Paris!

We flew into Paris in the late afternoon and got to play the always fun "find the hotel" game to drop off our bags. Our room was very pink - the bedspread, pillows, and even the toilet paper was pink - but a decent enough place to sleep. We walked around the city for the remainder of the evening enjoying the first of several delicious nutella crepes, walking around the grounds of the Louvre, and waiting for the sun to go down so that we could see the Eiffel Tower light up. 

Justin has a friend from ACU who lives in Paris, and he and his fiance picked us up at our hotel Saturday morning for breakfast. They took us to a fantastic restaurant, began ordering away in French, and soon pastries, croissants, jams, coffee, hot chocolate, and all kinds of breakfast goodies began to arrrive. It was quite the spread! We really enjoyed breakfast with them and were glad we got to see them during our visit.

After breakfast, they dropped us off at the Eiffel Tower where we were to begin a bike tour. After meeting up with the guide, walking back to their shop to get situated on our bikes, and brief instructions on "dominating" the road, we set out on a really fun tour. We had a good guide and enjoyed riding around to different spots, including Napoleon's Tomb, the Tuileries Gardens, and the Musee D'Orsay, hearing some of the history of the places as we went. We had perfect weather and really enjoyed ourselves. 

After the bike tour, we walked over to the Eiffel Tower but decided not to spend the beautiful day waiting in line to go up. We wandered around some of the big sites, walked down the Champs-Elysees, strolled past the street vendors' treasures, and just enjoyed being in Paris. 

That evening, we treated ourselves to some coffee and sat in a garden watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle in the night sky.

Sunday morning we got up early to visit the Eiffel Tower and enjoyed the quietness of the morning. We passed through the Louvre and were amazed at how few people were out and about given the swarms of people who seemed to be forever there. 

By the time we arrived at the tower, the sky was beginning to sprinkle on us. We waiting in line and then climbed the damp stairs up to the second floor (we were champs at climbing stairs by this point in our trip) and then took the elevator up to the top. It was fun to see the city from such a high vantage point, but the jostling crowds were a bit much for us and we were relieved to head back down after a little while. 

Leaving the tower behind us, we stumbled upon some gardens and spent some time sitting and enjoying not having people on every side of us for a few moments. The morning sprinkles had turned into a light rain, and we decided to look for something indoors. Not surprisingly, the rest of Paris had the same inclination, and while there weren't as many people out on the streets, the lines for the museums were very quickly increasing. We made our way all the way to Notre Dame Cathedral and waited to enter in the now pouring rain. Notre Dame is beautiful and we enjoyed taking in the attention to detail and the stunning architecture.

Notre Dame happens to be very close to a gelato place that I remembered from my previous trip to Paris, and Justin and I managed to find it fairly easily. We stood in the rain eating the most wonderful flower-shaped gelato and then opted to head back to our hotel to dry off while we decided what we wanted to do for the remainder of the day. During our long walk back, the heavy rain became a downpour and by the time we finally arrived at our hotel, we were drenched and freezing. Don't ask me why we didn't use some of the wonderful public transportation available, because I just don't know.

Soon after, the rain began to let up and we dared to venture out again for some dinner. We enjoyed walking around Paris one last evening before heading home to pack for our final day in Europe.