L'amour à Paris

This weekend we celebrated our 3-Year Anniversary in Paris, France! I always dreamed of this moment my whole life- but I never thought it would come true so soon, at such a perfect time!...Paris with the love of my life, on our wedding anniversary, how romantic! Thanks to my awesome friend Lucie, we knew all about the best things to see and most of it actually worked out perfectly. :) I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

Here are my favorite 17 things about Paris:

1. Fireworks at the Eiffel Tower

This was the highlight of our trip for me (and also the reason I wanted to go so badly). It was France's Independence Day and they put on the best firework show I have ever seen in my life! It was coordinated with music from the most popular Broadway shows, plus it was directly behind the Eiffel Tower...seriously breathtaking! Luckily, we were able to take the fast train after work, check-in to our hotel and navigate our way to the tower with just a few minutes left to spare. It was pretty crowded and we had to stand up to watch them, but it was totally worth it. We met a cute family from New Zealand and I found the perfect picture-taking spot. My favorite part of the show was when the tower sparkled AND the grand finale began. There is no other word to say but, "AMAZING."

2. Sacre Coeur

My friend Lucie told us to go here because it's her favorite place in Paris. & It's definitely the most beautiful church I have seen in Europe so far! Probably because it's different than all the rest, sits on a hill with a beautiful overlook of Paris and the weather was perfect... we loved it! The inside was really beautiful too - you aren't supposed to take pictures but I decided to be sneaky and just snatch one. (For some reason when people tell me not to take pictures, it just makes me want me to take one even more). But even with my most sneaky, "not even looking at my camera" skills, I still got caught! haha, luckily the guy was nice and just shook his finger at me.

3. Arc de Triomphe

This is a really famous monument in Paris that honors the soldiers who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary War and the Napoleon Wars. All the names of French victories and generals are inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Also, beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers from World War I. We could have paid to go up to the top for a view of Paris, but the line was SO long. (That's one bad thing about going on a big holiday weekend...the lines were really long for everything.) So we decided that we would rather go see some other sites instead of waiting in line.

4. Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame is considered one of the finest examples of "French Gothic" architecture in Europe. It was first built around the 1200's! Also on the outside of the grounds is "Kilometre Zero"the official center of Paris. I just saw a bunch of Japanese people taking pictures of something engraved in the concrete so I decided it must be important and Christopher took my picture standing on the gold circle. Then when I got home I did some research and figured out what is was. Also, we decided that this is probably the church from the Hunchback of Notre Dame Disney movie!

5. Banana Nutella Crepes

I love the combination of chocolate with bananas... and with a fresh, warm, delicious crepe? YUM!! Plus everything is better with Nutella - I know they have it in the States but I forgot how much I love it!


6. Lock of Love Bridge

I was waiting for this moment for MONTHS, ever since I saw my friend's pictures of this cute little bridge. But unfortunately, we FORGOT to bring a lock! I was devastated and positive that we would never find a lock in these small Paris shops. But luckily, Chris was persistent and we found a super market that just happened to have one! I sketched our names on the outside with a pen and Christopher wrote the date, "July 2011." Then we locked our "love" to the bridge and each threw a key into the Seine River. (We made a cute little video of it too, but I hate my hair in it, so this picture is better).

7. Statue of Liberty

A mini version of America's greatest monument! I was so excited when we found this picture-taking spot because you can see the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. I also learned something new in my research - she is a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tablet evoking the law- upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence... thanks for the gift France! Seeing lady Liberty made us feel a little more at home.


8. Bakeries

They have bakeries EVERYWHERE! This is both fabulous and not so great because it just makes me hungry and crave delicious pastries all day long. I had to try Lucie's favorite - Pain au Chocolat and it was definitely delicious! I'm pretty sure I would get fat living in Paris - I would eat pastries and crepes all day long. But maybe not...because we probably walked about 15 miles throughout our 4 days in Paris. It evens out, right?

9. Jardin des Tuileries

These are beautiful gardens right next to the Louvre Museum. It was fun to walk around and they even had a carnival going on too. One thing we liked in the center was a circular fountain and you can put a small sailboat inside and it sails all around without a motor or anything. It was pretty entertaining.


