Trip Report – London and Paris: Part 4

We’ve finally reached the last part of our London and Paris trip 🙁 In case you missed them, check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 first! Our last two full days were spent exploring Paris during the day and people watching from cafes in the evening.

Notre Dame

On Thursday morning we woke up to partly cloudy skies and warm temperatures, despite The Weather Channel predicting rain of course. To take advantage of this weather, I convinced Jay to climb the towers of Notre Dame for a panoramic view of the city. This hotel didn’t offer a free breakfast, so we first ventured out find food.

Not quite as easy as it sounds. I guess the tourists aren’t early risers, so most of the cafes weren’t open yet or didn’t serve much beyond a croissant and coffee. Luckily, we eventually found one offering a more substantial breakfast that included eggs. Hooray!

After breakfast, we ventured inside Notre Dame to ogle the stained glass and paintings before heading back outside to get in line for the tower climb. For 10 EUR per person you get access to climb the steep spiral staircase inside the left tower, walk across the connecting bridge, then climb the staircase in the right tower all the way to the top! It’s one of my favorite activities in Paris due to the incredible city vistas and up-close views of Notre Dame’s gargoyles.

Unfortunately, the wait can be a bit lengthy. They only let a small group in at a time so as not to overcrowd the staircases or the bridge. We had maybe 100 people in front of us and it took over an hour before we got inside. I swear it’s worth the wait, though : ) Just look at our pictures!!

Relaxing Rest of the Day

After all that climbing, we were starving so we stopped at a nearby cafe for sandwiches. I was also craving a crepe for dessert, so I picked up one stuffed with Nutella at a street stand. These are an absolute must-try food in Paris! It was a serious struggle to limit myself to only one. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in the hotel and responding to emails / messages from friends and family who just heard the engagement news : )

When dinnertime rolled around, we ventured down our street to a cafe that served pizza! Delicious. Then we walked for a bit before sitting down at another cafe to people watch the rest of the evening. We also ordered real, French champagne to celebrate our upcoming wedding!! Wow, it tastes incredible. You can definitely tell the difference between French champagne and the sparkling wine “champagne” that we usually get in the U.S.

The Louvre

The following day, our agenda included a whopping two items: finding breakfast and a trip to the Louvre. The first task was once again a bit of an adventure. It took a bit of walking before locating a cafe that served a substantial breakfast.

Afterward, we took the Metro over to the Louvre. I didn’t have a chance to visit during my last trip, so I was eager to see the inside. It was pretty amazing to see the “Big 3” masterpieces: the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory, and the Venus de Milo.

After over two hours and at least two miles of exploring, we emerged back into daylight and realized it was well past lunchtime. We figured it’d be easy to find a cafe or other eatery close by, after all this is a major tourist attraction, but we were wrong. We walked block after block…and found nothing that caught our eye. So we hopped on the Metro and got off at another stop.

That’s when I suddenly turned into a major brat and start complaining that every place was too expensive or didn’t have anything I wanted to eat. Being tired and hungry is a dangerous combination : ) Jay was seriously nice about it and waited patiently as I eventually decided to just go back to our hotel and find a cafe serving pizza. We ended up calling it a night pretty early since we had our flight the next morning.

 

Flight Home

One last trip on the Metro brought us to Charles de Gaulle airport for the seven hour flight back to Newark. Once again, we were able to upgrade to Economy Plus so we at least had some extra legroom. We also got lucky that the entertainment switched to the May options, so we had different TV shows and movies!

The food was much better this trip as well! I ordered the chicken curry, which was surprisingly delicious.

And that wraps up our incredible trip! I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect vacation…but now on to planning the honeymoon!