#HurnEuroVacay -- Day 1 - Paris

Jeff and I just returned from our dream vacation to Europe. I am hoping to post about all the fun things we did, for others to read and for our own memories. Hope you enjoy!

After almost two full days of traveling, we arrived at the Paris airport around 9pm on Friday night. We decided to take a taxi to our VRBO apartment instead of taking the train and metro late at night and risk getting lost on our very first night. Therefore, we got to our apartment about an hour earlier than we had arranged to meet our host. So, we walked down the street to a little café and had croque monsieur and Nutella crepes for dinner.

 

Later, we met our host, Christophe, at our studio apartment. Christophe was very polite and generous. My math skills had failed me, and we did not have enough cash to cover the rent and security deposit. Oops. Christophe agreed to lower the security deposit, and all was well. The studio was clean, modern, and so very TINY! But it was perfect for just the two of us and in a fantastic location.

We went straight to bed, so that we could wake up early for…..

The Eiffel Tower! I read that lines get really long later in the day, so we decided to get there early. The tower opens at 9 am, so we intended to get there around 8:30. Well surprise, surprise, but we were late. We got there around 9:30am, and there were people everywhere! Oh well. We only ended up waiting in line for about an hour, so it wasn’t really that bad.

Look! There is Sacre Couer way in the distance.

L'Arc de Triomphe is right over Jeff's head.

We took the metro over to the Champs Elysees, had a quick lunch, and visited the Arc de Triomphe.

Later, we took the metro to Montmarte and then used the funiculaire to climb the hill to La Sacre Couer. [There are a ton of steps up to Sacre Couer. The Hurns are not a fan of steps. Also, the funiculaire is free with your metro card.]

After visiting the church, Jeff decided that he couldn’t wait any longer to use the restroom. There was a public restroom at the bottom of the funiculaire, but there was also a really long line of people. But really how long could the line take? One whole hour – that’s how long the line could take. See, the fancy hi-tech restroom cleaned itself in between each use. And that cleaning cycle took over two minutes in between every person. So the line too FOREVER!

  

waiting, waiting, waiting some more

After the restroom fiasco, we took the metro over to Notre Dame. The line to go in the cathedral was way too long, so we decided to come back on a different day. We walked along the Seine admiring the sights and taking pictures along the way.

The famous lock bridge.

There was absolutely no room to add a lock. People were just locking their locks on other people's locks.

Beignets filled with Nutella are the best thing ever.