I know I always say sorry for the time between posts, and once again, it has been awhile. Life around the Younger household has been a little crazy the last few weeks, but hopefully things will start settling down. Beside going to Europe, Hannah and I had planned a trip to the CMA Fan Fest over a year ago, so we got back from it on Monday afternoon and turned right around and left for Ian’s(my baby) graduation from Air Force Basic Training. I have also had a few installs of window treatments and furniture between all the traveling and promise to share some of them, once I wade my way thru the europe trip. Hope you are not getting tired of it!
Marseille Train Station
So to begin our next part of the journey, we took the train from Marseille to Paris. And to just explain about Marseille, we did not care for Marseille, it was a dirty city, and just not very pleasant, we were glad we just spent the night there. We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express right across the street from the train station. We did walk down to the pier area and had dinner, but left early the next morning. Also excuse all the pictures of the Eiffel Tower, but it is sort of like the Arch for us, and there were so many different views of it. The train ride took about 4 hrs and was very enjoyable. You could watch the countryside go by. We did have the seats that face each other with a table in between, which was nice for games, reading and eating. When we arrived in Paris, it was cold and raining and would be for the next several days.
We stayed in the Mercure Paris Centre Eiffel Tower Hotel, which was just a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower. The first day we didn’t have any real plans and just walked around, getting familiar with the area. We saw the Statue of Liberty, which isn’t on the same scale as ours, it is a bit smaller!
We also walked to the Arc de triomphe, and ran across 6 lanes of traffic, later we learned there was a tunnel underneath! Dumb Tourists!
We also walked down a couple of the more fashionable streets of Paris and did a little window shopping!
Yes, those are gates leading in to a tall hedge path, that then takes you to the doors of Abercrombie and Fitch!
The next day we did a Hop on and Hop off tour and covered just about everything in Paris.
One of the things we made sure to see was the Notre Dame. When we got there the bells were tolling and they went on for a long time, we later figured out that a funeral was taking place.
We went inside and it was free. The line was long, but it went pretty quick.
Inside the Notre Dame
A cool building covered in plants!
A Macaroon Shop! They are delicious, brought some back with us to share.
Loved this entrance to the Metro.
The next day it was still raining. We had scheduled our visit to the Louvre and the Eiffel Tour, so we grabbed the rain coats and took off!
We did have tickets, which put us in a long line, but it was shorter than the line, if you didn’t have tickets! I have to say I was not as impressed with the Louvre as I thought I would be. The main piece that everyone, and I mean everyone wanted to see, was of course:
The Mona Lisa!
And here is the real picture! Of all the people trying to take a picture of the Mona Lisa!
After the Louvre, we took the Eiffel Tower tour, that first took us on an hour bus ride around Paris, and then dropped us off at the base and we went up in a very crowded elevator to the second level. You had to pay extra to go to the top and Hannah didn’t want to go up that high, so we just took in the views from the second level. But as we got there, we lucked out and the sun came out, for the first time in 3 days!
After we walked down on the outside of one of the legs.
After the tour, we walked around and had dinner and on our way back to the tower, to watch the light show, we had an awesome sunset!
And then the tower lit up!
Once it gets dark the tower lights up, but then every hour at the top of the hour they do a light show.
Well that is a short version of our 3 days in Paris. Our hotel didn’t serve breakfast, so every morning we tried a new cafe for breakfast, some were good with great service, others not so great. We tried the pastries, chocolate, macaroons, and did a little bit of shopping in one of the malls, so Hannah could say she shopped in Paris. Mark was happy to leave, because he didn’t feel like he fit in, because as he says, he wasn’t born with a scarf around his neck and wearing tight jeans! Some French people were nice and then others not so much! I am glad I got to see it and might go back in the future, not sure Mark will though. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by! One more post to go! London is next up!
P.S. I have to include a few pictures from this last weekend, being a proud Mom!
Would love to hear from you!