Our Weekend in the City of Light

We decided on Paris for our birthday weekend celebration in order to continue our tradition of going on holiday instead of buying birthday presents for each other (last year was Amsterdam). At the end of the weekend we determined that we need to start going someplace warm since we have birthdays in the middle of winter. An Egypt/Red Sea scuba diving adventure is on the drawing board for 2009.

So, what did we do in Paris? Well, it was my first time there, and Laura's second, so Laura had already done a lot of the big tourist stuff, and neither of us a very "tourist-y" travelers, so we spent most of our time walking around and relaxing in the city.

We both like to travel in pretty much the same way. No tight schedules, no long lists of sights that we "absolutely must see!" Instead we tend to wander around, maybe with an end goal like "check out Notre Dame today" in mind, maybe not. It's so much more relaxing (it is vacation after all), and there's no disappointment if we don't see all of the hundreds of museums that a city has to offer.

We got the Eurostar from London at 6:50 am Saturday and had a very pleasant train ride down to Paris, just over two hours. I thought it was interesting that the train conductor made all his announcments in English first then French until we crossed over the English Channel. Then the switched to French first. Luckily they allowed payment in both pounds and euros no matter which landmass the tracks were on.

Saturday was pretty packed full of sightseeing. We dropped off bags at the hostel and then headed out for Notre Dame. We walked along the Seine to the Louvre, then up le Champs Elysees (a very, very long avenue) to L'Arc de Triomphe.

We ended up getting a great dinner at the restaurant next door to the hostel, then crashed after miles and miles (sorry, kilometers and kilometers) of walking caught up with us.

Sunday was much more relaxed. We had a nice late start and hopped on the metro to head for Sacre Coeur. We stopped for a snack at the base of the hill and had a perfect view for people-watching from the outdoor cafe. After making the hike up the steps and into the basilica, we determined it was much more beautiful from the outside, so we left and did a lot more people-watching. A nice ramble through Montemartre and then we headed back home for a nap before dinner.

Sunday night was our big night out, a dinner cruise along the Seine, so we dressed up and made our way out to the boat. It was a great experience, and a really fun way to take in all the sights a night. The food was "meh", but that's obviously not what we paid for. A bottle of wine and a bottle of champagne later, and we stumbled back to the hostel.

Monday was our last day, so we kept the plan very flexible so we wouldn't miss our 6 pm train back to jolly ol' England. We took the metro down to the river and then walked along to the Eiffel Tower. We spent the next hour or two walking along the grassy mall in front of the tower, then headed back across the river for a horrendously expensive cup of tea with a great view of the Eiffel Tower.

It was a great weekend, and hopefully we'll be making some more European adventures soon.

Not wanting to be stressed trying to get back to the train station, we picked up our bags from the hostel and made our way in the right direction. One last delicious crepe (filled with Nutella) for the road and we were back on the Eurostar and headed home.