Paris On Purpose – Hitting All The Tourist Spots

First Post: Eiffel Tower at night

Second Post: Palace of Versailles

Third Post: Being a Tourist

This is the route we took on Saturday to make sure Jen saw all of the spots before she left Paris.  We started at the Sacre Coeur where there were performers, singers and picnics everywhere.  Oh and the church is just beautiful and you can see all of Paris from it so it’s just so beautiful.

The view would have been better on a less hazy day but you get the idea from this photo.

Because I love my Flip here are videos of the performers that everyone was watching.

Then we walked  around the church and stumbled upon this cute little square filled with artists painting and selling their work.

Lindsey bought a beautiful piece of art from an artist named Bahman Borojeni (that is not him in the photo above). I’m regretting that I didn’t buy one!

We followed the winding street down a little more and stopped to see Moulin Rouge.

 

We hopped on the bus and went to the Latin Quarter to have some yummy falafel.

Paris was so much fun and it got me even more excited to have Jamie, Lindsey & Jen in London the following weekend!

Paris On Purpose – Being A Tourist

First Post: Eiffel Tower at night

Second Post: Palace of Versailles

I came up with the perfect walking route through Paris to see most of the major sites and I want to share it with you incase you are heading there soon!

Start at the Eiffel Tower.

Climb to the top.

Cross the river. Climb up a lot of steps where the Palais de Tokyo is on your right. Walk up Avenue d’lena until you come to the Arc de Triomphe.

Walk down the Champs Elysees.

Walk through the Jardin des Tuileries and hope there are actual tulips there.

Go to the Louvre.

After the Louvre walk along the river to see Notre Dame.

Then loop around to visit the Pompidou Museum.

That’s only the first day.  I’ve got another great route for the second day.

Total miles walked: 4.36 miles.  Way to go!!

Paris On Purpose – Palace Of Versailles

I know it’s been a while but please bear with me.  If you missed the first post about Paris read about it here.

Friday morning we woke up and went to visit Versailles to see the Palace. After a quick 40 minute train ride through the outskirts of Paris we arrived.

Before we entered Lindsey told us about the history.

We had a headset tour through the palace which was great because we could walk the palace at our own pace.  Here is what the tour sounded like in one of the rooms. (listen very carefully)

The Palace was huge and kept going and going.  One of the rooms was Marie Antoinette’s bedroom.

I’d say the hall of mirrors was the best part of the palace. It a hall that measures 239.5 ft × 34.4 ft × 40.4 ft with mirrors on 1 side and huge windows on the other.  You can look out to the beautiful gardens. If you want to know the history of it click here.

After the tour of the Palace we headed outside to the gardens. They went on for miles and miles!  They were pretty but I can only imagine what they look like when everything is in bloom.

I love my Flip!  Check out my video from the gardens.

Hope you enjoyed your tour of the Palace of Versailles!  Lots more about Paris to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A & J’s Big Adventure – Part 4/Plan B

Plan B was to book a flight to NY from Paris and spend a couple of days there as well.  The next flight out was on Wednesday so we had 2 days in Paris!

Paris doesn’t need words….only photos.

On Wednesday morning we successfully flew from Paris to New York and enjoyed our time with family and friends.  I don’t have any photos from the rest of our trip because my camera battery was dead and the charger was obviously left in London. 

We are back in London and ready to take on the new year!

A & J’s Big Adventure – Part 3

Since it was looking like this outside and our train was supposed to leave in a couple of hours we were getting nervous.

We kept checking the Eurostar twitter and they were canceling trains left and right but ours was still scheduled to leave Disney at 7:30pm.  We got to the train station a little early and waited in line.  We waited and waited and waited until 9:30pm and they said the train was coming soon.  Eventually around 10:30pm they announced the train was canceled.  It turned into chaos!  700 people stranded at the very very cold train station.  Parents were screaming because their children were cold, hungry and tired. No one knew what was going on.  They couldn’t even tell us when the next train was scheduled to go to London.  Eventually they put us up in hotels and told us to come back to the train station tomorrow.  The room they gave us had bunkbeds (and a full sized bed).

This is when we realized that we were going to miss our flight from London to NY on Monday.  Plan B was devised (after me freaking out for a good hour) and it turns out Delta had already canceled our flight to NY because there was a blizzard in London as well.

Up Next: Plan B (not the birth control).

A & J’s Big Adventure – Part 2

Days 2 & 3 were spent in Disneyland Park. I never thought I’d be at Disney in the cold or snow but I guess this proves you can never say never.

The first ride we went on was It’s A Small World!

We took the train around the park.

Saw cute Mickey shaped bread.

Again we went on all of the rides (even the little kiddie rides) and we never had to wait more than 30 minutes which was great! The park is smaller than Disney World and they didn’t have the turkey legs that Jon was so excited for.

How pretty is the castle at night?

Up Next: It all starts going downhill from here….

Words Cannot Explain

Well we finally made it to the US.  Euro Disney looked like this.

So we were stuck there for an extra day.  Then London looked like this:

 

Click for source

So we couldn’t go back to London so we went to Paris instead.

We made it to NYC via Charles de Gualle airport instead of Heathrow. Stayed in NY/NJ for a couple of days and then headed to Florida to visit more family and it’s freezing here.  Well we are in Florida but there is a huge blizzard in NY so our plans have changed again and we are headed back to NYC earlier than expected.

 

Click for source

Snow has followed us around the world at this point and is out to get us!

2010 was not my year for flights.  I’m hoping 2011 will be a much better year for me in that aspect because we have a lot of traveling planned.

Off to the movies because what else do you do in cold Florida?!?!

 

What I Won

Do you remember a while back when I said I won Expat Women’s September contest?

My mini travel guides arrived in the post last week!!

Look at them!!!  I’m excited to use them soon.  I’ll be using the Paris book in March!

Thanks again Expat Women & Explorer Publishing!