From Paris to Amsterdam in Eight Days

Patrick and I were lucky enough to tag along on our friends trip to Paris!  Yes, you read that right and I'm not even going to laugh and say Paris, Texas.

Paris, France ya'll!  The city of love and lights.  My feet walked there, oh did they walk there.  We spent 4 full days in Paris and then took the train to Amsterdam to complete our eight day adventure.  Grab a cup of cappuccino (it's quite the way to drink coffee in France) and let me tell you all about it.

First you must know that we invited ourselves along.  Our friends were discussing their upcoming trip and I'm pretty sure I started turning green with envy.  On the way home after dinner I somewhat nonchalantly mentioned to Patrick that I wished we could go with them.  Alright, if you asked Patrick he would probably say I begged to go.  Husbands are so silly.  Anyway, the real shocker is that Patrick agreed with me!  The wonderful man that I married, who has no bones of wanderlust in his body, wanted to go too!  After getting the ok from our friends, we booked our flights and wrote "trip to Europe" on the calendar in October 2019.   Aah!

I quickly have to mention that I accidentally found a great(!) resource to prepare us for France.  I highly recommend Join Us in France Travel Podcast.  The podcast is produced and hosted by Annie Sargent and she leaves no stone unturned.  It really is magnifique!  In fact, while in France you could often hear me or my friend Connie saying, "Annie says..."

We flew from the United States direct to Paris, France.  As we were waiting to board our plane, about six TSA agents and a couple of police arrived at our gate to administer another(!) passport check.  That was a little unsettling, but I'm thankful for the extra precautions.  We left on Saturday afternoon and arrived in France on Sunday morning.  We then took a taxi from the airport (because Annie said it was best, and she was right!) to our Airbnb and grabbed a few hours of sleep before we started exploring.

View from our apartment.

Our apartment was in Le Marais on Rue Beaurepaire just down the street from Place de la République where we had a scary moment concerning protesting firefighters on Tuesday morning.  (I'll tell you more in another post.)  It wasn't too close to the Seine or all the tourist attractions, but the neighborhood was cute and had many shops and restaurants. 

 

Across the street, hello neighbors.

Let the exploring begin!

Lunch at a little cafe in Le Marais.

This was our very first experience ordering anything in France.  I took four years of french language in high school and I wish I had paid better attention.  I could read some of the items on the menu but speaking in french was another story.  We ordered eggs benedict and a cappuccino.  Both were very tasty.

 

Connie and I didn't even pose for this photo!
Patrick was snapping pics as we were talking and voila!
Wish I could remember what we were talking about.

After lunch we wandered some more, taking in all the sights and sounds of Paris.  

Place de la République.

Pont des Arts, the first metal bridge in Paris.

Pont des Arts is the bridge which tourists attach a padlock and throw the key in the Seine as a romantic gesture to represent committed love.  With all the added weight from the locks causing concern about the structural integrity of the bridge, the city put up glass panels to discourage people from adding locks.  But, they find a way.  On every lamppost on the bridge people have looped wire cables and added their locks for love.

Conciergerie

Committed lovers on the Pont des Arts. 💗

Institute of France

Pair of lovebirds. :) 

After much wandering, we finally found our boat company, Vedettes du Pont Neuf.  Time for a tour of Paris along the river Seine.

The boat tour was another recommendation by Annie (who does not profit from her endorsement).  Our group was mixed on our thoughts about it.  I rather enjoyed it and there are many things from the tour that we came across during our days in Paris.  If not for the tour, I may have overlooked them.  Our tour guide was informative and humorous, always a good combo for me.  After a long day of travel and only a two hour nap, it's no wonder that I found Patrick snoozing every now and again.  It's as if the Seine was rocking him to sleep.  Can't say I blame him.  Our step count for day one was 18,134.