Europe Trip 2019, Part 1: Paris

I keep promising myself I’m going to write about our trip to France and Ireland but then I get completely overwhelmed thinking abut it.

Because:

1. I’m not a travel writer.
2. I have abut 2,687 trip photos (roughly) so how would I even pick a few to post?
3. What would be useful and/or fun for you guys to know?
4. Did our trip really even happen?

Okay, just kidding on that last part. I remember it well, but it’s crazy how we landed back in Minneapolis and – bam! – I was off to the races again with work and whatnot.

Still, it was a fantastic trip … one of our best trips ever, really, and I want to do it some justice here on this little blog of mine. Some quick background: Teacher Man and I have been to France and Ireland before but it’s been 18 years. One of our goals has been to take Joe with us once he was old enough to appreciate and enjoy the trip. He’s 15 and headed into 10th grade so we decided this would be the summer!

Day one: We flew to Paris from Minneapolis on an overnight Air France flight, which felt incredibly civilized. We were in economy but we were still handed a printed menu with – get this! – options for dinner, including a choice of white or red wine or even champagne! Teacher Man was able to sleep a little but Joe and I couldn’t quite make that happen so we watched multiple movies instead.

Day two: We landed on time and took a taxi to our hotel, the Crown Plaza Republique, which was in a great location – super close to a Metro stop. We couldn’t check in yet, so we set out to explore for a couple of hours. After a quick map tutorial from the hotel staff (very helpful!), we dove head-first into figuring out the Metro system and found our way pretty easily to Montmarte and Basilique du Sacre Coeur, which was stunning.

Next we traveled to the Arc de Triomphe and walked along the world-famous avenue, Champs-Élysées. Blue skies, sunny warm temps, people everywhere … it was incredible to think we were actually in Paris! Another quick stop on the Metro to the other end of the Champs-Élysées brought us to Place de la Concorde, which was originally an execution site during the French Revolution. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette (among others) were guillotined here. 

By this time, we were quite sure our hotel room would be ready and, quite honestly, we all needed a nap. So back to the Crowne Plaza we went, checked in, and slept for a couple of hours, which felt truly life-changing at that point.

We ended the evening with some pizza at a local restaurant near the hotel — outside on a sidewalk table, of course, along with a bottle of red wine (and some 7up for Joe). Perfection.

Day three: Today was our full day devoted to exploring Paris and showing Joe some of the sights we love and taking in some new experiences for all of us as well.

First stop was Pere Lachaise Cemetery because this is what happens when you have a (history) Teacher Man in your family. Ha – actually, this is partially true but it was an easy walk from our hotel so it made sense to start there.

We noticed on our way that morning that we saw very few people walking and drinking to-go cups of coffee. Very unlike America. It’s a different pace here, even though it’s a very large, very urban city.

The cemetery is gorgeous in that weird, macabre kind of way because we are walking around looking at graves. One of Teacher Man’s favorite musicians, Jim Morrison of The Doors, is buried here and we also meandered around to find Chopin’s grave as well.

Next we took the Metro to see Notre Dame, which is under construction, of course. We could only walk around the outside and view the structure along with the scaffolding. Still, it’s a lovely neighborhood and we grabbed baguettes and frites for lunch and sat on a bench along the Seine and people-watched.

After lunch, we headed to the Musée de l’Armée, which houses Napoleon’s tomb. Teacher Man and I saw the tomb 20 years ago on our honeymoon but we never toured the museum, which we did with Joe this time. We are so glad we did – it was incredible! Perhaps the most unexpectetd find was seeing Napoleon’s very famous hat – yes, his actual hat! – on display, although I know Joe enjoyed viewing the amazing variety of swords and other weapons, as well.

