Paris-A Weekend in the City of Lights

The weekend after Pamplona, Kelli and I went to Paris. It was an absolutely amazing experience and much much calmer than our Pamplona weekend. It was also a lot cleaner too so that was very appreciated!

We flew (a very nice difference from the bus) from Madrid to Paris and arrived there at night. We got really lucky when we were in the airport because we ran into some people who spoke english and they told us that we had to take a train to get into London cause we were about 45 minutes away from our hotel. By the time we reached the hotel at 11:30 though we were straving so there was a little convenience store downstairs that we raided and we had cookies and chips for dinner.
After our gourmet dinner, we hit the town walking and realized that we were about a 15 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower. It was amazing to see it lit up at night. Plus every hour on the hour it sparkles. It was hands down my favorite thing to see in Paris. Kelli and I were amazed by it and spent about 2 hours that night walking underneath it and just reveling in the fact that we were in Paris.
Here are Kelli and I with a sparkling Eiffel Tower in the background. So cool!
The next morning we got up bright and early to go see as much of the city as we could. First stop was the Louvre. This is it from the outside.

When we got there we saw all of these signs that said we could take pictures of all of the artwork excpet the Monna Lisa. So we decided to take a picture of the sign of the Monna Lisa to say we had been there. As we were taking this picture, though, a guard who was standing next to us told us that if we wanted to see the real Monna Lisa it was just in the next room. We couldn't help but laugh and thank him for the tip.
It turns out that when we got into the next room everyone was taking pictures and nobody seemed to care at all! So here are Kelli and I with the famous Monna Lisa. It was actually a whole lot smaller than I thought it was going to be. To be honest, it was kinda anticlimactic.
Here is the Venus de MiloWho is more ferocious-Kelli or the Lion, you decide!
I fell in love with these crown jewels. Just look at that tiara! Plus they are all emeralds which is my birthstone. i think that is a sign that they were made for me. So for those of you who are still looking for a belated birthday present for me, these are first on my list!

This is the funniest picture ever. These are two sister and the one on the right is pinching the others nipple. We burst out in giggles upon seeing this. I also think it is funny that my camera has somewhat censured the picture by having the flash go off covering the other woman's chest.

Now for all of you DaVinci code fans out there, this is where the two Louvre pyramids meet! It is really cool because when the sun shines, the floor is covered in rainbows from the inverted glass pyramid!
After the Louvre we walked over to the Notre Dame. It is an absolutely gorgeous building!
We were told by friends who had visited Paris that it was much more worthwhile to climb the tower in the Notre Dame than the Eiffel Tower so Kelli and I waited in a super long line for 2 hours to climb a kajillion stairs (yes that is an actual figure).

This is the famous gargoyle of the Notre Dame and right now his name escapes me, but he is still pretty cool. Although he isn't as scary as most gargoyles with that tongue of his sticking out!

Once we got to the top it was totally worth the wait and the hike! It was so great to see the city from an aerial view.
Which one is not like the other....

Kelli and I from the top of the Notre Dame with a great view of Paris behind us. After the Notre Dame, Kelli and I walked and found a great little park. There was even a cute fountain and all of these boats floating in the water.
We stuck our feet in because it was ridiculously hot and the water was so incredibly refreshing!
We then walked to the Arch de Triomphe (I just slaughtered that spelling). It is soooo massive!

Next on the list was the Moulin Rouge which I just had to see after watching the musical. The street it is located is literally full of sex shops and other "places of illrepute". It was so strange to see tourists walking by them and not even batting an eye.

This is a...a...oh dear, I forgot the name and am too lazy to look it up. But it is cool, and very big, and we could see it from our hotel even though it was like a 30 minute walk from there.

FAVORITE PART OF PARIS! So when we got to Paris on July 14 we had no idea that it was a special day at all, but we found out that it was actually the French Indepence Day. That meant that we got to go into museums for free, yay! Even more importantly, though, we got to watch fireworks go off behind the freaking Eiffel Tower. I can't even describe in words how amazing it was to experience this. It is funny though because just two weeks before this I thought I was going to have a summer without fireworks, but as it turned out I got to see fireworks in both Pamplona and Paris and it was awesome!
After watching the fireworks we decided that we had to eat a crepe since that is one of the famous French foods. This is the man who made our crepe for us and he was super friendly and funny. Sadly, he only spoke French though so communication was a bit difficult even though Kelli and I tried to use both English adn Spanish to talk to him-yay for the international language of hand gestures!

The crepe he made for us was freaking amazing and they are now my new favorite food, except Madrid doesn't have them, so I am now just crepe deprived. The next morning we had a few hours before we had to go to the airport so we went back to my favorite part of Paris-the Eiffel Tower.

It is really really big and not quite as pretty in the daytime as at night, but still one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen.

We had an amazing weekend in Paris and I am so incredibly glad that we went!