Touring Paris

Last evening, Chad & I had tickets to Tour Eiffel. We purchased them online a week or so in advance, as we'd heard you could skip some of the lines this way. Because we purchased them so close to our trip, we really did not have our pick of times...only about 3 the entire time we are here! 

We arrived at the base of the Eiffel about a half hour ahead of time. There's lots going on down there...a carousel, souvenir kiosks, street food, hip hop dancers, etc! So we found plenty to do to pass the time. It's kind of crazy to be under this massive structure!

We found the appropriate line for "visitors with tickets", which began our wait in the first of many lines to come. (Side note...the line for visitors without tickets was only slightly longer. Once they purchased their tickets, they merged into our line. It might have been the time we chose to visit - 4:30pm - but I'd say it didn't matter much buying them ahead if time.)

Once we went through security, we then had to wait in line for the lift to the 2nd "Floor". Now there are shops & restaurants on the 1st floor, but the lift didn't stop there. There are two levels to the 2nd floor, as the elevator is also 2 levels. We started off on the bottom level, which I would say is the best & least crowded level to really spend time taking in the view! You have a phenomenal view of the city already and can walk leisurely all the way around.

We then headed up to the upper level of the 2nd floor to get in yet another line for the lift to the summit/3rd floor. Thus was a bit of a longer line and reminded me of standing in line weaving back & forth in an amusement park. It was finally our turn to head to the top!! (If you are claustrophobic, I'd recommend skipping these lifts. They are quite small and you are completely packed in like sardines!)

The summit of the Eiffel is, of course, beautiful...but super crowded!! Much to my dismay, the champagne bar was closed. #eiffelfail  So after a short time we got back in yet another line to head back to the 2nd floor....and another line for the lift back to the bottom. The Eiffel is definitely a must do for your first time in Paris...but if you're short on time, just hit up the 2nd floor.  In my opinion you won't miss anything more than waiting in lines by skipping the summit.

After a 90 min visit - half of which was spent in lines - we were in desperate need of some dinner. We headed to Rue Cler, a popular street in the heart of the 7th, and chose La Petite Cler for dinner and Les Officeres for dessert. Fun times!!

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Today we planned to go explore the Montmartre neighborhood.  So we started with a solid breakfast at Pain et Chocolat (Bread & Chocolate) in the 7th.  Can't go wrong with cappuccino & pain au chocolat.

View from breakfast...

Then we took the Metro over to Montmartre - gorgeous, hilly little neighborhood...

...and to the base below Sacre-Coeur Basilica. 

Then we headed up the stairs - avoiding the many scammers throughout Paris.  Today was much sunnier than the past few days but just as warm. So it was a bit steamy heading up the stairs. Thank goodness for the many different "landings" to rest upon. 

At the top is the basilica, which was absolutely gorgeous. You'll have to take my word for it as we abided by the signs and did not take pictures. There was a mass being held inside the basilica when we arrived. Here's a few pics of the outside.

Definitely tour the neighborhood behind the basilica if you ever go. Lots of cute shops & cafés! 

We stopped for lunch at Pepone Cafe - awesome Italian pizza & pasta!

Next we headed towards Champs d'Elysees...but not without catching a quick glimpse of Moulin Rouge!

The Metro in Paris is awesome - much like the NY subway - only cleaner.  You can get everywhere so fast! I wish more cities in the US had better public transport. First stop in Champs d'Elysees - the Arc de Triomphe...a monument celebrating those who fought in the French Revolutionary War. 

It's quite grand and is at the center of a busy traffic area.  You can take an underground walkway over to the center, which is gorgeous and houses the tomb of an unknown soldier. The eternal flame at the tomb has apparently only been extinguished twice - most recently when some drunk Mexican peed on it during the World Cup when it was held in France. He's no longer allowed inside France. Yikes - don't pee on other country's landmarks!

Apparently it's a "thing" in the Asian culture to come to Paris to have your wedding pics taken and then go back home to get married. We saw lot of Asian individuals getting wedding pics taken all over the city. Here's one of of many...

Next stop...window shopping! Apparently Champs d'Elysees is the most expensive place to shop in Paris. It reminds me of a French version of Chicago's Magnificent Mile.  Everything here can be found elsewhere in France...cheaper. 

We had a wonderful day sightseeing, shopping & eating. Now resting up before we head out for dinner. Au revoir!

Walking and walking and sightseeing...and more walking

We just finished up with our Wego Walking Tour, which was truly a lot of fun! The tour guide, Paul, is young and has a ton of energy. You literally walk over half of the city as he gives you the history of the landmarks in an entertaining fashion - much different than those boring, monotone tour guides. (Buehler? Buehler? - Lol.)  He's a wealth of information and has some very valuable tips & tricks for skipping a lot of the museum lines too! He was born in Mexico City to French father and Italian-American mother, so he's tri-lingual...and his English is superb!

