Chillin' at the Holiday Inn Paris

We finally arrived back at our hotel around 2pm. When I booked this hotel I mainly picked it because it was close to a lot of things that I wanted to see and do that we wouldn't be getting on our Trafalgar Tour. We also decided that we would splurge for the night and book a room with an Eiffel Tower view. We were okay with spending the money since it was just for one night and who knows when we’ll be back in Paris?! When we checked-in initially I placed my AAA membership card and IHG Rewards card on the counter… I’m pretty sure they both helped us land this room. When we got to our room we realized that not only did we have an Eiffel Tower view but we were in the Executive Suite! OH MY WORD was this room nice! The décor was purple, my favorite color, it had a spa tub and it has its own roof top balcony! I kept thinking that this was too good to be true! Did they make a mistake?

{Holiday Inn Notre Dame}

We took in the views and then took advantage of the spa tub (we needed that after walking about 10 miles!). And we didn't leave the room for the rest of the day! We had plans to go out for dinner but I just didn't want to leave our view, especially since we had paid so much for it. So we decided to just order some room service and enjoy the beautiful weather and our balcony. It was the perfect night to end our time in Paris and in Europe.

{room service}

{view from the bed}

Have you ever been surprised by a free upgrade from a hotel or airline?

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A Sunny Day in Paris

We decided to add an extra day onto our time in Paris, away from the tour. And we are glad we did! Paris is so big and has so much to see that you could easily spend a week there and not see it all. I’m glad we stayed extra on a Saturday because 1 – It was sunny and we had blue skies and 2 – The street artists came out and we could finally buy some art!

{Luxembourg Gardens}

We slept in until 7am and then took a taxi from our hotel in La Defense to the center of Paris, the Notre Dame area. We were staying at the Holiday Inn Notre Dame and it took about 20 minutes and €30 to get there by taxi. We checked in and no surprise, our room wasn't ready. But they held our luggage for us and off we went! We walked and picked up some breakfast croissants at Eric Kayser and we ate and walked to the Luxembourg Gardens. Everything was so green and lovely! We took some pictures and then we were on our way to Sainte-Chapelle. We didn't have the museum pass so we had to wait in line, first for security and then to get in. All-in-all it took about 30 minutes (but wouldn't you know that when we left there was no line for either!).

Sainte-Chapelle was lovely and totally worth doing! From what I can tell the queue is never too long and if you have the museum pass you’ll get in even quicker.

After Saint-Chapelle we walked past Notre Dame took lots of pictures and then went and put a lock on the Pont de l'Archeveche bridge...how romantic! :P Silly I know but something I wanted to do.

Then we headed to Ile Saint-Louis to get some ice cream from Berthillon. And yes, it was about 10:30 in the morning. We made our way past Hotel de Ville, city hall, and continued down Rue de Rivoli  where we ended at Angelina. Again, Angelina is a famous/popular place to get macaroons and sweets and is worth a stop. I think they are a little less expensive than Laduree. We walked across the street to the Tuleries to eat our treats.

We started to head back to our hotel and we decided to take the long way and pass by The Invalides. The Invalides is a complex that contains anything pertaining to the military history of France. We continued our way via Saint-Germain. Saint-Germain is another popular shopping street in Paris but not as big and crowded as Champs Elysees and it still has all the popular stores. 

{Invalides}

I'll cover our hotel at the Holiday Inn Notre Dame Monday! See my posts about the Eiffel Tower, Moulin Rouge, and the Palace of Versailles. 

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Paris: Day 2; Part 3

Are you starting to see how jam packed our Friday was! After Versailles and the Eiffel Tower we had some free time away from the tour/group. They dropped us off in the Place de la Concorde and we had about 3 hours to do what we wanted until we were to meet back up again for dinner.

We high tailed it to the closest Ladurée! In here I bought a chocolate éclair and some macaroons for myself, mom and mother-in-law (ridiculously overpriced but oh so good!). After our purchase we walked over to the Tuileries Garden and I ate my yummy éclair… OMG it was so good! As we sat we saw that Amorino had a food truck set up in the garden so we had some ice cream too. We walked down to the Louvre, took some pictures and then headed for the Arc de Triomphe via the Champs-Élysées.

It was about a 5K walk from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe. We took some pictures and of course our luck, the arc was being restored. After that we popped into a McDonalds to get some free WiFi and then met the group for our last dinner at Flora Danica.  

After dinner with the group we went headed to a boat to do a night cruise on the Seine so we could see the city lights come on as the sun set. I think this is a must do if you’re in Paris and we had a gorgeous sunset! I think it was about a two hour cruise and we finished just as the Eiffel Tower stopped sparkling (she sparkles ever hour on the hour until midnight).

