Traveling to Paris has always been on my bucket list. Steve and I were looking at flights one day, not to Paris, but to see if we could find a cheap trip to a state we didn’t visit on our cross country road trip. Turns out, we found a deal to Paris that was cheaper than any other flights we were finding in the country! We took a red eye on a Thursday night and landed in Paris on Friday around 1am our time – 7am their time. We had a lot planned since we were leaving on Sunday, but we were excited and ready.
First was a wine and cheese tasting! Actually first was a 30 minute nap at the hotel… and then the tasting! It was scheduled for 1pm and we figured it would be a great little lunch for our first day. Except, we planned this without thinking – and 1pm their time is actually 6am our time. Wine and cheese for breakfast! Thierry, our instructor who was born and raised in Burgundy, taught us about different wines from different regions of France, and different cheeses that went best with each wine. We were in a group of about 10 – it was fun meeting people around the world (even though most were from the US and spoke English) and learning about what everyone had planned to do in Paris.
However, the worst thing that happened all weekend happened at the tasting. We dropped our camera and it was broken for the rest of the trip! An error popped up every time we turned it on that it couldn’t read our card. Thank god for cell phones and our GoPro. (I took my camera to work the following Monday to see if anyone had any idea on how to fix it, I turned it on to show everyone the error message, and it turned on just fine. Annoying! I’m sad we didn’t have it for the trip, but I’m glad it ended up working again).
After the wine tasting we went back to the hotel and took another quick nap, and then walked over to the Eiffel Tower, which was about a half mile from our hotel. It was very easy to walk and take the train in Paris – and they even have Uber, which was very convenient. We got to the Eiffel Tower and saw boats offering guided tours along the Seine River. It was a little chilly since it was night time by then, but we saw Notre Dame, museums, and learned about a lot of Paris’ history. I thought Philly was old – we are babies compared to the other side of the world.
We went back to our hotel and found a supermarket on the way and bought MORE cheese and wine. Our diet consisted of dairy, alcohol, and carbs all weekend and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I do wish we learned more French, because we were afraid to look stupid at restaurants in town. I loved all the food we did eat though.
Day 2 was jam packed. We hit the Lourve and saw the Mona Lisa, ate our first macaroons (ever! This was a first for both of us), we walked along the Seine River, ate an incredible tomato and mozzarella sandwich on a baguette, saw the stained glass at Sainte-Chapelle, took photos at Notre Dame, and went back to the Eiffel Tower to take an elevator to the very top! It was an awesome view of Paris, and we even saw a couple get engaged! On the way home we ate our first crepes, and then got MORE bread and cheese (and wine) for dinner.
We Uber-ed back to the airport at 4am their time, had a layover in Switzerland (and ate delish Swiss chocolate on the plane), and finally made it home! It was a whirlwind of a trip and it was one of the best times ever!
Photos coming soon