Overall, the whole trip was amazing. I traveled with Pam the whole time and met up with Pete in Paris for a couple days at the beginning of the trip. The whole thing went pretty smooth travel-wise, despite a little trouble getting to the Paris airport to catch an early flight to Rome. It feels great to be home in London now and not having to feel incredibly awkward searching for the appropriate French or Italian phrases to use. I felt like we did pretty well with our first really big traveling experience in mainland Europe. We did more walking and sightseeing than I thought imaginable, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
I’ll do my best to break my trip down a bit for you, and make it interesting with some pictures. Of course, these are just a tip of the photo iceberg, so be sure to check out some of the links to my Facebook albums and some other sights.
Paris:
I absolutely fell in love with Paris. I had a fun few days there, obviously with my experience being enhanced by having Pete there with me. I really just liked the city’s atmosphere a lot. It’s a bit smaller than London, so everything’s a little more attainable with walking and public transportation. Also, there’s tons of outdoor cafés and little vendors on the streets selling delicious paninis and crepes (both of which we had too frequently) so there is a distinct street life and general romantic European ambience in the city.
Day 1—McDonalds and a late night stroll. So romantic, right?
Pam and I took the Eurostar from London to Paris, and arrived around 2. Pete had taken an overnight train in, so he had been in the city for a couple hours. I met up with him and we walked around a bit, exploring some of the neighborhoods outside the city center before making our way down to the Saint-Michel area, where Notre Dame is located. I had taken a couple of years of French in high school, but we were both a little intimidated by the language barrier at first, so sadly, our first night’s dinner was McDonalds. I vowed after that to have no more American fast food chains while in Europe. We initially were going to check out a pub crawl in the St. Michel and Saint- Germain des Prés area, which is a hot spot for bars, restaurants and nightlife, but the days travels left us both tired, so we decided to scratch that idea.
Here's Notre Dame, glowing at night. Apologies for the blurry picture.
Day 2—I like the way you Louvre
Pete and I ended up a little more rejuvenated than the day before, so we set off to do some serious sightseeing. First stop was exploring Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise, were Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are buried. It was an old cemetery, full of these moss-covered mausoleums, which ended up being quite pretty to stroll through. Jim Morrison’s grave was pretty cool, and an obvious pilgrimage destination for Doors fans of all ages.
The really old and beautiful cemetery.
Jim Morrison's grave. On a wall of a mausoleum next to his grave, people had graffitied their tributes, with things like “This is not the end…break on through” and “Ciao Jim.”
We enjoyed a panini and crepe after the cemetery before heading off to the Louvre. By luck, the first Sunday of every month is free entry, so being the budget-watcher that I am, I was probably too excited about this. The Louvre is absolutely gigantic. There is no way you could see the whole thing in one day. Honestly, it might take you at least 3 whole days to see the whole thing. We obviously saw the Mona Lisa, along with all the other hundreds of tourists, clamoring to snap a photo. Mine ended up blurry, but it’s ok. The Mona Lisa is actually quite small, and they keep you back so far from it that you really don’t get a good look, which was a little disappointing. We checked out a couple of other DaVinci’s and Renaissance paintings and explored some of the richly decorated rooms of Napolean III (not Bonaparte), who actually lived in the Louvre during his reign.
Pete at the Louvre, as I experimented with "artsy" photo angles.
The one and only Mona Lisa. Sadly, blurry again.
To celebrate our one year since starting to date, Pete treated me to a nice French dinner down in the Saint-Germaine area. Every restaurant experience was so funny because we were both so tense before we ordered due to the language barrier. Immediately after ordering our food, we both became noticeably more lighthearted. We enjoyed some wine and great conversation, so our wine and dining anniversary was a truly romantic Parisian evening.
Check out the full facebook album by going to: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=37820758&l=f2c4c&id=15921830
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