Paris, March 3-6, 2016

One of the places my mom has been excited to visit was Paris. At Christmas we surprised her with a gift of Paris! She was really excited and counted down the day until our trip.

We tried to plan in advance as much as we could since Josh, our tour guide had to work. We took the Eurostar from St. Pancras and arrived at Gare Du Nord. We decide to drop our stuff off at the hotel before lunch. Josh hooked us up and got us into a great hotel! It was so clean and big, which are not very common in Europe. After we got settled, we headed out for lunch. We found a cute Italian restaurant called Zazza.

Since the weather was so nice after lunch, we headed to Notre Dame.

Next stop was the Eiffel Tower. We got tickets in advance to avoid all the lines. It was off season so the lines weren't crazy, but nice not to wait.

Next day was our day trip to Versailles. We looked up the trains online, and it was super easy to get to. Again the off season was great with NO crowds. We walked around the palace and gardens like we owned the place. When the château was built, Versailles was a country village. The court of Versailles was the centre of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. Versailles is a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime. We watched Marie Antoinette before we went so we knew it was going to be over the top!

We planned time for shopping and just walking around the city. We had some places that were highly recommended so we were sure to try them all. We tried eclairs from Storer, onion soup at La Petite Perigourdine, and crepes from Chez Nicos.

We took a Seine River cruise but debated when we should take it. We decided on night so we could enjoy all the beautiful views in the "City of Lights" and it was a splendid choice! 

For our last day we went to the Louvre, its free admission for the first Sunday of the month. The lines were not long at all compared to last time I was in Paris.

The weather was cold but beautiful and sunny. It was a great day to explore Luxembourg Gardens. Many locals were out enjoying the lovely Sunday morning. The ducks were out and so were the mini sailboats. It was quintessential Paris in the Spring. Harvey LOVED looking at the ducks.

On Sunday afternoon we headed back to London. We had a great Paris trip, and it was everything we had hoped for. Au revoir Paris!