Saturday morning we hopped on the train to Paris - Lauren from our hotel room...
The Eurostar - and train travel in general - beats flying by a long shot in ease of travel. For most train travel you can literally show up 5 minutes before the train departs, check the board for your platform, and hop on the train. No long security lines or baggage checks. So easy! The Eurostar is a bit more complicated because there is a security line involved and a passport check, but still SO much easier than even the best airport.
The Eurostar is a very fast train. Once you get going the higher speeds (and I think it goes up to 190 mph), when the train enters and leaves tunnels the pressure of the air changes so rapidly that I have to yawn and pop my ears. Same if you encounter another train going the opposite way on the other set of tracks. The actual underwater chunnel part only takes about 20 minutes to get through. It's such a great way to travel - it takes you from the center of London to the center of Paris in about two hours. Easy.
Here we are in our first Parisian cafe!
Crossing the Seine River:
In front of Notre Dame:
Paris at night:
At night every hour on the hour for five minutes, the Eiffel Tower lights up! It flashes and sparkles...
We were walking down by the river and Stephen had the idea to jump on a tour boat, definitely a touristy thing to do, but hey - we are tourists! With champagne to boot...
The boat is a great way to see Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower up close...
Inside Notre Dame - Lauren's opinion is that Notre Dame was okay but she liked Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral better. I have to say of all the cathedrals I've seen this year, it's not my favorite either (St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is, but how can you beat that??). But it is pretty...
Outside the Louvre... it was such a beautiful day. London had been cloudy (of course) when we left and sunlight is as big of an attraction as anything else!
You actually enter the Louvre through the glass pyramid out front - this is the view from the ticket lobby inside:
Mona Lisa -
My opinion on the Mona Lisa? Eh, it's okay. Nowhere near the most impressive piece of art I've seen in person. Not that I don't like the painting itself, but a) you can't get close to it, b) there are people all around you trying to take pictures, and c) you get about 5 seconds to see it before you are pushed out of the way by others in the crowd. Everybody is there just to be able to say "I've seen the Mona Lisa". So yes, I've seen it, but didn't really get to look at it. And isn't that the best part about seeing something in person?
Lauren outside of the Louvre. I love that's she's so game for all of the silly pictures I take of her. :)
I've blogged about my love for French maracroons (macarons) before, and I can't visit Paris without a visit to my favorite macaroon shop.
Lemon, rose (my favorite), Madagascar vanilla (Stephen's favorite), fleur de sel caramel (I think Lauren's favorite), and two different kinds of chocolate (one with chocolate from a single-origin grove of trees in Brazil or somewhere).
Sitting in the sun in the Louvre grounds, eating our macarons:
Shortly after that we headed back to the train station to return to London... still more to come!
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