Exploring Europe 2013: Eiffel in love with Paris

The moment we arrived in Paris we knew we would love our stay here. Jordan and I love the big city feel and Paris definitely qualifies, it immediately reminded us of New York. Our apartment was in Montmartre, close to Sacre Coeur. It was a great two bedroom flat with a modern kitchen. There was the coolest cafe bar right across the street called Floors that was 3 floors. We arrived to our flat around 2pm and once we got settled in, went out to maximize our time in Paris. Mom had pre ordered a discount museum and transit pass for the 4 of us, so we went to pick those up. From there we walked to the first tourist site, the Eiffel Tower! Now one of the best things about Europe has been that is does not get remotely dark until 10pm, so you can get a lot of things done in a day. It was a cloudy Tuesday and there was literally no line at there tower. Of course we had to go up! It was absolutely incredible. Jordan refused to go near the edge but then offered to take a picture with me, he is slowly getting over his fear I think. Then again he practically kissed the ground when we came back down. We took a bunch of pictures on, near, and around the tower. Its nice to have our parents there to take some picture of us. My mom and I were both pretty excited as we have always wanted to see Paris together. On our way home we stopped at the grocery store. We bought food for the next few breakfasts and sacks, not to mention a healthy supply of beer.

We got a slow start to the morning, making a breakfast we all wanted but we got a lot done that day. We decided to all do the Rick Steve's walking tour which brought us to the Notre Dame Cathedral. It really is breathtaking, the sheer size and history behind its origin leave you in awe. From there we walked along the river towards a world renounced bookstore called Shakespeare and Co. As we wandered in for a closer look, this quant, small book store was reminiscent of something out of Harry Potter. We continued to walk to many historical sites, including, but not limited to, the prison where Marie Antoinette was killed, St. Severin church and street and Pont Nuef. Jordan was especially excited for this as a Bourne movie scene was filmed on this bridge. After all this we took the metro towards the Eiffel tower and took a Seine river cruise tour around Ile de la Cite. Once we got off, we were at the base of the tower, and since it was a sunny day we decided to take more picture with the Tower in the background. That night the 4 of us decided to separate for dinner. Mom and dad went off for a night in Paris while Jordan and I went another way. Jordan and I finished the evening wandering through gift shops with a crêpe of course.

I think I am crêped out. I literally had 2 or more a day. I just loved having a food I knew I would enjoy. This day was mom and dads last full day with us. Our goal of the day was to see the Musee du Louvre. I think we spend just over 5 hours there and all of us agree that we barely got started. Jordan was over the moon happy, one of his trip highlights for sure! It really wiped us out so when Mom and Dad decided to go to Sacre Coeur, Jordan and I walked the few blocks home and grabbed a coffee at Floors. Mom and Dad still were not back so we went for dinner on our own, running into them as we finished. While mom and dad went for dinner, Jordan and I picked up some groceries. Its hard to remember the specifics of each day, they blur together at this point. Although I did just remember that I smashed my phone when I fell the night before.

Mom and dad left early Friday morning, 6am early. Although the 3 of us (not Jordan) were up at 4:45. It was sad to see them go, it was nice to have family around, although we do not miss their luggage. Jordan and I packed that morning and then spend a good part of the day wandering around and exploring the city. We ended up in a few different neighborhoods and it was fun to see the culture change in different areas. We moved to a new neighborhood for our last 2 nights in Paris, the more college friendly Latin Quarter, close to St.Germain des Pres. That night Jordan and I walked around the Latin Quarter and ate at a really good Greek restaurant.

The next day was a full one, in the morning we walked to Pont des Art which is a bridge dedicated to love. Basically what you do with your lover is attach a lock with your names (or any thing you want) to the bridge and throw the keys in the river to symbolize the bond of your love. It was actually a lot of fun and quote romantic. Oh and I bought a pair of boots! The reason I say this is we spend a goods hour finding a pair of socks to buy ones that were not more than €18 euro. Fortunately we were in the walking and exploring a new neighborhood mood. From there we took the metro to the Opera House. It is huge, absolutely huge. I'm still in awe. We went to the top of the theater seating even though I have a feeling people were not supposed to be up there, only because I saw almost no other people. Actually one of the coolest things was that after the Opera House, we went to the Orsay Museum and saw a miniature scale replica of the Opera House and you realize just how big and intricate it actually is. We only explored maybe a 1/4 of the whole structure. The Orsay museum was interesting but a little weird if you don't know who all the painters are, why their painting are popular and why most of them are grossly nude. After that we came home and made our own perfect dinner. We waited until it was almost dark to go out again because we wanted to go see the Eiffel tower at night. It was the perfect end to our Paris trip. On the way home we picked up a few souvenirs and a crêpe of course.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed to the train stations for our 6hr train ride to the base of France. From there we hoped on a local train to take us to San Sebastian, Spain which was only 30min away. This is an extremely long blog post but then again it was the longest portion of our trip!