{pictures from the cruise, beautiful pink and purple sunset}

{Arc de Triomphe, part of it was under restoration}

What are some of your favorite places to grab some sweet treats in Paris?

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The Eiffel Tower

After our trip to Versailles we headed back to Paris to see the Eiffel Town. I know some people may think the tower is an eyesore or that its not such a big deal to see but I just loved it! I think its the thing that we took the most pictures of. Every time we had a view of it we took a picture! I just loved it! When you are there don't be surprised to see a lot of security with pretty intimidating looking weapons.

We went to the 2nd platform, which is the one in the middle and that amazing views of the Palais de Chaillot and on clear day, the Sacre-Coeur Basillica. 

{Palais de Chaillot}

We also saw the tower by night and it was even more beautiful all lit up!

{view from the water}

{view from the Palais de Chaillot}

Do you love the tower or do you think it's over rated?

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Our First Night in Paris

This was the day that we had to make the long journey from Lucerne, Switzerland to Paris, France. It’s a pretty long drive! We arrived in Paris around 4ish and checked into our hotel in the La Defense area. We actually had a nice partial view of La Grande Arche de La Defense. After freshening up we were off to the famous Moulin Rouge; not gonna lie, I was pretty excited because I LOVE the movie and the soundtrack. Especially the soundtrack! We were there for dinner and the show which started at 7pm (but the show didn't start until 9pm). The food was okay but my biggest complaint was the way they had us packed in there like sardines! If one person needed to leave the table we all had to file out to let that person out… this was most likely because we were right up against the stage. The one time where panic set in was when they did their snakes in a pool number and one of the snakes got out! And was headed for Matt! Thankfully one of the stage hands pushed that 12ft boa constrictor back into the pool. 

The show was just okay, maybe a little better then something you would see in Las Vegas. But I did like some of the music, even though it was in French some of the songs were pretty catchy and were stuck in our heads for a few days :P The show finished at 11 and we were back at the hotel at midnight.

I would highly recommend doing this attraction with a group. With the group you’ll get a discount and you’ll most likely get better seating. I’m glad we did it with a group because I’m not sure we would have done it on our own with prices like 210€ per person.   

{yummy dessert}

{Matt resting his arm on the stage}

Check out our time in Amsterdam, Germany and Switzerland. 

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London/Paris Link-Up

Yesterday Debbie at Buisson International joined a link up hosted by Selena at Oh, The Places We Will Go and her co-host Amy from Créatrice Mondial. It's actually a link-up for both Paris and London. Since I have only been to London that is what I'll talk about! :) I visited London in the summer of 2008 with some friends that were on my study abroad adventure with me (this is a re-post from March 5, 2011). You can also see my plans for Paris sights and food by clicking the links. 

Getting there was a bit of a mess! We took a bus to the “cheap airport”, Sandefjord, near Oslo and landed at the “cheap airport” near London, Stansted. When it was all said and done, I’m not sure if taking the cheaper flights was worth it since we had to take so many buses and trains to get to our final destinations. We made it to London and met up with her uncle briefly (he had to finish his work day) and he showed us were we would meet up with him for dinner and the play we were seeing that night. So we had some lunch and then walked around the River Thames and popped in the Museum of Modern Art.

The play we saw was The Buddy Holly Story! During the play they kind of interacted with the audience and asked someone where they were from…well they were from Japan…but how fun it would have been if they had picked us and we got to say, “Lubbock, TX!” It would have been awesome (since we went to Texas Tech). So we did and headed home via our feet and strolled by Buckingham Palace, and the Queen was home too! The next day we went to the Tower of London and took the tour with the only female Beefeater (they are the “guardians of the Tower of London”) but it was very cool to be somewhere that is so old and see things that are so old! And of course, it’s part of my family history! My mom’s cousin has been able to prove that one of our family members was a bastard child of King Henry the VIII (one of many bastards I’m sure!) so it was just really neat! We walked by Big Ben many times and then went to Saturday mass at Westminster Abby! Very cool and the boys choir was so angelic. Then we went for a sunset ride on the London Eye (the best way to see London I am sure, and you must do it at dusk! Så vakkert)! When everything was all said and done I think we figured we walked 15 miles in 2.5 days! Talk about cardio!

I loved seeing all the amazing sites and taking in the history of it all. I would love to go back and explore some more one day!

Top left corner - Big Ben; Top right corner - London Eye; Bottom (Left to Right) - Abby Road, London Phone Booth, Beef Eater

Today, I have linked up with 

Selena at Oh, The Places We Will Go and 

Amy at Créatrice Mondial for 

Cheers, Madame!