10. Place Vendome

This is a fun square filled with expensive shopping and a large column originally constructed by Napoleon and made out of cannons to celebrate the victory of a war. We just did some window shopping, took a few pictures and saw some kids "planking." We were surprised at first because we had only seen our friend David from Utah do it... but apparently it's a worldwide trend right now and people are "planking" everywhere. haha it's pretty funny - you should Google it.  

11. Centre Pompidou

I wasn't expecting this... but I think it is one of my favorite parts about Paris! I love it because on the outside, they have a cool water fountain display with crazy shapes and artwork that spin around and shoot out water. Then on the inside, in the basement, they have a crazy "hang out" place with computers and the decorations are awesome. Plus the best part of all...the photobooths!! They have free photobooths that give you a 4x6 picture and then the highlight...a GIANT photobooth with a printer that's 2-stories tall and prints out a HUGE portrait of your face. haha it's seriously the coolest. Apparently an artist is behind all of this and he encourages everyone to display their picture in their home community - it's some sort of modern art movement. But basically... the best part was watching a giant poster of your face get printed and fall down from the sky. There was a long line, so we were glad we got there early - but it was totally worth the wait!

12. Chalk Artwork

This is the first and only "street performer" I gave money to. He was the cutest, old little guy and his artwork was amazing! It was so cool to watch him create this masterpiece and all with just a little bit of chalk.  Now that's talent that deserves compensation!

13. Moulin Rouge

There's not much to say about this one... basically we just got off the metro, took a picture because it's famous and went on our way. But it was pretty cool to see - especially with all the lights on. Apparently there's a famous show with dancers that is performed here, but I don't know much about it except that the tickets are pretty expensive. 

14. Les Catacombes

Another highlight of our weekend! We LOVED the Catacombs. We came one day but due to security reasons they couldn't let anyone in for awhile and even if we waited in the line, there was no guarantee for getting in. Luckily, we still had one more day so we came back earlier...still had to wait in line for a few hours and only got to see half of them...but it was still worth it! It's still hard to believe that these are actually human skulls and bones. One thing we found out when we got back is that you can go on a guided tour (sneaking in and illegally, of course) but they take you to the parts of the Catacombs that aren't open to the public - like to German bunkers and places where you have to hike through water and walk on piles of bones... but there are 400 miles of dark trails and if you lose your way... you're basically done for. This was more of a desire of Christopher's... I think I would be a little creeped out, not to mention the fact that if the police find you - the Paris jail isn't exactly the way I would want to spend our vacation. haha but anyways- it would be pretty crazy! 

15. Kebab

BEST MEAL EVER! Again, my great friend Lucie said that she missed this a lot in America and we are so glad we tried it!! Apparently it's banned in the U.S. for sanitary reasons...but we never got sick from it. It's skewed all day long with spices and they shave the meat off, fresh for your sandwich. It was only 5 Euros for a sandwich and a pile of fries, plus they didn't charge us for ketchup! We ate this for dinner 2 nights in a row... Christopher even said these words, "I like this better than a hamburger." And if you know him at all- you may not even believe that, but it's true. 

16. Mona Lisa

She is the main reason I wanted to go to the Louvre Museum. I've always wanted to see her in person - even though I've heard it's a little disappointing. I was happy that we got in for free because on Friday nights from 6-10pm anyone under 26 doesn't have to pay. So we wandered around the museum (which is really confusing, like a crazy labyrinth!) and found Napoleon's apartment, some Egyptian stuff, some Macedonian stuff, TONS of artwork, statues, artifacts - it was really overwhelming. Then finally - we saw her! The painting is pretty small and behind a big glass window which makes it a little tricky for pictures - but we saw her :) Life goal complete!

17. Eiffel Tower

Obviously the MAIN attraction of Paris was the beautiful, breathtaking "La Tour Eiffel."  We were lucky because we got to see it at sunset, at night, during fireworks and during a beautiful blue sky, puffy white cloud day. We decided not to go up in tower because (once again) the lines were ridiculous! But we had a picnic and took SO many fun pictures instead. Here are my 3 favorite:

So basically...WE LOVED PARIS!!! Everyone should go :) And thanks Lucie for helping us plan such a fun weekend!!