Fun fact: you can purchase Napoleon-branded champagne in the museum’s gift shop! 😉

Our next stop was the Eiffel Tower – arguably the most recognized structure in the world, yes? Teacher Man and I were amazed at how different visiting this iconic structure is now vs. 20 years ago when we saw it on our honeymoon. It probably comes as no surprise that the security is much stricter now with specific entrance and exit points, bag checks, and metal detectors. This was not the case two decades ago when we could just walk about as we pleased. And while it was, of course, amazing to see the Eiffel Tower, it was perhaps not our most favorite part of the trip. (Too many people, too many street vendors trying to scam us.) We snagged all the prerequisite photos, though, and afterwards, I completely enjoyed fell in love with a banana-and-nutella crepe from a crepe stand across the street, which ended up being a food highlight! (And has me on a mission to make crepes at home.)

After the Eiffel Tower, we hopped on a Seine River boat cruise, which was a first for all of us. I had purchased tickets online ahead of time through GetYourGuide.com, which made it easy to bypass the lines and board the boat. It was a relaxing way to get off our feet for an hour – and gave us a gorgeous view of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and so many other sight of Paris from the river. Highly recommend!

Finally, we took a taxi to the Hotel Regina over by the Louvre. This is the hotel Teacher Man and I stayed out during our honeymoon 20 years ago so it was fun to reminisce. The same sidewalk cafe is still there so we found a table outside, ordered some wine (and 7Up), and bored Joe with our memories.

Afterwards, we headed by to our hotel via the Metro, had dinner nearby, and ended the night with glasses of wine (and 7up) on the sidewalk bar at the Crowne Plaza.

Fun fact: The Hotel Regina is featured in the The Bourne Identity movie!

Day four: We scheduled two very big deals on our fourth and final day in Paris — a tour of Versailles and a trip to the Louvre! Perhaps my best two tips of our Paris trip include purchasing tickets IN ADVANCE for both of these attractions. I booked the Versailles tour before we left the states from The Tour Guy and I can’t recommend this company enough. Our English-speaking guide was from America originally and was a wealth of historical knowledge. Our tour group was small and the guide helped us navigate the train station to/from Versailles, which is actually a town about 30 minutes from Paris. And because we were part of the tour group, we were able to bypass the MASSIVELY HUGE line to enter Versailles when we arrived. It was fairly amazing actually and worth every penny. Versailles was one of my favorite parts of our Paris visit, in part because our guide made the history come alive! The opulence and grandeur of Versailles is simply larger than life.

Upon our return to Paris, we took the Metro to find the apartment building where Jim Morrison (see above gravesite) lived before his death. (Thanks to Google, the address is readily available.) It was actually really fun to walk around this particular neighborhood – it was definitely quieter and seemed a bit more residential than some of the areas we’d been exploring.

Afterwards, we continued via the Metro over to the Louvre area, ate an early dinner at a sidewalk cafe, and then lined up at the Louvre in time for our pre-purchased admittance time. I bought our tickets online directly from the Louvre and it worked like a charm. The museum is especially busy in the summer months, as you can imagine, so we also picked an evening timeslot which is supposed to be less crazy.

Another tip is to go directly to see the Mona Lisa painting first and then you can veer off to any of the other exhibits. We did this and it was like a paparazzi experience! Once we finally got into the room that housed the Mona Lisa, there was a crowd of people, phones and cameras clicking, and security guards yelling at people to move along. I’m not quite sure how it even happened, but a museum security guard smiled at me, grabbed my iPhone, and took our photo in front of the world famous painting – and it looks like we are the only ones in the room! LOL … it all happened so quickly but somehow it was meant to be. And with a quick ‘merci!’ to the security guard, we moved on!

Joe’s favorite part of Paris was the Louvre … we spent a couple of hours exploring the Egyptian Antiquities exhibit and that was definitely his jam. 🙂 By the way, two hours is not even close to being enough time to see even a small portion of this gigantic museum!

Fun fact: Teacher Man and I had never been to the Louvre until this trip!

Day five: We said au revoir to Paris and caught a train to Bayeux, in the Normandy region of France. This area deserves its very own blog post — oh the beautiful photos I took! — so that will be part 2 of this little trip journal. Until next time, friends … thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions!

xoxo – Lara