Our first full day in Paris started with breakfast including mini croissants, nutella, and cheese that came in a Donald Duck wrapper. While those things were exciting in and of themselves, the three of us were thrilled to see the starting of spring once we stepped outside our hotel doors. Armed with a fantastically useful map of the city and the metro we headed west on the number 2 metro to the Arch de Triumph!
I find it amazing that tourist websites and signage have to tell people to not dart through the approximately six lanes of crazy traffic surrounding this famous monument. It may not be intuitive to hunt for the underground tunnel, but if one did not exist I would think many a tourist would have been maimed at this point.
Within the last year there was a large restoration project on the Arch de Triumph so this and the other large statues on the front of the monument were intensely cleaned.
I thought the tunnel under the street was quite neat - both in concept and because of the dramatic lighting under there.
Next we went to the Eiffel Tower!!!
After we went up the tower and took a bunch of pictures we went across the Seine to this plaza between two Paris museums in order to get our "postcard picture".
The clouds started to move in on us - we were that high!
Look at the huge wheel on the pulley that pulls up the elevator!!!
The view down from the first floor is really neat too. Down there are at least 20 guys trying to sell trinkets of the Eiffel Tower. My keychain used to contain one that Madame Kresse bought for me on my first trip to Paris almost 7 years ago it broke a while back so when we got down I bought a replacement!
The postcard picture
Everybody got their picture taken with the tower.
Me too!
After this photo op we took the metro to a museum with a large collection of Monet paintings. The Monet exhibit was probably my favorite group of artwork from our Paris trip. The upper levels of the museum had some engaging artwork and a few famous pieces. Somehow more beautiful (in my opinion) than a fair amount of the art was the space in which it was hung. Most museums I have been in were designed for that purpose but this one felt like an old lovely home which was adapted to hang paintings and display sculptures. It was wonderful to spring flowers out the windows, enjoy the detailing of molding on the ceiling, and even hear the floor creak a little while looking at the art. The basement level was filled with a diverse range of works by Monet. It was really interesting to me to see paintings of his which I would not know as Monet. I learned that he had cataract and surgery (which I cannot imagine given the time in history) which impacted his color choices in his paintings. Some of his work was remarkably vibrant and drastically different from his water lilly and bridge pieces.
Due to the wonderful spring weather we wanted to eat lunch outside without coats. I popped into a cafe because it looked lovely and saw this interesting sandwich. My father and I split this large sandwich which was filled with potato wedges, chicken, tomatoes, and a unique (wonderful) sauce that was a little similar to the sauce on a big mac. If it had been heated through it would've been fantastic, but the way it was it was still quite fun and tasty to eat.
This was just something I randomly walked past - they do have lovely lovely pastries in Paris!
Next we metro-ed back to the Arch de Triumph and strolled down the Champs D'Elysse. Along the walk I found a Disney shop which I, naturally, had to enter. I managed to show enough self control to not buy a Micky Mouse Paris t-shirt and continued on toward the Seine.
The Alexander II Bridge
We got to watch part of an actual fashion shoot next to the bridge - the model was having a hard time with her hair and never seemed to smile.
Shortly after crossing the bridge we went back on the metro and found a pastry shop recommended by Sally - the Picasso of Pastries. It was lovely in there, but the three of us were more in the mood for some pastries and sitting outside. We chose to go to the Latin Quarter and it started to rain a little. Off the metro we stumbled into Les Deux Magots - a historical establishment in Paris! We went inside for something to drink and chocolate cake (which was quite good but essentially chocolate mousse with just a little cake on the bottom). The rain let up so we were able to wander through the Latin Quarter which was filled with interesting looking restaurants, art galleries, and fun shops.
This was my favorite shop that we found - tons and tons of lovely chocolate (naturally).
We tried one of these huge meringue pieces with some cocoa powder on top. It was lovely and really fun but the flavor was not fantastic.
A chocolate SCUBA Diver!!
After walking around for quite awhile we stopped at a restaurant titled something like "The Paris Cafe". It was really fun to sit outside without our coats (thank goodness for heating elements from the restaurant) and listening to live music down the street.
This was the restaurant across the pedestrian street from our table. Fresh fish was wrapped up for people to take home or served right away on their menu.
On our way to the metro after dinner there was a little street band of about four people playing "Puttin' on the Ritz". An old man was singing and an old lady was dancing (shuffling really) and it was really fun/cute.
We wanted to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up so we went back there. It was not ideal b/c we arrived at 10:15pm and it has twinkle lights on the hour for about five minutes so we missed that but it was still really pretty.
The Arch de Triumph was also a stop on the way back to our hotel.
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