Evan and I decided the second week that we were in Germany
that if our household goods were not expected to arrive before Christmas, we
were going to pick a Christmas getaway location. Lo and behold, our household
goods were not expected to arrive until January. Paris is only about 2 ½ hours
by train from where we live, so we bought our tickets and off we went for our 4
day weekend!
This was our first experience staying at an Airbnb, so with
a little hesitation, we crossed our fingers that it would work out.
The host’s apartment that we were staying in gave us perfect
directions to meet him at the cutest and most traditional French brasserie
restaurant. This was our first experience with authentic French baguettes.
Needless to say, I was excited.
After climbing around 12 flights of stairs, we arrived at
the very narrow flat, which is very typical for Paris. I will say the shower
was so small, poor Evan couldn’t move an inch, and I could barely move 2 inches
(LOL). This was not something we were used to, because as all Americans do, we
expect everything to be super sized.
It was raining the entire first day that we were in Paris,
but we desperately wanted to go explore the city, so we decided to brave the
rain and off we went! We walked and walked and walked, but here are a couple of
views we saw on our way.
As we were walking, we could see in a distance a massive
street of Christmas markets leading to the Arch de Triumph. Of course with our
love of the Christmas markets, we had to go check it out. If you knew Evan, you
would learn very quickly that he is truly a man who is ruled by his stomach.
Everywhere we go, he is making sure we are adequately fed….and stuffed to the
wrappers. We once again indulged in lots of gluhwein, typical Christmas market
food, and probably ate more than we should. Once our tummies were full and we
were finished exploring these wondrous markets, we started heading back to our
apartment for the night.
The only problem was that it was pouring rain and we had
little to no idea of where we were going. Luckily, Evan was well trained in
land navigation (opposites attract, right? J),
so with a little help of a map, he was able to figure out where we were
supposed to be going. We finally made it back to our 12 flights of stairs.
Later that night, we were really missing our Christmas Eve
church tradition, so Evan came up with a great idea of checking out Notre
Dame’s Christmas Eve services. To our delight, they were holding a 12AM service
that we would be able to attend. I was so proud of myself for once ACTUALLY
being on time…until we arrived to Notre Dame and saw the line to get into the
church. Let me just tell you, there was NO WAY we thought we would ever make it
inside. Luckily, they had the entire service projected onto a big screen
outside that everyone could watch while in line. We sang along with the
Christmas carols as well as we could, but even though we couldn’t understand
one bit of what the French priest was saying, I can say without a doubt, it was
one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Just the fact that something
like a Christmas Eve service can bring together so many people, regardless of
their ethnic backgrounds or the language that they speak. We waited in line
until we were actually able to go into Notre Dame (which was absolutely
beautiful).
On Christmas, we woke up to desolate streets (as to be
expected). We went to a restaurant across the street from us, which was again
typical French brasserie. We walked around for the day, exploring what types of
things were going on during Christmas in Paris. Well, there wasn’t much going
on, but the scenery was incredible!
After skyping with our families, we decided it would be
super romantic to go to the Eiffel Tower Christmas night. What better way to
end Christmas night in Paris, right?
Well… it was super romantic while it lasted, but what we
didn’t realize was that the metro closed early on Christmas night. What should
have taken 15 minutes on the metro to get back took 3 ½ hours walking. We tried
to make the best of it at first thinking it would be a romantic stroll, but
after an hour, the romantic stroll got a little old.
The next day, we decided to do some touristy things. What’s
on a tourist couple’s bucket list in Paris you may ask? The Love Lock Bridge.
After, of course, stopping a few places to eat on the way,
we attempted to get into the Louvre. We
did finally make it in, and finally we were going to see the REAL Mona Lisa.
Well…she was a very underwhelming, however, the rest of the museum was
fabulous.
On the way out of the museum, it was raining cats and dogs
outside, so we reluctantly bought an umbrella from a guy on the street – well
lesson learned to NEVER buy anything off of a person trying to sell something
near a top attraction. The umbrella lasted at most for 5 minutes after we
bought it, and then it broke into pieces.
We, then, saw one of the “city on a hill,” a view of a
beautiful cathedral and a breathtaking view of the city.