Here's some of the tour's highlights.  We started at Notre Dame in late morning.

This gold star in the pavement in front of Notre Dame represents the center if the city and is what distance in the city is measured from. There are several old wife's tales that go along with this landmark...jumping up and down on it will bring your true love or spinning around on it to ensure you'll return to Paris. We just took a picture and skipped the jumping & spinning. :)

From there we walked down the Seine and to the Pont des Arts bridge with all the love locks.  Apparently recently a portion of the side railing collapsed under the weight of the locks...weighing about half a ton! You can still put locks on the bridge, but we chose to forego it in hopes of preserving it a bit longer.  Instead...we took a selfie!

Next, we walked over to The Louvre! Such a gorgeous area!! 

Loved the gardens there! Where else can you find a random, nicely groomed goat?

We also saw the "smaller brother" of the Arc de Triomphe just outside the grounds of The Louvre....

...and had a wonderful, street food snack - a ham & cheese crepe! Super delish!!

This Eqyptian obelisk also stands just outside The Louvre grounds and had real gold leaf at the top.

Nice shot of the Eiffel Tower from our walk across the Pont des Alexandre III.

We ended the tour at the Eiffel Tower...3.5 hrs later. There was lots of other mini stops along the way and a ton of fun stories. I truly would recommend this tour in Paris!  Best of all, it's free...just tip if you like it! Here's a quick shot of out tour guide, Paul, at the last stop.

We're off to actually tour the Eiffel! Cheers!

First Class, Baby!

We checked out of our hotel this morning and headed to the train station...just a quick 2 min walk! Cheers to Chad for thinking of that convenience! Even more props to the Gare Cornavin (Geneva train station) for their English-speaking representatives! They informed us that our first class tickets came with use of the first class lounge, which was hidden away up a couple of floors. We had to be at the platform at least 30 min ahead of time, so we just popped in for a quick cafe at lait.

While on the platform waiting for the train, I noticed this gorgeous building across from us. I just love the European architecture here!! It's one of the most memorable things from my Germany trip 10years ago. (I can't believe it has been 10 years already!!) 

It was a bit stressful finding the right car on the train and our seats, but I think that was mostly because we didn't know what we were doing. The whole process should be much less stressful on the return.   (Yikes, I'm writing this on the train and it just started moving.  I'm realizing that we'll be going backwards for 3 hrs...very fast eventually. Hope that neither of us is bothered by that.  Lol.)

Chad suggested that we save time and money this morning by skipping breakfast and eating the meal provided on the train. Here's the meal.  Lol! Not the one of the best decisions ever made. Needless to say by the time we arrive at the hotel, we'll be starving!

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A few hours later we arrived in Gare de Lyon (the main Paris train station).  Very busy and a bit confusing, but we eventually found everything we needed. I made what I now realize was not an ideal suggestion...take the Metro to the hotel. After many stairs & escalators up and down and a block walk on a very uneven Paris sidewalk, we finally arrived at our hotel, Le Tourville Eiffel. Our room and "interior" courtyard...

We're staying in the 7th a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower. So of course that's what was calling my name immediately. We have tickets to go up tomorrow afternoon, but I just had to catch a glimpse today...and that I did!

Managed to take a super cute selfie!

Seeing as we haven't barely had more than a teeny-tiny coffee and a snack pack of cookies, we walked to a near cafe, Cafe Gustave, for some wine & cheese. 

Chad contemplating the order...

After a quick rest, we headed back out to watch the sunset at the Eiffel. It's amazing the amount of people that do the same bringing along bread, sandwiches & wine! This pic just a doesn't do it justice. 

We walked and walked...and walked some more...and ended up at another cafe, La Terrasse, just across from the Eiffel. We downed another small meal of salad & mussels. While people watching on the sidewalk. It's crazy how many mussels were in thus bowl!!

Tomorrow we head out on a walking tour in the morning and up in the Eiffel in the afternoon. It's off to bed for now. A good first afternoon in Paris! Bonne nuit!

We made it!

Let the vacay commence!

Chad & I arrived safely in Geneva despite having a hooptie plane. You know it's time to upgrade the planes when the overhead bins open by themselves with any little bump or turbulence, the TV is smaller than your hand, one if the bathrooms is unusable and the reading lights are broken and never turn off (on a red eye flight)!  Lol!!

