As warm and sunny as Monaco was, Paris was cold and rainy. But it didn't rain on the girls' reactions to all the famous landmarks.
B-T Transfer took care of our transfer from Orly Airport to our hotel on May 28th, Hotel Pont Royal. Our rooms on the 7th floor gave us a surprise of a breathtaking view! There was a full service bar and restaurant in the lobby, so Cressey and HG could get pasta, fruit, and croissants whenever they wanted. Needless to say, we got to know the barkeepers well!
Loved all the Olympics stuff
The hotel went above and beyond on making the girls feel special- AND took care of souvenirs for us!
WHAT?! A balcony AND a view of the Eiffel Tower?!
After we got settled in a bit, we headed out for a tour of the Eiffel Tower. The tour booked through the hotel with Mon Petit Paris. The tour guide helped a group of 20-25 people scoot through the lines and security, which weren't terrible down on the ground. It was POURING down rain though. He got us up to the first stop on the elevator (they call it the second 'level,' I think we stopped at the 'first level' on the way down only and no one got out there, I believe it's the swanky restaurant?) and shared more history, and then we were free to roam as we liked. We decided to go up to the top, and the line to get up and especially back down were AWFUL. I'm glad we had that experience, but I definitely won't do it again.
Well hello, Eiffel Tower!
Headed up!
You got a great view of all the stands being set up for the Olympics.
Tiny Statue of Liberty statue
Remnants of the original tower color. They were supposed to repaint it before the Olympics but didn't have time.
Made it to the tip top!
I spy Notre Dame
Our meeting spot for the tour was right next to a cute little Parisian cafe, Bistrot de la Tour Eiffel. One of the waiters had been so helpful and nice that we decided to go back there for dinner. He was a HOOT, and we had a great meal! The tower starts sparkling at 10 p.m. and lasts for 5 minutes on the hour, so we got to see it while we wrapped up our dinner. Perfect!
We caught the sparkling lights coming on!
On the morning of the 29th, we met a tour guide from Finding France in our lobby. She and her driver partner gave us a great tour of all the big landmarks.
EMILY IN PARIS! This is Gabriel's cafe, just a street away from the Pantheon (Rue Clotaire and Rue Des Fosses Saint Jacques)
And Emily's apartment is just across the square from the restaurant
Notre Dame is still under construction
Mary, Adam, and Eve. And these are Biblical kings along the bottom of the pic, but some attackers at some point thought they were European kings and smashed them to pieces.
"The difference between a gargoyle and a grotesque is easy to remember. A gargoyle is a decorated waterspout that projects from a roof and carries rainwater away from the walls of a building, protecting it from damage, whilst a grotesque is a decorative carving that has no functional architectural purpose."
The oldest public clock in Paris is the clock in the Clock Tower of the Conciergerie (also the prison where Marie Antoinette stayed right before her execution), which is part of the Palais de la Cité on the Île de la Cité.
The Flame of Liberty, which I didn't realize was a gift to France from the US, but it later turned into a Princess Diana memorial since she died in the tunnel underneath it.
Zouave statue which is used to measure the height of the Seine River
We ended our tour at Suzanne in Monmartre, which was very French and delicious.
We walked up to the top of the hill to the top of Monmartre and rewarded ourselves with gelato from Tutti Sensi, and then walked around the outside of Sacre Couer.
When we got back from our tour, our French brother Vincent and his partner Sandrine had arrived! It was so fun to see Vinnie after all those years, and we loved getting to know Sandrine. She was a great sport to put up with all that English and waiting for translation!
Vincent and Sandrine wanted to come along with Cressey and me to see the Catacombs which was fun and different! I can't imagine how all of those bones were moved down so far underground!
The Wishing Well
In 1897, there was a concert in this room, for 100 people, in the middle of the night...
They used this shoot to lower bones down into the Catacombs
We had dinner at La Gourmandise near the Arc which had won Trip Adviser's Traveler's Choice in 2023. It's a simple, no fuss, small restaurant with great service and kid-friendly and delicious Italian food.
The next morning, we slept in a little and didn't show for our Louvre tickets at 9:00. (I learned to let go of my plans a little on this trip; just do the easiest thing that requires the least line-waiting.) Instead, we started by climbing the Arc de Triomphe at 11:00. I highly recommend buying tickets in advance- the line was much shorter. It was a loooong column of a spiral staircase up to a mezzanine and then some regular stairs up to the roof. Very cool to experience! And you can stand on a seal on the ground directly in the middle of the arc footprint and be seen on a camera screen up in the mezzanine!
HG is standing on the medallion in the middle of this, just above the memorial. Cressey and I are to her left.
As soon as we hit the ground after our expedition, the bottom fell out of the sky. We waited it out for a while and then ran to the closest restaurant we could find-Brasserie des Champs. It was an easy lunch, although mostly French food (but fries!), with fun people watching.
While doing a little shopping after lunch, we happened to stumble upon a Laduree on the Champs Elysees, and I was tickled pink to literally watch HG fall in love. She ate so many macarons!
The biggest Sephora we've ever seen
Nathalie had told us about a beautiful old bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, that often had cats sleeping on the couches upstairs, so the girls just had to check it out. There was a line! It moved quickly, but we were so sad to learn the cat had passed away!
The taxi ride was not in vain though. We discovered the Rue de la Huchette, an alley (although cars can drive down it) just across the street from the bookstore, and it is FULL of crepe and gelato places! We could have stayed there all afternoon sampling. I chose a crepe (I believe it was MG Crepes), and everyone else chose gelato (Amorino where they make a gelato cone look like a flower).
The look of love
We met up with my parents, Vincent, and Sandrine, who had been for a ride on the Bateaux Mouche, and we toured the famous Sainte-Chapelle. It was just as breath taking as it was 30 years ago when I first saw it. Incredible!
We had dinner reservations a 20-minute cab ride away, and since we all had to travel early the next day, we pitched that idea and headed across the street to Les Deux Palais. (My family will forever make fun of me that I asked the armed guards outside Sainte-Chapelle where they liked to eat. They just laughed and didn't give me an answer, for the record!) It felt like we were at the Grand Floridian at Disney World. So quintessential French, yet had food for everyone. And most importantly, we could be seated right away. I guess it is helpful that Americans eat hours before the French!
A Parisian rainbow!
We waited up until 10:00 for the tower to start blinking, and IT NEVER DID! lol, the workers must have been striking!
We had to say goodbye to our sweet French family (headed back home) and Spiffer and Granddaddy (headed to Normandy) that night as we all left early Friday morning, but we made so many treasured memories together and relived some great old times as well! Until next time, Paris and the Carts! On to Barcelona!
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