Crepes, Crossiants, and Chocolate

As you all know I went to Paris for the Easter holiday. Over here you get a four day weekend for Easter so it's a great opportunity to get out of the city and travel somewhere in Europe. They take their easter egg hunts here very seriously!

Paris was amazing, it was just like I imagined it would be. Beautiful, historic, charming, it was like being in a fairytale. The only thing I was expecting to happen, which didn't, was the French being rude since we were Americans. I did not experience that once. Not as many people spoke English in the city as well so I had to get a few standard French words under my belt. I had no issues with thank you, please, even may I have the bill. But for some reason every time I wanted to say "yes", instead of saying oui I would si. My brain kept reverting to Spanish for some odd reason. You should have seen the look on some of the waitresses and cab drivers faces, priceless! The only downside to the entire trip was the weather. It could have been much worse than it was, since the forecast called for snow. Instead we just got rain and average temps in the I20's. Thus the reason I'm bundled up in every picture you'll see as if I've headed to the North Pole.

You can get to Paris by train from London in 2hrs 15 min to be exact. It's such an easy and fast way to travel. I kept thinking it would take me that long to drive from Orange County to San Diego sometimes. Unreal! Sima and I arrived on Saturday afternoon and after checking into our hotel we headed straight for the Louvre. We had two goals once we were inside, see the Mona Lisa and the Venus di Milo. Anything else was icing on the cake. I couldn't get over how huge the Louvre was. We could have spent days in there seeing every piece of art. I would have liked to have seen more but all the inscriptions for the art were in French so I lost interest pretty quickly. After touring the Louvre, we had a lovely lunch at a quaint place called the Cafe Marly. It's got a great view of the Louvre, you're basically sitting on the inside square of the museum. That pretty much took up the entire afternoon and we were exhausted from all the walking so we went to back to the hotel but not before stopping by a patisserie to pick up some french pastries for a little snack. The desserts in Paris are incredible, they're almost too pretty to eat.

Day 2 we woke up early and decided we would walk to the Eiffel Tower since the sun was shining. It was a fricking long walk, but well worth it. It allowed us to walk down the entire Champs d Elysees and see all the couture shops and also walk along the river. Our plan was to go up the tower but when we arrived and saw the lines that were snaked around the entire venue we went to Plan B, which was to come back the next morning right when it opened to try and avoid the crowds. We couldn't walk anymore so we hopped on the tube or as they call it the Metro and headed to Notre Dame. This was by far my favorite monument of the entire trip. The architecture is unlike anything I've seen. We went inside the church and toured the entire building and during the tour they were holding Sunday Mass since it was Easter. I loved the stained glass windows inside. it made the church seem so pristine. Right behind Notre Dame is a great crepe place called Cafe Esmeralda. You can't go to Paris and not eat crepes so we made a pit stop! Then we were off again. This time we walked back along the river in the opposite direction and were headed to another museum- Musee D 'Orsay. Unfortunately when we arrived the lines were a mile long and the museum was about to close so we figured it wasn't meant to be. Then we headed to an area called St. Germain, which was full of cute boutiques and shops. Unfortunately because it was Easter Sunday everything was closed. It was a really cute neighborhood though and I'm glad I got to see it.

I think by now we had walked at least 5 miles and my legs were about to give out so we hopped on the Metro and headed home, but not before grabbing some fresh baguettes and cheese. That ladies and gentleman was our dinner! It's Paris, we figured it was the thing to do :) Oh and let's not forget the crossiants I ate every morning for breakfast, they would just melt in my mouth.

On our last day we got up bright and early, which you all know is a painful thing for me, and took a tube straight to the Eiffel Tower and got in line. Our plan had worked, we had beat the crowds by getting there early! I'll be honest I was freaked out about going to the top of the tower. I didn't think I was afraid of heights but apparently I am. But I am proud to say, I made it to the first tier. Sima and I walked the 196 or so stairs and saw the view and came right back down. I figure next time I'll try the second tier. Baby steps, right!? We ended the afternoon with a little shopping on the Champs d Elysees and more crepes. Oh and the hot chocolate in Paris is unreal! It's melted chocolate with milk. It's like drinking a Hershey bar.

There were so many more places Sima and I wanted to see but didn't have time. But I have no doubt I will go back to Paris before I leave the UK and preferably in the summertime.

Here are a couple of my favorite photos.

Next weekend, Brussels!