We successfully managed to take the train from the airport to the main Geneva train station but not without confusion. There is definitely a lack of maps, instructions and information stations in the Geneva airport. There appeared to be only one train, so we hopped on and hoped for the best! We got off at the first stop - Geneva.  Success...and more confusion! Lol. Luckily the train station has better signage than the airport.  After exchanging our money, we headed just across the street to our hotel. A hotel next to a busy train station is not ideal, but it sure was convenient after a long flight...and will be extra nice in the morning for an early train to Paris.

Our room is quite small as most European hotel rooms are - but still adequate. At check-in the concierge gave us our room key (AKA room anchor)!  Lol! This was quite heavy to carry around all day! What happened to electronic card access??

Here's a couple shots of our room & the lovely view. 

View from the panoramic dining room (also on our floor). The Jet d'Eau (water fountain) in the background is a Geneva landmark...similar to the arch in The Lou.

Everything I've read about combating jet lag says not to nap much and to stay active until it's the local's bedtime.  So We rested up in the room a bit and then headed out for a walk & some sightseeing. 

First stop...the Jet d'Eau - one of the world's largest water fountains. The water leaves the jet at 124 mph and sprays up to 459 feet. It can be seen throughout the city, and I found myself using it often throughout the day to get my bearings. We were able to view it from both banks (sides).

The right bank...

...and the left bank.

We stopped for lunch at the Cottage Cafe - situated in a cute little park on the right bank.  

The cafe was just next to the gorgeous Brunswick Monument - a mausoleum built in 1879 to commemorate the life of Charles II, Duke of Brunswick. He apparently gave his fortune to the city of Geneva in exchange for a monument to be built in his name.

By this time it's about 1:30pm and we've barely had any sleep. I'm basically falling asleep at the table waiting for our check. So we decided it was time to get moving again. Off to the left bank we went. Besides a closer view of the Jet d'Eau (pic up above), there is another park and another of Geneva's famed landmarks, L'horloge fleurie (flower clock).  It was created in 1955 as a symbol of the city's watchmakers and dedication to nature. It tells accurate time and is the largest creation of its kind.

We ended up doing a combination of walking and shopping the rest of the afternoon stopping for a quick espresso at Starbucks in the middle. It's 5pm here now, and I think we've hit rock bottom. Lol! Only 3 more hours until we allow ourselves to hit the sack. I'm definitely not wishing the day away...just the last few hours!!  :)

One more random pic to leave you with...loved the multicolored shutters on this building!

Here's wishing us a good night's sleep with minimal train noise disruption.  Bonne nuit!

Back to The Lou

Chad and I took a trip back to St. Louis recently to visit family.  We kept this trip on the DL, because we knew we wouldn't have time to see very many people.  We were literally booked every moment we weren't sleeping.  I hated not seeing any of my friends this trip.  Guess that just means that we'll have to plan a trip home in Fall!

With Smokey being sick this Spring, we hadn't been home since Christmas.  We had a busy but very lovely visit.  Our itinerary went something like this:

• Friday night:  Dinner with Mom, John and Grandparents
• Saturday midday:  Visit with Kristina & Tinsley
• Saturday evening:  Dinner with Dad & Mary Sue
• Sunday morning:  Breakfast with the Maminos
• Sunday midday:  Visit with Jerod, Kerry and my new, beautiful niece, Hanna.

Phew!  

I was really looking forward to Friday dinner - not only because I hadn't seen my grandparents in over 6 months, but also because I had asked my grandfather to make BBQ pork steaks.  LOL!  Sounds crazy, I know!  If you're from the Midwest, you've grown up eating them...and boy, did I miss them!  I basically gorged myself on them that night...AND he sent some home with me.  Yahoo!  They were awesome!  Reminds me of my childhood.

Saturday afternoon we visited with my cousin, Kristina, and her daughter, Tinsley (or T).  They've recently moved back home from St. Thomas, and I'm so excited to have them closer!  I must say that I loved that them living in STT gave Chad and I the opportunity to visit that gorgeous island (and the others surrounding it), but it just doesn't compare to having them closer and seeing them more often!  I failed to take very many pics, but here's a few.  (I even had to steal one off of Kris's FB page, since i didn't get one of her.)

Saturday evening we had a nice, but quick, dinner with my dad and Mary Sue - sans pics.  :(  They're coming out to visit us soon, so I'll have to make sure I take pics then!

Sunday morning we headed out to the Happy Cow in Caseyville - a total Midwest dive - but the Mamino's LOVE it!  LOL!  They have breakfast there every Sunday, and whoever can make it comes.  I haven't seen most of the fam in a year or two, so it was great to catch up!

Sunday afternoon, we stopped by to see my newest niece, Hanna, on our way out of town.  What again...a cutie!  This was our first visit, and I know she just can't wait to see her Aunt Lisa...or maybe it's the other way around. :)

Phew!  What an awesome whirlwind trip!  Can't wait to do it again!  Cheers!