Bienvenue à Paris
(WELCOME TO PARIS)
As per Rick Steves' suggestion, we flew to Europe a few days early and spent our first
48 hours in a whirlwind tour of London. Then on Sunday morning, we took the Eurostar train via the "chunnel" (the tunnel that goes under the English Channel) arriving two hours later at the Gare du Nord de Paris. A short taxi ride brought us to the front door of Hotel de Londres Eiffel. |
(Point to each photo below for captions.; click to enlarge)
A BIT OF BACKGROUND . . . & MORE
This wasn't my first trip to Paris. I had been there over 40+ years earlier when I was a young college student and was still referred to as "Mademoiselle." But this was Doug's first visit to the City of Lights and our first European trip together. It was also our first experience with a guided, group sight-seeing tour. So we had our trepidations about being tourists in a "group," albeit a small group of 24.
However, any fears we had were quickly dispersed when we met our experienced tour leader William and our fellow travelers that first Sunday afternoon. Quick connections were made via similar backgrounds, home towns, and/or personal interests. So conversation was lively as we set out on our guided walking tour of the neighborhood, followed by a panoramic bus tour of several spectacular sights including a 20-minute stop at the Place du Trocadéro where I spied the Eiffel Tower for the first time. This became the iconic photo of my trip to Paris which I posted on my Facebook page.
What followed were six days filled with the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and feel of Paris as the city awakened to spring. I was able to practice my rusty, college French learned decades before and was actually understood. In fact, more than once shopkeepers and waitstaff would reply to my questions in a flurry of French words and syllables that left me pleading, "En anglais, s'il vous plaît," which they did most graciously.
As for the weather, we couldn't have been luckier. Despite brisk mornings for our 8:30 AM walk to Ecole Militaire metro stop and the occasional rain drop or overcast sky, we had wonderful weather for sightseeing and picture taking, both of which we did with abandon. We snapped photos of all the "best of" sights along with hundreds of pictures that captured what I like to call "the other Paris."
This was the Paris I had learned about in the months before our trip by reading Rick Steves' books and website, but also by following several Paris-themed blogs and pinning dozens of photos to my Pinterest site of people, places and things peculiar to Paris. So by the time we arrived in the City of Lights, I was ready to look for the "little things" that would make this
our own unique adventure which we re-named "The Best of Paris . . .& More!"
However, any fears we had were quickly dispersed when we met our experienced tour leader William and our fellow travelers that first Sunday afternoon. Quick connections were made via similar backgrounds, home towns, and/or personal interests. So conversation was lively as we set out on our guided walking tour of the neighborhood, followed by a panoramic bus tour of several spectacular sights including a 20-minute stop at the Place du Trocadéro where I spied the Eiffel Tower for the first time. This became the iconic photo of my trip to Paris which I posted on my Facebook page.
What followed were six days filled with the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and feel of Paris as the city awakened to spring. I was able to practice my rusty, college French learned decades before and was actually understood. In fact, more than once shopkeepers and waitstaff would reply to my questions in a flurry of French words and syllables that left me pleading, "En anglais, s'il vous plaît," which they did most graciously.
As for the weather, we couldn't have been luckier. Despite brisk mornings for our 8:30 AM walk to Ecole Militaire metro stop and the occasional rain drop or overcast sky, we had wonderful weather for sightseeing and picture taking, both of which we did with abandon. We snapped photos of all the "best of" sights along with hundreds of pictures that captured what I like to call "the other Paris."
This was the Paris I had learned about in the months before our trip by reading Rick Steves' books and website, but also by following several Paris-themed blogs and pinning dozens of photos to my Pinterest site of people, places and things peculiar to Paris. So by the time we arrived in the City of Lights, I was ready to look for the "little things" that would make this
our own unique adventure which we re-named "The Best of Paris . . .& More!"