m+b diaries: europe trip 2014, day 8 and 9.

While we wanted more time to stay and explore in Montreux, how could we not be excited about heading to Paris?! Again, we woke up early to make our train to Geneva. Once in Geneva, we then boarded a TGV to Paris. There was only a small hiccup when I couldn’t find the car numbers and sat us in the wrong car. Other than that, the ride on the TGV was awesome, smooth, and had great service. I think Meredith slept most of the way, but my eyes were glued to the green country side and my excitement only grew once the view turned into dense cityscape.

Paris Gare de Lyon

This pic is blurry and Mere hates it, but I love it :)

First thing is first, there is a little beer joint that we hit right out of the station to toast our arrival. Express de Lyon is a pretty typical looking beer joint, but their fair prices and awesome beer selection was a hit. After that, we hopped on a bus to take us to the 8^th Arrondissement. That went easier than expected, but I did get off one stop early….so we had a bit of a walk. Again, thank heavens we had just our carryon luggage. We checked in to Hotel Le A, and cooled off for a bit. The hotel was just perfect for us. Cool style, nice bar, a great breakfast set up, and a friendly staff.

Our room number

Breakfast area

Lobby

Bar

I bet you can guess what we did first. We probably aren’t the first, but we wanted to see the Eifel Tower. On the way there, we were a little distracted by the Champs-Elysees. Our stops included my Mom’s favorite, Laduree for macarons, then Sephora for Mere. We finally made our way down Avenue George V to see the Flamme de la Liberte, which also gave us our first view of the tower. It’s such a cool feeling to see it in person for the first time. We have learned about it, see it in movies, famous pictures, and then it is right there in front of you. It’s just iconic.

Sephora, Champs-Elysee

How could we not get any?!

I spy.

Flamme de la Liberte

After hanging out for a bit, we decided to head back towards the hotel and find something to eat. We took it a bit slow up Avenue Montaigne, so Mere could take in the Hotel Plaza Athenee. She was a big Sex and the City fan, so obviously the hotel was cool for her to see. I was starting to get hangry, and for some reason we unfortunately hit a strange hour for dining in Paris. A bunch of the restaurants were not open yet, so we just picked a random sidewalk café nearby. We enjoyed a charcuterie board and a cheese plate, but I honestly couldn't tell you the name of the place.

the Hangry dinner

The next morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel. My Mom set us up with a driving tour, which gave us a cool quick way to see a bunch of Paris and get a feel for the layout. I would highly suggest something like this, as it can give you an idea on which areas might be for you. If I sat here and talked about each place we saw, you would shoot me, so here is a quick list.

L’Arc de Triomphe, Grand Palais, Place de la Concorde, Place Vendome, Palais Royal, Palais Garnier, Musee de Louvre, Ponte des Arts, Notre-Dame, and even up to Sacre-Coeur to see the full view of Paris.

Phew. It was a bit overwhelming, and we feel as if we forgot half of what we saw, but it was still so worth it. Kind of a funny story, but our driver took us through an area of Montmartre where cars are not allowed on Saturdays. We actually got stopped by the cops, but he played dumb and they let us continue. When we finally got through the crowds at Sacre-Coeur, the car stalled. Half of the crowd was not too pleased with us driving through the closed area, but a group pushed the car until our driver could get it started. Disaster averted.

During the drive, we really liked the Saint Germain area and planned on going there for the rest of the day. Being big football fans, we also wanted to try and see a little bit of opening weekend (I am a bit embarrassed that we were worried about watching football while being in Paris, but so be it). Mere and I were actually up against each other in fantasy football too, which made it a bit more important. We came across one bar that had two games on, and had a beer there, but kept on searching for one with the Houston Texans. Not far down the row, we found a bar that had the Texans vs. Redskins game, but it was so packed we could hardly move. On to the next spot, we found a British pub (The Frog and Princess) which at least had the Redzone channel, and more importantly, ample seating. This is where we spent the majority of the night. It was trivia night, which we played and lost a close game to some cheaters using their cellphones. Not bitter. It ended up being a very fun evening, even if it was watching some football.