Gauche near Luxembourg Gardens and the Saint Germain Quarter. Y'all...this hotel was SO stinking adorable. The people at the front desk were extremely helpful and so kind. I would stay here again in a heartbeat.
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| Our room was larger than the room we had in London. |
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| The bathroom was much larger as well. |
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| The bathrooms are marble/tile and are expected to be wet from people taking showers. |
Once we got settled in our room, we decided to take the Metro over to the Louvre and check it out. The line was long, but it actually moved quickly. Rick Steves told us (via his book) that the quickest line was through the mall.
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| The underground version of the famous pyramid. |
Okay...let me be honest again. I was so stinking bored in the Louvre. I am
not a fan of naked art. I'm also not really impressed by sculptures. I kinda feel bad, but not really. HA! You could literally walk around in there for 6 hours or more. We decided to go see the underwhelming Mona Lisa. We had to wade through a ton of people to get there.
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| She's on that back wall. |
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| This painting was on the opposite wall and was much more impressive. |
After a few hours of walking, we decided to call it quits. We had dinner at a cute little restaurant right outside our hotel.
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| The food was incredible! |
That evening, we had reservations to go up the Eiffel Tower. Our time to head up the tower was at 10 pm. I was really hoping to get a reservation when we could see the sun go down and at first, I was disappointed. I had NO idea that the sun went down so late. The sun ended up going down at 9:30 pm. This would probably be the reason why people eat supper so late in France.
I'm just going to let these pictures speak for themselves. Being at the Eiffel Tower and going up the Tower was an experience I will never forget. I felt an overwhelming emotion of happiness and awe of being there. It was unbelievable.
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| Looking up from underneath. |
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| At dark, the tower lights up. It also sparkles for 5 minutes at the top of each hour. |
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| At the top, looking up. |
Many people said that it wasn't worth going up the tower, but I'll say this....if you've been dreaming about something for a long time, do it. I dreamed for so long about going up the tower, and I am SO glad we did!
Other Posts in this Series:
London #1
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