Paris Day 1

I'm back.  I took 1,544 pictures.  I filled up my entire memory card and went through two batteries. I will be editing some of my pictures and may eventually replace them here, but I figure I better just get these posts going if I ever hope to finish them and be able to blog about exciting things like diapers and dental work again.

 Both mom and I were not in our top physical form as we left.  We both received blessings at different times from different people just especially for this trip. Surprisingly (and not) they both included nearly the same things: Continued healing from our respective illnesses, guidance from the Spirit as we heeded it's promptings, and deepened relationships between us.

We thought we might have killed ourselves by the end of the first day.  I honestly wondered how I would physically make it through the rest of the week. But as we slowly acclimated to the time change, something akin to childbirth amnesia set in, and as the days passed it was so easy to look back and see how blissful the whole thing was.

Ideally, we would have slept on the flight over the ocean, arriving in Paris tired but ready to take on the day. Not ideally, for some reason, we were unable to convince our bodies to sleep.  So when we landed at 6 am Paris time (midnight to us) we were really tired.  We wanted to lay down in the airport but we knew our first stop had to be our hotel.  We weren't confident that our room would be ready that early but we, at the very least, needed to drop of our bags before heading out to see the sights.

My mom decided she didn't want to check her bag, nor lug something huge around from city to city so she managed to squeeze all she would need for our 9 day trip into a backpack with a pull-out handle.

  It was kind of like Mary Poppins bag. She kept pulling everything she needed out of it's bottomless pit.


I thought I packed reasonably in my backpack but it weighed a good 30 pounds. At least it wasn't my usual 50, though that's probably because I'm sharing my suitcase with a couple kids on most trips.  Anyway, we hefted and drug our bags to where we could catch the train into the city.  Luckily, my sister in law Ashley spelled out exactly how we should get to our hotel.  Still, it took us a minute to figure out the ticket-gate-things.  We finally stood back and studied what everyone else was doing until we thought we could get through without holding up the line.

We decided that this trip was an adventure.  We were using public transportation in all the cities (except Rome, thank goodness).  We had to figure out how to get ourselves wherever we needed/wanted to be. And I set in my mind that I would order with abandon whatever struck me on a menu.  This was an adventure!

And we were off!


By the time we got to the hotel it was 9 am.  And lucky for us, our room was ready.  We planned to drop our bags in the room, but we couldn't manage to get out of there without laying on the beds. It seemed silly to take a nap when we only had two short days in Paris, but it was almost involuntary and looking back, those two hours had to see us through a lot of mileage.  I may have fallen over the cliff of death without them.  Luckily, I set my alarm first and we only slept for a couple of hours.

We woke up exhausted and headed out on foot to the Arc d' Triomphe.  We took a few wrong turns but enjoyed the view around every corner.

 We willed our feet, step by step. Soon, the Arc was peeking through the buildings.

 It took us a minute to figure out that we had to go under ground to resurface in the center of the traffic circle, our brains as tired as our feet.

We walked all 284 steps to the top and mutually agreed that we might die.

  The view was definitely worth it though.

From the Arc we walked down the Champs Elysee. It's bugging me that I don't know how to spell these places.  I may or may not go back and look them up to be sure they're correct.  If they're not, forgive me.

Champs Elysee was a very long road.  I didn't find it particularly appealing. And we walked on it for a very long way.  It wasn't nearly as interesting as the neighborhood streets we had walked to the Arc.

There was this thing about Paris.  So many sights to be seen and places to go.  Of course I was going to see Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, etc, etc, etc.  You can't go to Paris and not.  I liked seeing those things, but what I loved more was just feeling a neighborhood, watching people, and eating food. But even while I knew it was happening, and I was breaking my body to get it all in, I couldn't stop myself. I decided that there should be a two-visit minimum requirement for Paris.  I went this time to check off the boxes and I will go next time to soak it all in.

We walked the length of that dang road.

We had to make a pit stop at the Grand Palais where a horse show was taking place.  The most beautiful specimens were being lead down the city street to their tented stalls.

  We stopped and had some crepes in the park, nutella and banana, cheese and tomato, which may have been one of my favorite experiences of the trip.

We pressed on to the Lourve.  We could see it. It's not far now. But as we walked, it seemed to get further and further away. And who goes to the Louvre but doesn't go in, even if taking another step feels like suicide? Not us!

 So we took an abbreviated tour of our own design. The sheer size of some of the paintings was awe inspiring.

  We saw Winged Victory,

 Venus,

and Mona Lisa.

 We walked through parts of the Egyptian area.  We took every elevator and escalator possible.  We. were. so. tired.  We sat down at a table in the lobby and just looked at each other.

We decided that we'd better ask someone to get us oriented.  We needed to be pointed in the exact direction of the bus stop. No more wandering.  There was no room for error.  At any moment, one of our 4 legs was liable to buckle and never work again.

We took the bus to the Eiffel Tower.  By that time, night had fallen.  It was beautiful.

  We made our way over to it.  And when I saw the gargantuan lines of people waiting to go up, I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to have made us a reservation and hadn't.  Didn't matter much though because neither of us had the ability to stand in line or climb any stairs.  Our only-slight disappointment was assuaged with the twinkling lights of the last 5 minutes of the hour.

We crawled to the metro station, only had to make one transfer.  Drug ourselves above ground and stumbled to our hotel.

  In all my years, newborn sleep schedules included, I can safely say that I have never felt so exhausted.
Our heads hit the pillows like cinder blocks.  And my roommate (who shall remain nameless) proceeded to snore all night long.  (Love you, Mom!)