Paris: Days Un, Deux, et Trois

Warning: although I was able to whittle the number of pictures down to 805 (from more than 2700!), these next few posts will be picture heavy. And not one of them will be of Riley. So sorry!

Our flight to Paris left the New Orleans airport in the early afternoon on Thursday, June 7. We flew through Philadelphia, which is where we met up with the three McF girls. And then bam! nine hours later we were in PARIS.

We effectively hit the ground running (even though all any of us wanted to do was sleep) so that the time change wouldn’t mess with us too much. We set off on our first big walk of the trip and headed to a place called Louise for lunch. It was the first place we ate in Paris, and it would be the last, simply because we loved it so much.

After saying a quick hello to our French friend Nathalie at her office, we wandered around the Palais Royal, walked by part of the Louvre, saw the Pompidou Center, and had a great dinner at Cafe Beaubourg before finally allowing ourselves to settle into our apartment and get some much needed rest. We would need lots of energy for our first full day in the City of Light.

 

  

The next morning, even though it was a Saturday and thus likely to be crowded, we decided to make Notre Dame the first official stop on our tour of Paris. It was a short walk from our apartment, and we passed by the Hotel de Ville, the Paris city hall, on our way. This is certainly the prettiest city hall I’ve ever seen.

 

We crossed the first of many bridges and got our first up-close look at the Seine. We also stopped a fellow tourist to take our first group picture of the trip…..good call, Lizzie!

Once we were standing in front of Notre Dame on the Ile de la Cite, the larger of the two islands in the middle of the Seine, Lizzie could not wipe the smile off of her face. She later said the famous church was her very favorite thing she saw on the whole trip, and it certainly showed. She was like a kid in the biggest toy store in the world: her expression was one of pure wonder and amazement.

 

We did a quick circuit on the inside of the church and then went to get in line to climb to the very top. This was something I wasn’t able to do on my first trip to Paris with QP and UJ (access was closed on account of renovations), so I was glad it was open this time around.

Four of us climbed while the others waited in the gardens behind the church. We were in line for almost an hour, so Lizzie and I actually snuck a peek at the gardens while QP and Ita held our place. The back of Notre Dame is even more stunning than the front.

   

The views were totally worth the 387 steps to get to the top.

Simply breathtaking.

 

We also got to go inside one of the bell towers and see the massive bell. This is where Ita captured Lizzie’s best expression (IMHO).

Although her leaping display after we were back on the ground was a close second. Yes, she was that excited.

Luckily for Lizzie, another beautiful church was next on the agenda: Sainte Chapelle. I vividly remember seeing this church on my first trip to Paris, and it did not fail to impress a second time around.

Lizzie was quite taken with it as well.

After we had absorbed all of Sainte Chapelle’s beauty, we went next door to La Conciergerie, a former royal palace and, later, a prison. I remembered this place, too, with its cavernous great hall and gorgeous vaulted ceiling.

The hall was used in the 14th century as a dining room for the palace staff, with four huge fireplaces around the perimeter to warm the room. We had a little bit of fun in one.

All that walking and climbing made us hungry, so we then walked over to the Ile St. Louis for lunch at Le Flore en L’Ile. After that we went to Viviani Square to find the oldest tree in Paris, hopped over to Shakespeare and Company so Nola could get Riley a couple of books, then rounded out the day at the Luxembourg Gardens. What a first day!

 

 

 

Taking the Metro for the first time this trip to get there, we ended the day with dinner at Nathalie’s apartment, where she and her mom Charlette graciously provided us with quite an impressive spread. Merci beaucoup, Nathalie; it was a wonderful evening!

  

If you can believe it, the next two days were even busier than the first few. I’ll be posting throughout the weekend, so please check back tomorrow!

Oh, et un tres bon anniversaire a vous aujourd’hui, Nola!