I had a wonderful time in Paris with my wife and two of our closest friends. We wanted to do something memorable for our 10th anniversary so the combination of free airfare and a super deal on a hotel at the base of the Eiffel Tower on Hotwire it seemed that the stars were aligning for us. My wonderful in-laws watched our two very active little boys. So off we went.
What a beautiful city/country. I was amazed that street after street was a postcard waiting to happen. The people were more friendly than I expected they were all very jazzed about Obama so I am sure that helped a bit. The bakeries were out of this world. I do not know how we didn’t see one fat person!
What I didn’t like was not being able to understand a word of French. I am decent with spanish and Italian but French is Greek to me. That was rough.
I didn’t like eating where tourists eat, we stayed in Paris most of the time so this was unavoidable. I find the places off the beaten path make the best food. Also Parisians are not big coffee drinkers so finding a good cup of Joe was not easy.
Overall it was a blast. Plus I can say cheesy movie lines to my wife now such as “We’ll always have Paris.” I would like to go back someday very beautiful, very very romantic.
Here are some of the Highlights for me:
1. Uninterrupted time with my wife.
2. Climbing 1000 stairs to the top of the Eiffel tower
3. Standing on top of the Arc De Trumf. (Thanks Kenny for the idea) It was amazing.
4. Pastries
5. Going to pay my respects at Normandy. Unbelievable, very moving.
6. Walking the streets of Paris
7. Hanging with our best friends Mike and Melissa.
8. Taking pictures. I love taking pictures and in Paris everything is a picture waiting to happen.
If you want to see some of the pictures I took here is the link to my flicker account.
BTW missed everyone like crazy. I can’t wait for church this weekend!
Those are some fantastic pictures. If you ever find those free airline tickets again, you’ve got to tell me where to buy them. 🙂
Awesome! That looks incredible. I was there at about the same time of year just two years ago. It was a 28 hour layover. I never had any desire to visit Paris or France and I was incredibly surprised. I’m actually anxious to go back and take my wife (yeah, I was there with two other guys… and my brother who lives in London took the train across to visit).
Like you said, every corner is like a postcard. I just remember walking down street after street and enjoying the history of the place. I enjoy visiting old forts and historic streets in the US which are 100-200 years old, but there is something about walking down a street that is many more hundreds of years old. Simply amazing.
Oh, and the baked foods are delish! We didn’t even visit official bakeries… we just bought from the vendors in the subway.