Death Defying Paris...So Worth It!

Alright, today starts a new chapter in our blog! We bought the new GoPro a few weeks ago and have been learning to use it. I bought it after hearing Lee talk and beg for it forever, he was determined. Of course, it has become mostly Lee's toy and he is really loving it! His perfectionist personality is shining through in the editing process and he has discovered that he loved editing the videos too!

So here we go, Lee's first video! I think it's awesome for his first one! I can't wait to see how his videos progress. He is still learning the best places to take videos and how to edit but it's a great start!
PS The song is Hopeless Wanderer by Mumford and Sons...make it full screen to see it in all its awesomeness!  http://youtu.be/srVpLvrTP3E  (link if you're on the phone and it's stupid!)

Paris is a magical city. Some people say it's dirty, filled with graffiti, rude people and is not all it's made up to be. Those people are crazy. It's as clean as a major world city can be and is just wonderful! A city is only what you make of it!

Lee and I spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Paris, obviously. We stayed in an apartment that we found on Airbnb and it was great. We really liked it and it really helped our experience. It had fantastic views over the city and I spent a lot of time gazing from the balcony.

 

So after getting to the apartment in record time (plane was 15 minutes early), we relaxed and made some chaos at the grocery store. Note to self: do not use the self check out if you can't speak the language!

Friday was a warm, very nice day so we headed out early. First we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe. That's where we first saw Paris' scamming problems. They have a lot of people trying to scam tourists but if you just ignore them completely and don't acknowledge them, then you should be just fine. They were a little pushy but we had no problems with that tactic.

The Arc is much more detailed in person than what you can see in pictures. The ceiling is decorated, the walls, and floor. I tried to capture some details to show.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Lee and I climbed to the top of the Arc. This was an easy climb, the stairs were large and there were separate stairs going down so you didn't have to fight with anybody for space. In other words, my kind of stairs. That was an amazing perk! The top gave beautiful views of the city. You can see the Eiffel Tower, and of course the Champs Elysees.

Lee with the new GoPro

After the Arc, we wandered over to the Eiffel Tower. Again, it has a lot of people trying to scam but there are also a lot of armed guards around and just ignoring them works. It didn't make the experience any worse for us. Of course the Eiffel Tower is everything I thought it would be.

Slowly, we made our way to the River Seine and started toward the Louvre. The river walk was nice and calming after being around so many people at the last attractions. We saw the Pont Alexander III which is a very beautiful bridge.

This is Lee's "I'm guilty of being really good at getting into pictures when I'm not supposed to, either with my head or now, the gopro" face.

 After looking at directions, we saw that we were right at the Hotel de Invalides so of course we went over there as well. Napoleon's tomb is located here and it is also a military hospital. It has a ton of old cannons and military stuff around the property. We will be back to make it inside.

As we meandered down the river farther, we happened upon a Christmas market. That was fun! There was an ice skating rink, lots of food, booths and Christmas music. Christmas in Paris, how magical!

Eventually we did make it to the Louvre. We didn't make it inside this time since it was such a short trip but we will be back. I think you really need to spend a day there so I want to give it justice. This first trip was a great intro the city but I can't wait to go back.  It is absolutely huge! It was originally a royal palace is it is very extravagant as well.

From the Louvre, we happened upon the Love Locks bridge. I really do not like the locks, they really do make the bridge very ugly. But took some pics anyways since there are just so many, it's impressive!

After all this, we were beat! We headed back to the apartment for that day. So much walking! We did take the metro a lot but somehow, we still killed my feet. By the way, the Paris metro is easy! Not as clean as London but worked just fine for us.

The next day, we started at Sainte Chapelle. It is most well known for its amazing stained glass windows. It has floor to ceiling very detailed windows. They are breathtaking! Lee and I both said "wow" when we entered the room. it was one of my favorite places. We loved it.

Notre Dame Cathedral was next on our list. The outside of the cathedral was of course, perfect. We loved it but decided not to go inside as the line was miles long. It's free to enter so it's of course, very popular.

We spent more time wandering around the area as the river is surrounded by beautiful buildings.

Getting hungry, we found our way into the Gothic Quarter which has all the typical Parisian buildings. We each had a great three course meal and left extremely happy as well as full! We don't normally eat out when traveling so this was a treat. We normally eat quick meals from a store. We also stopped by a chocolate store that had artisan chocolates. There were some in super cool shapes, we couldn't resist buying some! Santa was yummy!

After getting some full stomachs, we headed back to the apartment for some power naps. We had Eiffel Tower tickets for 8pm so we needed to be prepared!

We got in line (which was a theme for the night) for the elevator. It goes at a weird angle up the leg to get to the second floor. The second floor gave fantastic views but we headed straight for the line of the elevator to get to the top floor (it was really long). That elevator scared me as we got a lot higher and there is a lot of glass. The top was so high! And gave amazing views! My pictures of the views didn't turn out as well as Lee's GoPro video so enjoy them from there!

After finally making it back down (after a lot more time waiting in line), we went to stake out a good  picture spot. And I refused to move. We took a lot of photos but were especially waiting for the tower to sparkle. Every hour on the hour after it gets dark, the tower lights sparkle for five minutes. That made me in awe, I had no idea the tower did that.

Sparkles!

After the tower, it was getting pretty late but we decided to go to the Arc de Triumph again. We wanted to try some long exposure pictures and had a lot of fun with it. We may have ended up in the middle of a ten lane road to get some photos... And you may or may not see evidence of a car having to come close to us to get out of the away of a police car...sorry dad!

Also, stupid scooters! They follow no road rules and they terrified me more than the cars did! Never trust those things to stop...

 Fun fact: Your insurance is null in void around that roundabout if you are driving!

After scaring ourselves doing that for a bit, we headed back to the apartment. Some people may not love Paris but we did! I believe that you should go into every city with open expectations. You should know that these are big cities and pictures you see only show the best parts. Don't let anybody talk you out of going somewhere new just because they didn't enjoy it. You could have a fantastic time like we did. Go and explore (and invite us along...we will take great photos!)!

We can't wait to go back!