No Bones About It

Last night we wandered through the Canal St. Martin, which is just two blocks from our hotel. This is a major hang out for the locals. They just sit along the edge of the canal and eat and drink and chat up their friends.
We've had some Chunnel ticket drama, so we woke up early this morning (7am!!!) to head straight to the ticket office and get our travel figured out to move on to England tomorrow. The tickets through the English Channel were going to be almost $800, which we were NOT expecting. So.. we booked tickets to a small town in North France that we'll spend a few hours at and catch a train from there, which is much cheaper than leaving straight away from Paris.

Then, we headed to the Left Bank to see St. Sulpice. Joe and I have both read The Da Vinci Code so we were excited to see this church in real life.
The Rose Line, pointing from South to North...
After visiting the church, we headed to an outdoor restaurant for a true French lunch. We both had crepes filled with meat and cheese...mmm....

Then, we decided to tour Catacombs.

I Louvre You

Bonjour! Yesterday afternoon we checked out the Eiffel Tower. We walked up 2/3 by stairs (made it to the top gasping for air ;-) then took the elevator to the very tip top. The views were out of this world!
That's 700 stairs! The last one...
This morning we woke up and headed to the Louvre. So, so awesome.
My favorite piece of sculpture, Winged Nike.
Even the ceilings are a work of art.

And... behold, the Mona Lisa. The guidebooks are totally wrong about her. First of all, it was way BIGGER than everyone implied (probably the size of a nice picture you'd hang in your house) and it's sooo worth seeing. The greens and blues are so much more stunning in real life.


Check out the crowds to see her... despite the people, it was actually very easy to move your way to the front and see her up close.

Another one of my favorites.Joe with Sphinx.
They also have an exhibit that includes the furniture and decor from Napoleon's home. This guy had extravagant taste!


Then we grabbed a quick snack and headed for Saint Chappel.

I saw this church in one of my textbooks before we even planned this trip and knew I *had* to see it in real life. It's French Gothic, which I love.

Paris, Friday 3:30pm

We made it to Paris! 19 hours ago we left the airport in Kansas City.
I think we're both glad we didn't pack like we did on our honeymoon. Only 2 large bags this time and 1 carry on.
Honeymoon luggage:
Europe luggage;

Three different airports and countries in the last twenty hours.

The last flight was the most important. An overnight to Paris. 8 hours of flying and we *had* to sleep then so we wouldn't be jet lagged later. Our strategy was simple: wine and sleeping pills.
Managed to figure out the metro stations enough to navigate to our hotel.
... and grab a crepe as a snack :)

Setting sail...

Tomorrow's the day Joe and I hop a plane for Europe! As usual, we're scrambling tonight to get everything packed. Wonder what we'll forget to bring! Call me crazy, but I'm actually looking forward to the long flight. I've never been on an Airbus and certainly never crossed an ocean. I'm looking forward to roaming the streets of Paris and London, sampling foreign food, shopping for souvenirs, and just being a tourist! We even bought a new camera so we can take super cool pix while we're there. See ya on the flip side!