Paris France- Day 1

With Jared and his new job, he doesn't get a lot of time off.  A week before, around May 20th, Jared had called me making a joke about how he had 5 days off the next week and he thought we should go to Paris. We joked about it when he got home from the trip he was on, but anyone who knows me knows that once an idea gets into my head, it kind-of sticks! We could use this trip as our 10 year anniversary trip since the bun in the oven is due close to our real anniversary! 

We toyed with the idea of going on Wednesday the 27th and coming back Saturday the 30th. Jared worked a flight that would leave Tuesday night and come back Wednesday morning. Then the flight to Paris was early afternoon Wednesday. On Monday we figured out a hotel that was in a VERY central location for the 2 nights, Thursday and Friday (since we lost Wednesday night in the air).  Jared also put up the overnighter trip on Tuesday up to see if anyone would be willing to pick it up. 

Tuesday morning we were just lounging around the house and Jared checked his schedule and luckily for us someone picked up his flight. Then the idea of leaving for Paris a day early jumped right at us! We checked with the babysitter, aka Bob, aka my dad and he was ok with it. We had NOTHING packed, and within 2 hours of checking Jared's email, we were on our way to the airport! 

We checked in with our standby tickets and anxiously awaited to see if we got seats. The second we found out that we were on, we searched the internet for a steal of a deal on a hotel for Wednesday night.  We found a GREAT deal and boarded the plane. 

How does a 27 week pregnant lady deal with a 9 hour flight to Paris?

By flying business class(aka 1st class)

Where you are fed amazing food, all the time, and 

have seats that lay completely flat 

with pillows and blankets for sleeping!

I wasn't actually able to fall asleep, 

but I was able to lay flat and relax and maybe dozed a bit!

Along the flight, I quickly realized that I know maybe 15 words in French.  

10 of those were the numbers 1-10! I was a little worried!

I've always heard how the French are rude to those who don't know their language! 

I figured we'd fight that battle once we got there!

This picture doesn't do the landscape justice. It was SO green and gorgeous flying into Paris! Even though our seats weren't side by side, I'm SO grateful that we got a window seat to see the views! 

We landed early in Paris (thanks to a nice tailwind) at 10am Wednesday morning. 

We made our way to our last minute hotel reservation. It was at a Hyatt.  

We knew checkin time wasn't until 3, but we figured we could drop off our bags and come back later! 

We stood in line and a VERY nice lady came up to us and starting asking us about our stay. We explained that we were there for our 10 year anniversary! She then went behind the counter and made  a call, and then returned with a rose congratulating us on our anniversary! It was SO nice!  We then made it to the front of the line to check in. The lady behind the desk said that our room was ready now, and that we had been upgraded to a Eiffel Tower view room! (Thanks again nice lady for making a call).  We opened our door and couldn't have been greeted any better to Paris. This was our view from our door! 

Hello... it's the Eiffel Tower right out our window! Ok, not RIGHT out our window but it might as well have been! It was STUNNING!!!!!

We quickly changed out of "traveling clothes", and headed out into Paris!!!!

We had no plans which made this whole trip easier because we didn't HAVE to be anywhere at any certain time!

Our hotel was about a mile away from the Arc de Triomphe, so we just planned on walking everywhere this day! We quickly realized how much we both LOVED the architecture in Paris! We both had way too many pictures of the beautiful buildings, which actually doesn't do them justice! 

 We MADE it!!!!

Arc de Triomphe!

 The details were stunning!  Which I would come to find out were on most the old buildings there!

 Something I didn't realize about the Arc was the it was actually more cubed-like. It had the front and back arches and then 2 smaller ones on the side!

 Then, since we knew the general direction of the Eiffel Tower, we headed that way. Along the way we found a Crepe stand. Really? Who could pass one of these on your first day in Paris and not stop?!?!

 So we stopped! :)

I had read that the best place for pictures of the Eiffel Tower were actually across the river at Trocadero. So that was our goal. We ended up there and were not disappointed with the view!

 Me and the bump made it to Paris! 

Who'd of thought?

 It was so cool just being there! 

We just starred at it for awhile trying to let it sink in 

that we were actually in Paris starring at the Eiffel Tower! 

Its the same kind-of awe when I first saw Red Square or the Sydney Opera House! 

 Then we crossed the river to the tower!

My biggest shock was how big it actually is! 

I like this picture below because it shows the size of people against one of the legs of the tower!

 Looking straight up the tower! 

The ball in the center has a funny story, which I'll tell in a bit!

No, we didn't go to the top, and we were 100% ok with that. 

A few of our reasonings were:

1st-The lines were OUT OF CONTROL! Pregnant women and long lines aren't the best of friends! 

2nd- It gives you a great view of Paris, but we wanted a great view of Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the picture! 

3rd- Really, we were ok with not going up!

Gotta have a kissing picture in Paris! :)

Then we headed down to the river for a one hour boat tour of the city! 

It was a GREAT way for us to put places on our "to-do" list!!!

The architecture was beautiful,

 but again the pictures don't come to how it looks in real life!

Ok, funny story about the big ball in the middle of the tower. We had 3 older Canadian ladies who sat behind us on the cruise. They were VERY friendly and gave us pointers on what to do and see.  They had been there for a week already. They even went to the top of the tower! They thought the ball was there acting as a counter-balance for the elevators. LOL!!! We laughed pretty hard at this because we, being the FOP(fresh off the plane) could OBVIOUSLY tell that it was a huge tennis ball. The French Open was going on the same time we were there, and the tennis ball was hanging there only as decoration/advertisement for the Open! We had a pretty good laugh about that one!

Finally it was time, or so thought my baby belly, that it was time to head back to our hotel. Walking of course! It was GREAT just walking through the random streets heading in the direction of our hotel!

Along the way Jared thought it was a necessity to stop at a local bakery and buy a baguette to munch on!  Then we stopped at a little street side cafe(which are everywhere) for dinner!

 We got to our hotel and had a stunning night view. 

Being very green to this city  we were stunned at the lights on tower. 

At the top of the hour, the tower would "sparkle" for a few minutes! It was SO cool! I don't know if it happens all the time or just because of the French Open(now the Canadians would probably be laughing at us if they heard this)!!!

 Our view with the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe lit up!

It was a GREAT 1st day in Paris! Jared and I were both surprised with how I did with all the walking we did! Yes, I did come back to the hotel and soak in a hot bath for awhile, but I didn't even have to take strong pain meds!!!