Au Revoir Paris!

Well that was a close call. 

View from underneath the Arc de Triomphe

Our fitness levels definitely came in handy yesterday morning. There is nothing quite like running for a train that is about the leave the station, with 19kg backpacks on our shoulders, a 8kg front pack, and side bag bottle of wine/food/sweaters etc. The heart sure was pounding. Yet somehow we managed to make it. Hallelujah! Lady luck was on our side.

Looking good, as always!

Self shot with the Eiffel Tower

Beautiful!

Great views of the city and less work than stairs!

After the other day’s sleep in and leisurely breakfast we took the metro down to l’Arc de Triomphe and gawked amidst the crowd of tourists. Never before have I seen so many tourists in a city. It is truly overwhelming. Next we headed back to the Eiffel Tower to catch bus #69 (Thank you Anne for the recommendation!). A tour of the city for 1,90 – yes please! We stopped off near the opera house because the bus was getting stuffy and our eyes had wandered across some creperies. Just the fix for Janelle’s car sickness! A lovely crepe with nutella and banana, and a McLatte to give us another boost. Then we headed back towards Musee d’Orsay only to discover it is closed on Mondays. Devastation.

We were appeased by a walk through les Jardins Tuileries and a ride up a ferris wheel from a festival that was in town. Amazing views of the city! We ventured down to the Louvre to get maps so we can plan our route through the 12miles of galleries when we return.

L'As du Falafel with the ladies. YUM!

We picked up a few souvenirs before meeting up with Caitlin and Heidi for AMAZING falafels. The line outside of the restaurant was longer than queues for Harry Potter on opening night. We soon realized why. Delicious, fresh pitas, and attractive servers make this a place I would recommend to any traveler passing through.

Up top!

In front of Notre Dame

The girls had not yet seen Notre Dame Cathedral so we walked off our dinner on the Ile de la Cite, and then through various neighbourhoods and along the Seine. Upon picking up groceries for the train we secured another bottle of wine. It was only appropriate to drink it as romantically as we had the evening previous. The location was Sacre-Coeur, perched on a hill overlooking the entire city. The hike up the hill was thoroughly worth it. Beautiful views, fantastic company, and another perfect end to our day.

Heather's new boyfriend. Pucker up!

Sacre-Coeur at night.

Yesterday morning we woke early (hello 5:30, I've Heather missed you!) to visit Sacre-Coeur again, this time running shoes cushioned our feet. We snapped a few shots of the city and were heckled by Parisiens left over from last night’s drinks. We definitely weren’t laughing when we realized we had run down the wrong side of the hill. Idiots. Fit idiots nonetheless! Lungs and thighs burning, we got some good character building in this morning. The slight detour explains our rush to the train station (don’t worry we were able to shower!), and narrowly making the train. We breathed a big sigh of relief, and vowed to never cut it that close again.

Parkour!

Sacre-Coeur in early morning light.

Yea, we workout. Not many would run up the hills we did.

Inside the Louvre

Next stop, Amsterdam for some exploration of the city’s wonders: canal boat cruise, House of Anne Frank, bicycle tour of the city, tour of the red light district, …sex museum, condomerie, and other various markets and museums of the area. We will return home well cultured. Don’t worry Moms, we’re not going to the Prostitution Information Centre. We’re not that low on cash… yet.

We will let you know what we got up to later today!

Dag!

Ah, Paris!

Bonjour Paris! What a beautiful and charming city. A perfect romantic getaway for the first stop on our European adventure. Yesterday was undoubtedly one of the longest days (we hope) of the journey. We spent our time in the airport pre-departure walking/running/jumping/skipping backwards on an isolated people mover, aka a giant treadmill. We most definitely spent about half an hour on it, and broke a clear sweat. Awesome. 

Even that wasn't enough to knock us out though. We popped a few sleep-eeze and gravol, and still were awakened to the sound of "you want to eat?" "you want to eat?" "du champagne?" "croissant or breakfast burrito?" "you want to eat?". NO I DON'T WANT TO EAT. You just fed me. Please let me sleep. Thanks. 

At the Louvre

We made it in one, stomach-stuffed piece, secured our luggage (all intact) and made our way to the train. Luck was on our side when we arrived at the train station and were able to easily book all of our connecting trains for the whole month. Great success!

(Ps our webpage is currently speaking to us in french. Ah Paris!)

We eventually made it to our hostel, not thanks to les directions horribles from the hostel, mais thanks to our broken french and lost-looking faces we were able to get help from pedestrians. Merci beaucoup!

So fast!

Breathtaking walls of Notre Dame

After dropping our heavy backpacks we took off for a whirlwind adventure around the city. We saw the finish of the Tour de France along Ave des Champs-Elysees, toured Notre Dame Cathedral (Kelsi and Heidi we have gorgeous pictures for you!), walked through the courtyard of the Louvre, ventured into Place d'Armes for a pitstop, through Luxembourg Gardens, and then picked up some fresh bread, Brie, and bottle of wine before heading over to the Eiffel Tower. 

Third and fourth bottles of wine of the evening.

This was the first bottle of red wine of the night. We forgot to bring along our Swiss Army knife to open our wine or cut the cheese (aha). We spied a couple of girls with mec backpacks and a bottle opener, and said "they look Canadian!" Our Canuck friends, Caitlin and Heidi are coincidentally from St. Catharines and Kingston respectively. What a small world! We spent the night drinking, chatting, and matchmaking with the Eiffel tower stunningly glowing behind us. Life doesn't get much better than this. 

This morning we slept in and awoke to killer headaches even though we slept 11 hours and drank a lot of water. Popped some tylenol, vitamins, coffee, and PB on toast and these girls are good to go.

Today's menu: visit l'Arc de Triomphe, a budget bus tour of the city, visit to Mussee d'Ordsay, wander around Marais, and rendezvous with Heidi and Caitlin for falafels at 7pm. 

Salut!

C'est magnifique!