Paris, Paris, Paris ... the City of Love!

Monday we woke up and headed towards the Eiffel Tower ready for an awesome day of sightseeing in Paris. That quickly was put to the test by the transit workers doing random ticket checks in the metro. We had about ten of the (unused) metro tickets in hand but, for that particular journey, we had already tossed our tickets in the trash ... big Paris no-no. We got stopped by the metro "police" and they asked if we had our ticket with us, when they found out we had already thrown them away they told us we are supposed to keep them until the end of our journey. Um ... whoops! Even after trying to plead our case that "it was our first time in Paris" & "we didn't know any better" they still told us we had to pay up. "30 euro a person!" 

Awesome, right? 

Thankfully, he cut us a deal. Maybe he saw how annoyed Brad was by the whole situation? Or perhaps he was tired of having to explain things to us, as we were holding up the line for others who had to pay-up. We ended up only having to pay 15 euro a person. What a deal! We paid our dues and headed on our way, with legal tickets in hand. Hoorah for Paris tickets! 

I wasn't fully expecting to love the Eiffel Tower as much as I did. It's hard to explain what happens when you travel and something moves you to the core. It's somewhat of a spiritual experience for me and it has only happened three times here in Europe; the Statue of David in Florence, the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam & most recently, the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Each time, upon first glance, I am moved to tears, initially making me feel foolish over my reaction but, I have lived my whole life only imagining a visit to the Eiffel Tower and to actually get the opportunity to see it, in person, with my very own eyes ... I can't help but be moved in all sorts of different emotions. 

It is amazing. Absolutely awe-inspiring and beautiful. I honestly have never seen a structure so phenomenal as the Eiffel Tower. 

I may, or may not, have taken a LOT of pictures of the Eiffel Tower. Um, sorry but I'm not sorry! Seriously, Brad had to pry me away from the Tower so we could go see the rest of Paris. I was mesmerized! 

Brad was there too, I'm not sure why I didn't edit any of the pictures with him in them. 

We decided to climb the stairs to the top, well, the 2nd level. We wanted to take the lift to the very top but, when we got to the 2nd level, the ticket offices were all closed and they weren't letting anyone buy tickets to go up. BUMMMER! But, we still got to see the views from the 2nd level. 

After climbing back down the Eiffel Tower we headed towards the Louvre. This park was right outside the Louvre and it was pretty fun to people watch, plus you could see the Eiffel Tower AND the Arc de Triomphe!

We went into the Louvre, fought the crowds of Asians (and others) to see this: 

The Mona Lisa. It probably is about 16 x 20 in size. Nothing too glamorous. I honestly don't even know why it's so famous ... maybe I should do some research before I admit that to all of you. But, there you have it. I've seen it. 

This is also famous: 

And this? Is just the most comical statue I have probably ever seen! 

We wanted to go to the Orsay Museum & the Rodin Museum but ... they were both closed on Monday and we were pretty bummed. Orsay has some original Van Gogh paintings (namely 'Starry Starry Night') and Rodin has the original Thinking Man statue ... we were hoping to see them but, no such luck! So, we headed over to Notre Dame! 

I have seen a lot of churches in my Europe days but the Notre Dame blows them all out of the water! It was so majestic! 

Out front is the exact center of Paris. 

Joan of Arc:

While we were there a couple Priests (maybe?) came out and started singing some Gregorian Chants. It was BEAUTIFUL. So, we sat down and enjoyed it for a bit. Honestly, amazing and so pretty to listen to. I loved the arches and the detail that was carved into them. 

Right next to the Notre Dame is the "lock bridge". People come from all over the world and lock a padlock onto the bridge and then throw the key into the river symbolizing their love. Well, we couldn't go all the way to Paris and not participate in the tradition! 

Don't we both look so thrilled in this picture? We're in love ... promise! 

Throwing our key(s) into the Seine River ... 

This guy ... oh he just added to the fun of our day. I thought he was a fun street performer to listen to so, I grabbed a picture of him and turned my attention back to Brad. Mr. Accordian-Man started yelling at me, trying to get my attention and yelling, what I could only assume, something like, "hey! if you're going to take a picture of me, you need to give me money!!" But, I didn't. Then, as we were leaving Brad tossed in 30cents and we walked on. This guy STOPPED his performing, grabbed the coins and chased after us. He called Brad a cheapskate and THREW the money back at us!!! Kid you not. We started cracking up...WHO DOES THAT!? Apparently 30cents wasn't enough for him ... watch out for this one, he's feisty!

We wandered around Paris, looking at shops and just meandering our way back towards the Eiffel Tower. I bought a super cute Eiffel Tower necklace that never made it home with us ... seriously, something called Karma was out to get us this trip! I was pretty bummed about that one, if I buy a replacement on Amazon, can I claim that I bought it in Paris? Hmm ... 

Anyway: We came across this adorable little bakery and we had to try some goodies. (Side note: We would get some croissants each morning for breakfast and they were AMAZING. We're talking, melt in your mouth deliciousness!!) So, we got some macaroons and some other chocolates. The Raspberry macaroons were easily my favorite, other then that, I wasn't too impressed with the overpriced cookies. 

We found a place to sit, opposite the Eiffel Tower and just enjoyed the sight, before finding a place for dinner. The weather was beautiful and this particular area hardly had any tourists so, it was a nice spot to just sit!

We ate a late dinner and had a great view of the Eiffel Tower. I got some ravioli and Brad got a steak and it was definitely one of the top 5 most delicious meals I have ever eaten. Honest. At 10:00 every night the Eiffel Tower starts to twinkle. This was the best shot I got of it, once we got around the trees, it was done twinkling. But, this was the view from our dinner table that night ... 

And the adorable Paris cafe we enjoyed so very much!

I love this view. I love Paris. I love everything about that city. 

I made Brad kiss me in front of the Eiffel Tower ... he's a lucky guy. I sure love him. I feel so blessed to have gotten to spend this time with him in Paris. 

We really wanted to get to climb up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe since it was closed when we were there on Sunday so we headed back that way. And ..... it was closed again. Darn! We have bad timing! But, we got to see the tip-top of the Eiffel Tower twinkling on the 11:00 hour!

While we were hanging around the Arc, I think I was honestly trying to stall. I didn't want to head back to the apartment because I knew that the next morning we were leaving Paris and that made me a lot sad. Paris has been my favorite "big city" trip that we have done and I wasn't willing to accept that we were leaving the next morning. I wasn't okay with it!! So, I decided to play around with the shutter speeds on my camera. And this, my friends, is the last picture I took in Paris, France. 

So long Paris ...