We'll always have Paris...

My cousin Trisha arrived in London last Wednesday and we have had a whirlwind week full of travel, fantastic sights, delicious food and cold beer.  I was a tad late picking Trish up from the airport (oops!) but it was only a few minutes.  Trisha was introduced to the joy of traveling by tube on our way back to the flat.  After dropping off her luggage and freshening up, I took Trish to visit Josh at his office.  The Angel building has an amazing view of London from the rooftop.  From there, Trish and I hopped on a bus and headed towards the river Thames for a little tour of London's highlights.  Of course, our first plan of action was to enjoy a pint at one of my favorite pubs...The Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. 

Trisha at the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

 

Trisha in front of Tower Bridge

 After enjoying our beer and sharing a plate of fish and chips, Trisha and I took a walk along the Thames so that she could see a few of the local landmarks, like Tower bridge, the Tower of London, London Eye and about a hundred pubs along the way :)

Mmmm...pig heads...

Trisha was also introduced to the weirdness that is London...where else can you buy a whole pigs head???  Borough Market of course!

Later that evening we met up with Josh and had a nice dinner at a Lebanese restaurant near our flat.  It was pretty tasty!  Then we had to make our plans and prepare for the following day...Paris watch out!

Trish and Josh at St. Pancras station.

Josh and I on our first Eurostar trip.

We took a Eurostar train from London to Paris.  It was a fantastic way to travel!  It is so nice to be able to arrive at the train station, go through some quick security and be on our way to Paris...so much easier than flying!  Josh and I will be taking the Eurostar again in a couple weeks to Brussels (Soooo excited!!)

In less than 2 hours we had arrived in Paris.  It was a fantastically beautiful day.  I admit that I was not expecting much from Paris because I have heard it is dirty but I have to say, I loved Paris!  I think it is MUCH cleaner than London (can we work on that Boris???)  The only weird/gross thing about Paris was the obvious smell of urine in random areas...it seems that public urination must be common.  While I didn't see anyone pee in a corner, I know it happens!

Our fearless navigator :)

We started out walking towards our hotel...unfortunately, Josh was leading us to the wrong hotel, but it all worked out in the end.  We were able to drop off our stuff and head back out into the city.  Our first stop was the Sacre Coeur Church on Mont Martre.  We climbed the steps up to the church and got a great panoramic view of Paris. 

Sacre Coeur Church

The Eiffel Tower from Sacre Coeur (yes, that is smog!)

Inside Sacre Coeur church.

After leaving the church we weaved though a bunch of streets.  I loved how white Paris is, most of the building are made with a white limestone.  The stone gives the city a cohesive, clean look.  Add some iron work balconies and you have perfection!

A Paris street.

Trisha found a Parisian hunk :)

 We next came across a huge cemetery.  The tombs were large and made of stone.  They looked like little house and had iron doors.  Some were in disrepair, but many were still standing strong after a hundred years. 

Inside of a tomb.

Iron doors on a tomb.

A few of the tombs.

We then walked to the Louvre.  The Louvre is surrounded by the most massive, long building I have ever seen...it seemed to go on forever!  We enjoyed the views and took some pics, but did not go inside.  Non of us were that excited about seeing the Mona Lisa (sad, I know, but the weather was beautiful and none of us wanted to go inside!).  I guess I will just have to come back to Paris to view all of the art!

Me, Josh and Trish at the Louvre!

Part of the building surrounding the Louvre

Josh and I at the Louvre.

 We decided that the Eiffel Tower was our top priority for the day, so we walked what seemed like 5 miles (yikes!)   The tower was more amazing that I had ever thought it would be.  It really is a place that needs to be seen and experienced to really understand how beautiful and wonderful it is.  My only regret is that we didn't see it at night...yet another reason to plan another trip to Paris soon!

Bridge across the Sine

Josh and I at the Eiffel Tower!

Eiffel Tower

Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower

Trish and I at the top of the Eiffel Tower

It was a little nerve wracking on the way up the tower...our elevator went up, then went back down.  The guy running it said something...in French of course, so we didn't know what was going on!  Luckily everything was okay and we went up again.  The ride made my hands sweat though...we were going up pretty fast with steel and beams and sky whizzing past.  I think I would have rather walked all the way up!  The view of Paris was amazing at the top though, totally worth the stress! 

Triumphal Arch from the Eiffel Tower

A kiss on top of the Eiffel Tower :)  It is the city of love...

Ice cream in front of the Eiffel Tower...yes please!

We were dog tired after hiking around Paris all day, so we jumped on a bus and headed back to our hotel to freshen up a little before dinner.  Oddly enough, we ended up having dinner at a place called Indiana that served American style food.  We couldn't read the menus anywhere else and didn't want a repeat of the whitebait incident from last week...The food was pretty decent and we recharged a little.  I really wanted to see the Moulin Rouge after dark, so after dinner we walked about a mile to see it.  Very cool!  Too bad it cost 100 euros to see a show!

Moulin Rouge in Paris

We finally headed back to our hotel after walking over 37,000 steps that day (I wore a pedometer).  That is about 15 miles in one day!  We rested up and woke up the next day ready to see more of what Paris had to offer. 

Our hotel room in Paris.

Our first stop in Paris on Thursday was a patisserie for a quick breakfast.  There were so many yummy looking choices...I ended up with a croissant and a maple eclair, yum!

Patisserie selection.

We then headed over to Notre Dame.  I loved the outside of the church, especially the gargoyles.  They reached out at least a couple feet, the whole building was really impressive.

The back of Notre Dame.

Inside of Notre Dame

Trisha in front of Notre Dame.

Notre Dame

Beautiful stained glass window at Notre Dame

After touring Notre Dame we headed out to look for some lunch and a nice place to sit outside since the weather was so perfect.  We stumbled across a beautiful park with plenty of outdoor seating.  We ended up spending the rest of our time in Paris just lounging and enjoying the views, a perfect way to end our trip!

Beautiful park in the center of Paris

Josh lounging :)

Trish and I enjoying the park and the sun!

A view from the park.

I would absolutely recommend a trip to Paris.  I wish we would have had more time to explore and more opportunities to use the French words we learned.  Hopefully, we will get the chance to go back again someday! 

I'll post another blog in a few days about our trip to Stonehenge and showing Trish around London.  Fun stuff!

Au Revoir!  Rachel