Bonjour Y'all

I may have fooled Paris, but I actually took a combined 7 French language classes through high school and college, and not to brag, but I made A's in each (though those complex conjugations were the bane of my existence in the fall of 2006). Sadly, all I have to show for it is a random plethora of nouns and the un-conjugated versions of a few verbs. Alas, I sure acted like a pro when we visited Paris last weekend and only 99.99% of Parisians figured out I was American... and Southern.

We had 3 days to see as much of the massive and spread out city as possible. Because I've been dying to visit Paris for most of my life, I put some thought and planning into our sightseeing, doing my best to ensure we made the most of public transportation and foot travel time while factoring in queues and snacking (the Haywoods like to snack). Our AirBnb rental was lovely and located in District 11/Bastille neighborhood. Almost immediately upon arrival we found the neighborhood bakery, which we visited daily for croissants, pain au chocolate and macaroons.

The Paris subway isn't too tough to navigate, once you get past that it's in French, and it's cheap and fairly clean, with the exception of the poo that I spotted one of the nights. We had a fairly horrific and smelly bus ride into town and thus chose to stay away from those the remainder of the trip. It was early evening by the time we were ready to explore so we decided to take it easy and get some fresh air. We made our way through the Jardin des Plantes, past the Pantheon (I know these sights deserve more than a passing, but remember, efficiency was our game) to Luxembourg Garden. We quickly found somewhere to buy some wine, bread and cheese (French essentials as I understand it) and found a spot close to one of the fountains to begin soaking up the Paris vibe and Vitamin D we've been missing in England. We were immediately enchanted. Sadly, this didn't last long as the gardens close shortly after our arrival, but we quite enjoyed those few minutes.

One thing I did differently when planning this trip was attempt to plan our dining options. Reasons being: 1 - we love food; 2 - this was our first trip to a country where we didn't speak the language, and 3 - this is a severe area of struggle for us when traveling. Adam and I both have bad habits of getting hungry quickly and violently, or hangry as some call it. And when this happens to both of us as the same time, it can be down right dangerous. So, I did some research, found a website that had some promising suggestions and chose restaurants close to corresponding sights. Night one was in a good location and was very charming - your classic French bistro, A La Biche Au Bois. Our steaks weren't anything to write home, or here, about, but it was a decent choice, seeing as they spoke English and we avoided hanger ruining our evening. 

Saturday's plans were not for the faint of heart, or feet.  We caught the train over to the Arc de Triomphe to start our day. This site is massively impressive, and massive. (Note: I won't spend much of this blog post trying to put into words the emotions the sites evoked from each of us - that's for each individual to experience.) We then headed down the Rue de Champs Elysees, past the Grand Palais and through the Jardin des Tuileries. The lunch spot I selected was deserted and just felt weird, so we found a cafe in a courtyard off the Louvre (Le Nemours), which was perfect! Not only did they have delicious crepes (Adam converted me from chocolate to Nutella and banana), but an impromptu string performance started right in front of us! It was like a classy flash mob, or orchestra.  C'est la vie en Paris.

Once in the Louvre, we immediately found the Mona Lisa. As everyone warned me, it was small, and crowded. Who cares?! It's the Mona Lisa, people! However, the rest of the museum is really incredible as well. We could have spent hours there, but limited it to 2 or so. We had towers to climb... literally.

The climbing queue (versus the direct lift) for the Eiffel Tower wasn't so bad, and in spite of my Snapchat rants, neither was the climb. The views at every level are beautiful, and the tower itself is just a cool to look at. Upon descent, I'd planned for us to see Sacre Coeur and gaze upon Paris at dusk/evening from Montmartre, but we were pooped, so grabbed pizza and called it a night. There's always next time, and there WILL be a next time.

Sunday was a day I'd been looking forward to since my middle school field trip to Jackson to see the Versailles exhibit. We caught the long train, waited in the long & hot queue and made our way into the hot and crowded palace - and it was AWESOME! We ate up every minute walking through the rooms, listening to our audio guides and snapping photos like tourists. We took a lunch break on the steps of the garden to snack on some sandwiches (smartly purchased at a convenience store) and plotted our trek through the gardens, which goes on for miles. We saw a fountain show and most of the other buildings on site and after 6 hours, threw up our white flags as our feet were dead and our minds full of awe inspiring buildings, gardens, statues, art and French glory. That place is stunning and was our favorite stop on this trip. Sites seen, we grabbed Chinese and were in by 9pm. I realize we were in Paris and some of you may be thinking "Chinese, seriously," but when you don't have some of your usual comforts from home (US) at home (UK), you sure do crave those eggrolls you see in the shop window (we miss you Mr. Chen's). Also, our aforementioned issue of finding dinner spots helps us relish a simple decision when presented with one.

With just half a day left, we finished our Parisian adventure with some reverence and beauty at St. Chapelle and Notre Dame Cathedrals. St. Chapelle boasts some of the most impressive stained glass I've ever seen and Notre Dame is beautiful from every angle, every corner and every view. We got our last look as we meandered over to the Love Lock bridge where I resisted adding a lock. They've been removing them lately due to the weight they're adding to the bridges and I for one, couldn't be a part of doing any damage to such beautiful architecture. No judgement to those who've done so in the past - it's charming and I don't think anyone realized at the start how many locks would actually be added and the damage it could do.

Paris was all that I expected, and so much more.  I could spend hours gushing, and share many more pictures, speaking of which - here's a link to my Google+ photo album.  The blog isn't the most efficient place to share ALL of the photos, but you can find most from our adventures there!

We have a few other trips planned before our visit home at Christmas (wow, I can't believe I'm already talking about that) and we'll share those as we go.  We spent last Saturday in Oxford and I'll try to get those details on the blog soon! Until then, au revoir (nailed the accent in my head)!