12 Hours in Paris

I guess unemployment is good for me.  A travel post as promised! 

I previously blogged about scouring for a plane ticket with a decently long layover in Paris on our way to Scotland so that we could mesh two trips into one.  At first I started to try to fervently plan a step-by-step day for us and research fabulous places to eat and have coffee, etc.  But then I woke up from that crazy dream and decided that since we didn't have much time we would just kind of see where the wind blew us that day.  Being completely unfamiliar with Paris it just seemed best to wander.  

I will try not to write much because this post is so photo heavy but I did want to say a few words about our adventure.  First -- 3 Putt is extremely well traveled.  It usually seems like he has been everywhere but he actually had not been to Paris to sight see.  So it was really special for me that we were able to share the experience together.  That being said -- I was also excited to have him there because he is so well traveled.  I was really kind of stressed about the language barrier, trying out public transportation, getting lost, mean French people, etc. but 3 Putt is good with these situations.

So, as far as our day -- we landed from our 9ish hour flight and after we checked in for our connecting flight I went to freshen up in the restroom for about 30 minutes.  Our layover was 12 hours and I definitely didn't want to be rushed so that we would have more fun so we took our time exiting the airport.  We found the train station easily on our own and a lady working a ticket booth was very helpful in the ticket purchasing process.  We bought from a kiosk and went on our way.  There are a lot of hat pics in here as the weather was about 40 degrees with 80% chance of rain all day while we were there. 

pretty much stopped to eat breakfast at the first place we 

saw off the train as we were starving! seriously, I 

couldn't even tell you the name of this place but the coffee was good

and the food was hot. 

//jardin de tuileries//

restaurant guy was very nice and gladly spoke a bit of English with us to 

ensure we were on the right track to find the big sights! turned out we

actually hopped off the train at the right spot on our first try.  

//arc de triomphe du carrousel//

//one of the million gratuitous louvre photos//

the line to get in here is very long.  so we just took pics outside and instead we ended up walking over to the Musée d'Orsay after walking around Jardin de Tuileries for a while to get out of the gloom and see some art.  There are two great looking restaurants in this museum. I think next time I would like to eat there! So beautiful! 

//ootd//

Mainly I wore this hat because I had a blowout at Dry Bar before we left and I didn't want it to go to waste.  So I wore this a lot due to the rainy weather but it worked! Hair saved! 

I didn't realize this until we were crossing over, but I think we were on the bridge over the Pont des Arts where they place the love locks in Paris!  I'm a cheeseball so this was very thrilling to me especially since there was a gentleman there selling locks.  Obviously I made 3 Putt put a love lock on the bridge with me.  He is such a good sport. 

This was actually before we went to the museum.  We had a lovely afternoon wandering around (minus our only encounter with a ridiculously rude and outrageous French man that worked at the museum who yelled at us about a photo -- even though everyone in there was taking lobby pics and we were not inside an exhibit) and looking at art and then took the long walk to the Eiffel Tower.  The walk was actually lovely as I believe we were in the St. Germain area, but we didn't go too far into the park as we had been up walking for several hours and I was getting really tired and hungry. 

//almost there//

//eiffel tower selfie//

After we finally saw the tower we pretty much immediately ran back out into town looking for a place to lunch.  A lot of the little cafes look the same so we just dipped into one to take a seat for a long meal.  Food was just okay but people working there were very nice and the wine was good. 

I know I need to wrap this up.  All in all -- the day was magical.  Paris is just as beautiful as any picture I've seen and just as romantic as everyone says.  Overall we actually had an excellent experience and found people to be very nice and helpful and the trains pretty easy to use.  I did download an app called "Pocket Paris" to my phone that gave maps and info offline so that we could use my phone and not be on celluar data.  I found this app very helpful and very worth the $3.  The most expensive part of our day was lunch but overall the rest was very affordable.  I was also in disbelief at how close most of the big sights are to each other! I felt like I saw SO much and we were only there a short time.  We actually ended up heading back to the airport early since we felt pretty tired and wanted to make sure we didn' t miss our connection.  Ending the day with 3 Putt, a delicious cappucino and some macaroons (okay we ate some Pringles too) was just perfect. 

~the single gal~