Thursday, September 20, 2018

European Birthday trip: Paris

Once arriving in Paris, we headed off to our hotel, and loved looking at all of the narrow streets, beautiful white buildings and wrought iron balconies everywhere! It looked just like the movies!

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We stayed at the Hotel Napolean in the Champs Elysses area of town. It was beautiful, and once again, right in the middle of all the activity!

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After settling in, we headed out for a special night on the town in Paris, thanks to an early Christmas present from Dad & Nancy. We had a dinner cruise on the river Seine, a trip up in the Eiffel Tower, and an amazing show at the famous Moulin Rouge! It was an amazing night! Thank you Dad & Nancy!

Our hotel was right down the street from the Arc de Triomphe, so we made a trip there first to see the famous site!

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After that, we headed off for our night on the town!

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We boarded our boat for our dinner cruise on the river Seine right in front of the beautiful Museum De Orsay…

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I loved watching all the people we passed by that were hanging out by the river! Everyone seemed so relaxed and carefree!

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After a delicious dinner on the cruise, we headed to the top deck to catch some views of the Eiffel Tower as we rode past!

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The river was beautiful to be on during dusk!

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Our next stop was a trip up in the Eiffel Tower at sunset!

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We were up in the tower at the top of the hour, when they light the whole thing up with twinkling lights! It was magical!

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Our last stop of the night was an 11:30 show at the Moulin Rouge… It was a crazy but awesome show, and we had an amazing time!

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Day 2 in Paris started with fresh croissants and cappuccinos outside, which was exactly the way I planned to spend my Paris mornings!

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He hopped on the big bus tour so we could see the sights and learn a bit about the city. Our first stop was a repeat, but it was beautiful to see the Eiffel Tower in the morning!

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Our next stop was the Louve Museum to see the Mona Lisa. Brian and I are not huge museum “wanderers”, so we managed to see most of it pretty fast, but we did get to see what we went for!

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After our stroll through the museum, we decided to get some lattes and be some of those carefree people sitting on the river Seine’s edge, watching people and boats go by. It was a gorgeous day, and such a relaxing time!

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Back on the bus, we passed by so many outdoor restraunts, and I love how the seats are always next to each other so people can sit close and “people watch”. That was one of our favorite things to do when we went out for meals… we would see people coming, guess where they were from, and wait until they spoke to see if we were right!

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Notre Dam was absolutely breathtaking!

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On our way back to the hotel, we also rode by many little shops along the rivers edge, and many of them were old book sellers! There were so many of them!

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Brian found a wonderful little French restaurant for dinner! We enjoyed french pastries, escargot, traditional beef bourguignon, and of course, creme brulee!

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This was the view from our window seat… I loved all the balconies everywhere!

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The next morning, guess how we finished off our time in Paris!??!?!?!? More croissants, of course! It was a wonderful way to end our time there before heading off to the airport to travel to Rome!

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