Paris Day 1: I Can't Believe We're Here!

5:45 am alarm not so fun let me tell you.  The funny part was though that it was light outside...London is so weird.  That alarm definitely came way to early on Friday because I probably got abour 4 hours of sleep that night.  I was up packing and making sure I had everything the night before because I wanted to do as little as possible in the morning since we had to leave at around 6:30 to meet our tour guide at the EuroStar station at 7.  We got out the door on time though and made it there before our tour guide surprisingly.  We met up with some of the other girls from our trip as well and were actually the first people on our tour to arrive.  I keep saying tour because we booked everything through Anderson tours.  We paid a lump sum for our train tickets, 2 nights at a hotel with 2 breakfasts, and a tour of the city when we arrived.  It was a really good deal and really enjoyed it so I would definitely recommend using them if you ever want to do a tour out of London.  Since we got there first, we got the tickets on the car with the tables in the middle which was very nice.  We had to go through security just like the airport but not nearly as bad at all and we went through customs before we loaded on the train.  I really really really enjoyed traveling by train because you get a great view on the way, have lots of leg room, can actually get up and move around, can have your luggage close to you, and you don't have to get there 3 hours before.  Here's a picture of us before we left...

We arrived to Paris around 11 because they are an hour ahead of London and hoped on a coach for our bus tour.  Our bus tour took us all around the city and last about 2 and half hours with a couple stops.  We stopped first at the tallest building in Europe called the Montparnasse and got a beautiful 360 view of the city after a 38 second elevator ride to the 56th floor.  Here's just a glimpse...

The view was amazing as you can see.  The city is HUGE!  I had no idea that Paris was so big but it's size was definitely evident from this view.  It was really cool to see how the city was laid out and how all the buildings looked white.  The city was planned by blocks and you could definitely tell from this view.  It was so pretty and after this I just fell in love with the city.  We grabbed a quick lunch after the views and continued on our bus tour.  We went basically everywhere in the city from passing Notre Dame to the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe.  It was really good to get our bearing and see where everything was on the first day because then we had a better idea of what we wanted to do and where everything was.  We got to the hotel around 3:45, checked in, and hung out until 4:30 for our walking tour.  We paid for 2 walking tours and they were both great because they gave us a better view of different parts of the city that we never would have seen or known about without them.

On this walking tour, we took the Metro to start at Moulin Rouge.  We only got to see it from the outside and it was kind of underwhelming.  The story behind it was interesting to learn about but the area that it's in is a little sketchy but it was still cool to see.  We walked around the area by Moulin Rouge after that and saw where Van Gough lived.  We also got to see the only 2 windmills left in Paris, one of Paris's last remaining vineyards that is literally in the middle of the town, little market shops selling fresh food, and we finished at the highest point in London at the Sacre Coeur Church.  The church was gorgeous and you could pay to walk up 300 steps to the very top to see a view of the city.  Those 300 steps in winding staircases were definitely worth it though.  The view from the church was honestly better to me than the building because it felt so much more intimate since it was a little closer.  

Moulin Rouge

Local Cheese Shop...yum

One of the Last Vineyards in Paris

Sacre Coeur Church

View from the Top

The city is beautiful no matter where you look at it so I loved it.  I wanted to take an elevator down but unfortunately that was not an option.  I was SO hungry too so I was literally about to fall over.  We headed to dinner after the church though and we ate at this little cafe that was really good.  My steak was phenominal after waiting and waiting for it...needless to say I was very satisfied after I scarfed it down haha.

Steak Dinner NOM

Restaurant We Ate At

After finally eating dinner and getting revitalized, we headed to the Arc De Triomphe to walk to the top at sunset so that we could see the Eiffel Tower light up at night.  Every hour on the hour the Eiffel Tower lights up and sparkles for 10 minutes so we hoped to catch that view from the top of the Arc.  Unfortunately we missed it by about 5 minutes but we still got to see the Eiffel Tower light up from the bottom and it was still really pretty.  

We went on a search for crepes after that but since we were on the Champs Elysees, one of the most expensive and famous shopping streets in the world, we could not find the cheap treat we were looking for.  So instead we found a restaurant that served huge bowls of dessert and split one 5 ways.  We got the chocolate rock and it was literally a feeding frenzy when the waiter put it down.  It was probably gone in less than 2 minutes and it was delicious haha.  Come on if ya'll had this in front of you, how could you resist?

We headed home after dessert because we were all pooped from waking up that morning and walking all over Paris.  We wanted to get up early the next morning as well because we had a lot to do in a short amount of time since we were only there for 3 days.  So we all crashed in preparation for another epic travel day to come.