Travelogue: Paris 2013

WELL... looks like I wasn't even close in hitting my mark with loading photos every other day, but you know, life. Oh well.

Coming back to the photos really made me miss Europe, and I feel wanderlust creeping up on me. Galen's schedule was really laid back this month, hence my delay with the photos. When Galen's home I don't get on the computer really, but he's back to a more taxing schedule next month. With an unheard of amount of time off at the end of the month (4 days), we're just going to do a little trip to Scottsdale just to get a away.

We spent only a short amount of time in Paris before having to get to the UK for the wedding, and since we don't go to Paris a lot, we tried to see and do some of the most iconic things there...

Our first day there, we walked Montmartre and up to Sacre Coeur. The above photo was taken from the top of the hill there overlooking all of Paris.

It was so hot out that day, and what you can't see in the pictures is the sweat dripping from our foreheads.

Overlooking the city, there just happened to be a girl with a black and white striped shirt and red beret; how Parisienne.

On the way to the bottom of the hill, we stopped into a chocolate shop/bakery and bought some of the most delicious little sweet pastry things. I can't remember what they're called now, but they were so buttery, flaky, and chewy. I got the pistachio flavor.

From there, we took the metro over to the Eiffel Tower and had some cassis sorbet while taking photos and walking around. The one thing I didn't expect, was the amount of litter around Champs de Mars, so we didn't end up sitting in the grass there.

The line to go up the tower was really long, and we were tired from the heat and traveling so we decided not to wait.

At the base there was this awesomely detailed carousel and statues flanking the park.

As the sun began to set, around 8:00PM, we headed back towards our neighborhood, right off the Etienne Marcel metro stop and just wandered around there.

There wasn't any air conditioning in the apartment we stayed in, which I forgot to take photos of also, so we had to have the windows open. With all the noise of the cafes on the street, it was a little hard to get to sleep.

The next morning, we stopped at McDonald's for some coffee, and... wow, fanciest McD's cafe ever.

 After the coffee, we headed to the Seine to catch a river boat tour.

After the tour, we walked along the Seine towards the Musee D'orsay, stopping at the Pont des Arts bridge (where lovers put locks and throw the keys into the water) along the way. There were a lot of vendors along the river, many of them selling antique French books, so we picked up a few gifts as well.

Galen and I wrote on a lock to put on the bridge along with about 10 million other lovers' locks. Some people had climbed the light posts and put their locks on the lights, but I wouldn't let Galen climb up there. Could you imagine if he fell off the bridge?! Although, it would have been cool to have it up there since it seemed like when the bridge's chain-link panels got too full of locks, they were removed and replaced with clean ones. Most likely, our lock will only be there for another few months, I'm guessing.

My brother then snapped a few pictures of us tossing the keys into the water.

Before going into the Musee D'orsay, we stopped for a few baguettes and ate them on the steps of the museum. Since there were no cameras allowed in the museum, I only got a few photos from the rooftop at sundown.

Sacre-Coeur is in the background atop the hill on the left

 

Instead of taking the metro back to the apartment, we walked along the river again. It was a perfect way to end our visit there. Paris at night is so magical. 

The Louvre at night

Next stop: Stoke-on-Trent for the wedding! Check back Wednesday!