Paris, the City I Love! Day 1

Just in time for Valentine's day, I'm so excited to begin to recap Paris! I can't even describe how wonderful this city truly is! I knew going in I'd probably love Paris and I was nervous it wouldn't live up to my expectations but it surpassed my expectations. It was just so charming and you could tell people really lived there and not just traveled there. There were families, babies, couples and children all over. There were clean parks, wonderful museums and the beautiful Seine. Granted, we had amazing weather the four days we were in Paris, 70 degree average and sunny every day, but I don't think I could hate Paris even on a cloudy day. 

I'm obsessed with the architecture and charm, the cafes, the bread and pastries!!! We took our trip pretty slow and really only did one touristy thing a day but really allowed time to order lunch and dinner and really feel like a Parisian (which also included wine at every meal of course!)

We left Raleigh on August 30 and arrived in Paris on August 31st. We took the night flight and didn't sleep too much on the flight over but we pushed through on our first day in Paris.

 Au Revior Raleigh!

 Bonjour Paris!

We took a taxi to our flat on Rue Chevert and walked around the corner to Rue Cler to have lunch at Tribeca that was recommended to me by a local friend. It had to be our most nerve wracking part of the trip. We hesitated thinking, do they speak English? Will they understand us? Are we sticking out like a sore thumb? Yes, yes and yes.. but c'est la vie! Let's eat and drink champs!

 

After lunch we decided to walk around, see what Paris had to offer. We didn't want to wander too far from our flat so we ended up at Les Invalides, the military museum and we decided to purchase tickets. We were able to see Napoleon's tomb and the chapel that lead to the tomb and then toured the largest military museum in the world. The museum was fantastic, but we started to get tired and everything was of course, written in French so we couldn't really appreciate all the things on display. Regardless, the gardens were gorgeous and I could see the Eiffel tower so I was giddy and I was in France with my wonderful hubs!

 

 

 

 

  

  

Following an exhausting day, we had researched a few restaurants a head of time and decided we wanted to try Cafe Constant by renowned Parisian Chef Constant. We had heard there would be a wait and there was. Unfortunately, it seemed most people that were waiting were tourists which made me a bit sad, but it was Sunday evening as well. (When we passed by during the week it was not as busy.)

I'm really sad because I can't quite remember what exactly we had, I had a travel journal that I documented everything in while we were away and left in on my flight home from Rome and I'm STILL devastated that I did this. We did end with profiterole with ice cream and hot chocolate topping the pastry. YUM! Then we got to walk by her majesty at night.. simply BREATHTAKING. Literally, I teared up seeing her at night for the first time.

That was just our first day in Paris! Can't wait to share the rest of our story!

xoxo,
Amanda