Our first challenge upon arriving in Paris was navigating from the airport to the hotel. It was only 8 in the morning and all of us were bleary from lack of sleep, but we needed to drop our bags off and hit the ground running to keep up with our aggressive agenda! The ticket machine for the RER train almost stumped us, but the very helpful Frenchman at the next machine kindly demonstrated how to purchase the tickets and we were off!

It was a straight shot to Saint-Michele and our charming little Hotel Europe St-Severin, was just around the corner. I’m not sure how the French got a reputation for being rude, the boys working at our hotel were terribly charming! They stored our bags and gave us a map to help us find the Paris Pass office. We strolled over the Seine, past the Tour St-Jacques, and another mile up to the Montmarte district.  Lucky for Jenni, the Paris Pass office also doubles as a candy store!

Our next stop was the Louvre.

Delaney wanted to see the Mona Lisa. Jenni was interested in seeing some sculpture of a couple of naked people. I just wanted to get through it so we could go on to the Eiffel Tower.

We were all kinds of hungry after the two-mile walk so we started our tour of the Louvre in the cafe. Delaney and I enjoyed Quiche Lorraine, though shockingly she had never heard the song (the youth today!) and then we discovered the Macaron.

So light, so delicious, so much better than the Mona Lisa!

The Mona Lisa is very small, under a wall of glass, and surrounded by tourists snapping dozens of pictures.

We got ours.

We wandered around to the sculpture area to see the statue Jenni loves so much (though I much preferred it’s elaborate neighbor).

Just kidding! Though I saw a lot just like it in Prague! This one…

Our final object was Venus Di Milo.

We caught the metro back to the hotel to check into our rooms. Mine was on the second floor, with a very Parisian looking balcony overlooking some cute little cafés.

After juicing up our iPhones we set out for our next stop, Notre Dame.

To be honest, I thought the cathedral in Cologne was much more impressive. And the Christ Church in Dublin is prettier on the inside.

We quickly shuffled thought and then caught the metro to the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889 and stands 324 meters high. We accidentally got in line to take the stairs up, but quickly corrected our mistake!

The view from the summit is breathtaking, even when the city is shrouded in fog. but the temperature was plummeting and Jenni swore she saw snow flakes so we made our way back down. Just as we landed, they lit it up, so we stopped to shoot a few more pictures.

We stopped at a street cart on the way back. Delaney had hot cocoa, Jen had hot tea, and I had the hot wine. Clearly I made the best choice.

Back at the hotel, Jenni disappeared in her room so Delaney and I decided to visit the cafe across the Street. Although the hotel desk guy said he didn’t recommend eating anywhere in the neighborhood, if we had to go across the street we should try the raclette. So we did!

We each decided on the raclette chartucerie, which seemed to confuse the waiter so I decided to get fondue. He just walked away shaking his head. the fondue was a cheese fondue served with a huge basket of fresh bread cubes. it was very good. The raclette was amazing. He brought out a metal rack seated over an open flame and a plate of cheese, potatoes, meats, pickles, and onions. He showed us how to put the cheese on the rack and cook it until it was good and melty and the scrape it on to our plate on top of the potato and meat. My God, it was delicious!

When we walked back to he hotel, our desk guy had a great laugh that we ordered fondue and raclette, as he said, that’s a lot of cheese!

Big day tomorrow, we are off to the country to visit Versailles! Wish you were here!