Je t'aime Paris

It has been a wild and crazy past couple of weeks. Brad and I have now moved out of our place in Mainz and into a lovely room at the American Arms Hotel. (Can you sense the sarcasm in my voice? It's there, promise.) It was a long day as it took the movers 12 hours to get everything boxed up and put on a truck. The 37 breaks they took throughout the day probably didn't help matters much. Nor did the fact that they had to carefully hand wrap each one of these:


But we survived "moving day" and two days later we were on an ICE train to Paris.

I wasn't sure what to expect of Paris. Sure, I'd done hours upon hours of reading up on the city but when you talk to some people they have nothing but negative things to say. "The people are horrid. The city is dirty. It's overrated." But after our trip all I have to say is

Je t'aime Paris!!!!

Love, love, love it! Brad and I had the time of our lives!

We arrived late on Friday night and wandered around the St. Germain/Latin Quarter in search of where we'd be staying for the first part of our trip...as well as where we were going to eat. We found our adorable little boutique hotel, La Maison Montparnasse, on a quiet little street near lots of restaurants and shops. Check out the stairwell inside the hotel. Funky, huh?

Our first day was kicked off with a lovely breakfast at the hotel. Why are croissants ten times better in Paris than anywhere else in the world? Mmmmm mmmm good. It was a day filled with sight-seeing. The pictures can tell most of the story....

Notre Dame Cathedral

A man moving a dolly of potatoes across a bridge tipped it over sending potatoes rolling every which way. Brad jumped in to help and said it was the United Nations of Good Semaritans. French, German, English, Italian. Gotta love it.

Standing on the oldest bridge in Paris, the Pont Neuf.

The Pantheon

Jardin Du Luxembourg

Our first baguette enjoyed in the beautiful garden

Entertainment on the metro...he played "What a Wonder World" which just seemed to fit

Do these really need captions?

That evening we had a wonderful dinner at a teeny, tiny restaurant not far from our hotel. I almost had a Pretty Woman moment with my escargot. Slippery little suckers. Following dinner we hightailed it over to the Montparnasse 56 Tower in time for the sun to set. The tower itself does not necessarily "fit" in Paris but the views it provides of the city make all arguments against it moot, in my opinion. We rode an elevator up to the 56th floor in 38 seconds. Whew! From here, you can take a few stairs up to the helipad and have to most incredible views. Take a look:

These are not postcards, folks. Is that not amazing? If you go to Paris, this is a must. Especially to view the Eiffel Tower light show. Unbelievable.

We sat at the little cafe looking out over the city and enjoyed a glass of wine and a cannoli. It was so romantic.

Can you see us?

The trip doesn't end there and there's more to come...but I'm still recovering from the trip that followed Paris and need some rest. Until next time...