Paris in a Day
Deciding to take the chunnel (channel tunnel) to Paris and return the same day was a whirlwind idea. Actually, it wasn’t my idea. This really awesome man that we met in the bar the night before offered to pay for my husband to take me to Paris. It was such a generous offer and very heart felt. How could we refuse? It was definitely worth it. Spending about 8 hours in Paris ala Amazing Race pace was enough to get a taste of this beautiful city. The history that surrounded us as we wandered through the streets was overwhelming.
Our first stop on our tour was the Notre Dame Cathedral. Talk about massive. Entering the church brought tears to my eyes. There is no fee to walk through the church, but of course, they will take donations.
Next was the Eiffel Tower. It is all that you think it is and well worth the trip alone. If you go to the Eiffel Tower, plan on at least 4 hours if you want to go to the top. It’s kind of hard to take a picture of yourself with the tower in the background unless you go down the street a bit, unless of course you are willing to lie on the ground.
On to the Arc de Triomphe! Another massive piece of ancient architecture. Just as beautiful as I thought it would be. It’s pretty big as well. The Arc de Triomphe is surrounded by one of the biggest if not the biggest round about in the world. The traffic just circles around with no signals; the cars just merge in and out. It’s insane.
Before our next stop we stopped at a Beer Bar and had lunch. I had a dry salami baguette and water. When I ordered my water the waitress asked me if I wanted gas or no gas. Ahhh, no gas please! Oh yes and beware of ordering “large” sodas in Paris. Our friend ordered a large diet coke that ended up costing 14 euros which works out to somewhere around $20.
Last stop, the Louvre! The Louvre closes at 5:30pm on Thursdays. So at 5:00pm, there we were buying our tickets on a foot race to the Mona Lisa. We found her! She was not as magnificent as I had thought, but at least we can say we’ve been there. On our way out we saw a sign that pointed us to the Venus de Milo statue. You know the one with the arms cut off. So in thirty minutes we saw two of the most famous pieces of art in history. You really need 2 days to appreciate everything in the Louvre. Be prepared to see a lot of penises and boobs. They are everywhere in there. More penises though. There was definitely a whole homo erotica thing going on through out most of the pieces. I suppose that would be a whole other post though.
At any rate, would I do it again? Hell ya!
