A Walk in the Park

Paris--Day One!

We had a wonderful first day in Paris. We arrived around 10 a.m. and found it fairly easy to get into town. We decided to take the Roissy bus which would take us to the Opera metro where we could catch just one train to our hotel to get drop off our luggage. The bus also gave us a nice view as we rode into Paris. We could see Sacre Couer very well and as we got more into the city center, it was fun to see the architecture, cafes and shops. The Opera Garnier is very striking and there was already a long line to get inside. We found the metro and caught a train. We saved some time and hassle by purchasing at the airport: our carnet (book of 10 metro tickets), museum pass and bus tickets.

We dropped off our luggage at our hotel and headed right to Champ de Mars which is the park in front of the Eiffel Tower. We were pinching ourselves that we were actually in front of the Eiffel Tower! It was an amazing site. It's so big! We walked along the park and the underneath the tower and over to the Seine River where we took an hour long boat tour of the Seine.

The boat tour was not crowded and it was an excellent introduction to the City. We saw all the bridges and landmarks, including Lourve, Norte Dame and Orsay. After the boat tour, we headed back towards our hotel (which was in the 7th--the same neighborhood as the Eiffel Tower.) We officially checked in and took an hour long nap.

Our Museum pass was for 4 days, so we decided to activate it on Monday. This gave us Sunday afternoon to go to a non- Museum pass museum which was a bit off the beaten track. We ventured by metro to the Musee Momarttan Monet, which was lovely! It was in the cutest neighborhood and we loved seeing all the families playing in the park by the museum. The museum has a large collection of Monets. Very beautiful. We then took a bus to Trocadero which is an excellent view of the Eiffel Tower from the opposite side of the river. The fountains were beautiful.

Our tickets to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower were not until 7:30 and they wouldn't let you go early, so we decided to get a bite to eat, Mark had quiche and i had a croque monsieur. Then we walked back to the tower. We took the first elevator to the second viewing area and right away got in the elevator line to go to the top. The top is very breathtaking...lots and lots to see and it was just getting dark so we got the best of both worlds, seeing the view at dusk and then at night. We took the elevator back down to the second viewing area and walked around a bit. We were waiting until 9 p.m. as that's when the tower twinkles for 5 minutes. We made it down and across the bridge to see if from a little distance. Astonishing! We walked back to the hotel and got ready for Day 2!

posted by Kathryn @ 1:56 PM