New Years

From December 28, 2012 to January 3rd 2013, I had the opportunity to travel to Paris with Matthew. Last year after a lackluster New Years spent in a dark hotel room, I made Matt promise to take me to France the next New Year. Lucky for me, I have a man who keeps his word! This post is about my travels there and all the things I saw and did.

As a prelude to this blog post I would like to tell you that I wrote all of these blurbs whilst on my trip. Forgive the freestyle writings... more photos to come in another post!

Day one of vacation! We left today around 10am from our apartment in Wiesbaden to catch a train in another city, to reach Paris. Two short rides on Inter City Express trains with a transfer to the TGV train (which went over 200mph), we arrived in Paris just after 4pm. So far all we've done is gotten to the hotel and walked around the blocks surrounding it. Due to not doing a whole lot of preparation before we got here, we ended up in the 11th district near the Bastille Monument. Fortunately for us, the metro is down the street, and we are within (questionable), walking distance to the Notre Dame and the Louvre. Tomorrow our plan is to wake up whenever and leave for the day to hit those two sites and wind down with some casual night walking.. 

In the midst of travels, I took this with my phone...

Today we woke up crazy late! Day two didn't start until after noon to be honest. We left our hotel room and went with the full intentions of seeing the Notre Dame on a Sunday. After we stopped at a cozy cafe and had some breakfast we headed to our destination. The line was so crazy long and slightly freezing that we ended up bailing and going to the Louvre instead. We arrived there around 115-130 and stayed until closing. Matt and I admired as much as we could but unfortunately we didn't get to see everything. I would say I loved all the statues and the architecture the best, that place is insanely large! Matt got lucky because they just opened and Islamic Art section and he got to see ancient Arabic up close and personal! Around the three or four hour mark we sat inside and grabbed a bite to eat before we continued on.. When we ended our tour we were beat! Took the metro back to our exit at the hotel and stopped to have some of the best Cuban food I've ever tasted. The French do it right when it comes to food.

In front of the Louvre

So excited about my audio tour! 

Yesterday I forgot to write. While we had all the intentions of doing it big on NYE, I forgot that it was that day! We woke up early after wasting half the day asleep yesterday. First on our hit list was the Notre Dame where we only waited about 15 min to get inside and stroll through. I found myself comparing all the beauty to the Westminster Abbey, but apparently I was being unfair because Matt pointed out that the Notre Dam was built way before the WA. After we checked the ND off our list, we mainly walked around the Champs Elysees and did some shopping around. At night, although i TRAGICALLY forgot my dress, we went to the Eiffel Tower to ring in the new year. The day was relaxed but that night was quite the opposite. The streets were FULL of people, blocking traffic and walking in crazy crowds. Thankfully growing up around SF it wasn't anything I was unfamiliar with, and it was actually really polite compared to what I've seen. The Tower itself was stunning, I thought they might do a number countdown instead of just lighting up the tower all sparkly and maybe something more would happen, but I didn't even realize it was 2013 until a min in!!! All in all a pretty successful day! The only downside would have to be that our normal trip home would have taken 15 minutes, and on New Years we left after 1am and it still took us over an hour to get home in a metro packed like a tin of sardines.

Inside of the Notre Dame 

It rained on the night of NYE, here's a selfie we took with my phone shortly after midnight...

Yesterday was the official first day of the New Year. We woke up reasonably early and headed out to see the Eiffel Tower. When we arrived there it was insanely packed, but with the help of our friends the Bumsteads & some crafty climbing skills, we got a picture with the tower alright. Matt observed that it was way more packed than the last time he was at the Tower and when we walked down to go inside the tower, the lines scared us away. Personally I'm terrified of heights so I was okay with this. After seeing the tower in all her beauty up close, we wandered the streets of Paris checking out shops and scenery with no real destination. We headed home after a successful day of relaxing (mostly because it was a national holiday and nothing was open) and to sit down and relax. Much to my surprise when I was online looking up our agenda for our last full day, I found out that an infamous bookstore I wanted to check out was still open, so we turned right back around and left again. Sadly, the internet lied to me, (not the first time), and it was closed! Instead we got to see some pretty cool streets that were all lit up with tourist shops and cafe's and random store that sold specialty drinks. Matt was happy because he got a super awesome Glennfiddich whiskey with some cool tasting glasses. Our night adventure ended with a very long walk home winding through Paris. We walked past the Pompidue center, and Picasso's museum, so it was interesting.

The Eiffel Tower! So stunning.

Jan 2nd 2013. This morning I woke up at 6am after not being able to sleep till 2am. I was able to at least wait until 730 to wake up Matt so we could start our day. Since we had some extra time to eat and get out into the Paris streets, we decided to head to Reebok Crossfit Louvre. Once we got there it was awesome, having only been open for three months they have 477 members. The compact three story building looks brand new, with a hometown feel by being tucked in a less touristy area. Matt and I bought two shirts and unfortunately we were unable to have a drop in session. We got done around 9 and took the Metro to where the Catacombs of Paris were. While the catacombs didn't open until 10 and even though we got there 9 twenty something, the line for entrance was already a good seventy feet from the door. Shortly after we sat in line, it quickly wrapped around the block almost tripling in size. Thankfully I had my kindle with me and Matt didn't have to endure my endless impatience. Another hour went by and it was 11am when we were admitted. The catacombs were originally there to mine limestone, and interestingly enough this same stone was used to build the Notre Dame. To get to these mines you have to go down roughly 137 steps. While in them, you learn that even though it originally started as a mine, it was turned into a tomb for a cemetery that was overflowing. The bones had been blessed an arranged in a more aesthetically pleasing manner to better respect the dead, but still… there were so many bones. If you can imagine how short I am, it was around my height and about 5 feet back on either side of me, with just bones and skulls from the deceased. Scary stuff! When we finally climbed out, it was around 1:30 and we took the metro to see Shakespeare and Company bookstore. This was a highlight of my trip because Hemingway and Fitzgerald used to hang out there, and I got to walk the same steps as the greats! Very excitedly I chose two books to purchase and had them both stamped with the location. We took an intermission/lunch break back at the hotel and hung around being lazy until about 430. The only reason we arose from our naps was to see the Galerie de Lafayette, and holy crap that place is nice! Nothing but top of the line stuff, and very snazzy. While we were able to admire all the Gucci, Chanel, Prada, Givenchy and all the other fabulous names, we headed to the 6th floor to pick up some books. We got a couple "coffee table" books that are in French and ended a super wonderful evening at the Galerie with Mc Donalds. Hahah I had to balance it out somehow. Currently Matt is packing up our belongings so we have a smooth transition to the train station… Until next time!