So today was our first full day in Paris, and boy did we pack it full of adventure! The day started off with a tour of the Louvre. I planned ahead and made sure we had twice the amount of time I thought we needed to get to our planned meeting spot near the Louvre. Holy cow did I underestimate that one! We walked to the Louvre yesterday afternoon and I swear it was only a 15-20 minute walk. Nope! Try a 40 minute run/walk! Luckily these tours plan on tourists showing up late so we actually ended up waiting about 10 minutes for our tour to start (which allowed us to catch our breath), but we were a good 15 minutes late for our arrival time. And all of you know how crazy I am about being on time, so just imagine me saying "we're not going to make it" for the last 10 minutes of our run/walk to the tour. Not fun.
But we made our tour and it was amazing. We only got to see parts of one of the 3 wings to the Louvre but we saw some pretty amazing pieces including the Venus de Milo statue and the Mona Lisa. We were both really glad we did the tour but decided we'd had enough in the Louvre and we wanted to make sure we weren't late for our next tour (which wasn't for 2 hours) so we jumped on the Metro and made our way to the meeting point for the Eiffel Tour tour.
We climbed up the metro stairs and found ourselves in front of a rather large building. As we came around the corner I looked up and there it was. The Eiffel Tower. OMG that thing is amazing and beautiful and captivating. Just awesome. Our tour took us to the 2nd observation deck and then left us to explore some more or go to the summit if we wanted. Of course we got in line for the summit and were not disappointed. The views of the city were breathtaking from the 2nd observation deck and were unreal from the summit. So amazing. We worked our way back down (which required several waits in line for elevators) and decided to head back to the hotel.
After a quick rest we decided to head out again in search of a nearby garden. Of course the gardens here aren't just gardens, they're gardens surrounding palaces. We ended up at the garden and palace de Luxembourg. Once again it was amazing. Such beautiful grounds and another grand palace. It has yet to get old. And Trent marveled at this one because not only were the trees surrounding the palace in perfect lines, they also formed perfect diagonal lines.
After the gardens we headed back to the Eiffel Tower to see the light show at night. Our tour guide told us that there is a contract between the operators of the tower and GE to light it up every night on the hour for a few minutes with twinkling lights. She noted that the contract run outs in a year or two and then it's possible that the tower will no longer twinkle at night. So we grabbed a few sandwiches and crepes (numbers 4 & 5 if anyone is wondering) and popped a squat with the perfect view. We sat for a little over an hour waiting for the show to start at 10pm, but it was well worth it. Once I get back to the states I'll post a video of it that Trent took on my phone. So amazing and incredibly romantic. :)
One final note for the day, we found 3 people today that spoke "American" English (as we've started calling it) and it was so nice! Our tour guide at the Eiffel Tower was a Masters student from Philly and was super nice to talk to and a couple from California sat next to us to watch the Tower light show tonight that were super nice. It was the first time since we left the states where we have been able to talk about home with people we can understand completely and who understand us. So wonderful!
We are headed to Versailles tomorrow morning and then I think we're going to tourist it up and get on one of the big double decker buses tomorrow afternoon. With all of the walking today, we're ready for a more relaxed tour of the city.
Love you all!!
Kristen & Trenton
P.S. Heather, I can totally 100% understand your absolute love of this city, it's absolutely intoxicating!!
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