Paris in Spring

My first international flight was to Paris in May 2009.  It was myself and my boyfriend (now my husband) on this long journey from Philadelphia to Frankfurt, Germany and from Frankfurt to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France.

I was so excited that I couldn't go to sleep.  It was many firsts for me during this trip.  Not only my first international flight but the first time on a flight longer than 3 hours, a flight that provided multiple meals and complimentary wine and beer, and various movies to keep me entertained.  I watched the movie Marley and Me during this flight and I wish I knew ahead of time that I needed a box of tissues.  That movie brought me to tears.

So we get to Frankfurt to catch our connecting flight and we had to go through Customs.  Customs was interesting because we approach a man in a booth who asks for our passports and then asks us the question "What is the nature of your business in Paris?".  They way he said it made us laughing.  So we got to explore the airport for a few hours before it was time to head to Paris only to arrive in Paris and our luggage not make it.  I being the planner that I am put some toiletries and a change of clothes in my carry-on so when we checked into our hotel I was able to freshen up so I we could leave the hotel and see the city.  Unfortunately, my boyfriend who slept the entire flight from Philadelphia to Frankfurt wanted to wait at the hotel for our luggage to arrive.  So after an hour of waiting he went to sleep.  Four hours later our luggage arrived but he was still tired and wanted to stay in the room.  I was not happy so I occupied myself with my laptop and French tv shows until I finally fell asleep.

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Thanks to two books that a colleague loaned me I was able to plan daily itineraries that included taking the Paris Metro (one of the least expensive ways to get around).  One guidebook was the Paris Metro which listed the various attractions, neighborhoods, and provided a map of the metro system and which stop to get off to get to the attraction.  The other guidebook was information about the different districts and sample itineraries. 

One evening we walked to a restaurant near our hotel and meet some lovely ladies from Wisconsin who were in Paris before trekking to Ireland (Go Ladies!).  We had an awesome time.  The owner of the restaurant was smitten with the two ladies so after the restaurant closed we took the party inside and enjoyed a few more bottles of wine and a tour of the restaurant.  It was a great evening.

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We walked up the steps of the Eiffel Tower which took a very long time.  I believe we walked up 680+ steps before we reached the first platform where the restaurant is located.  We were able to take the elevator up to the next level and take the elevator down to the ground floor but we were exhausted after the walk up.  The sky was a bit cloudy so the pictures not as sunny and bright as I had wished but we were not going to come back when the sun was shining and walk those steps again so I could get better pictures. Laughing

We went to a few museums such as the Louvre.  The Lourve is very large with multiple exhibits.  We were able to make it through one so I suggest going to their website or checking our their current exhibits in advance and plan your day accordingly.  We took a river cruise, walked around at night and attempted to loo for a jazz club I read about in another district but we never found it.  Europeans believe in drinking beverages at room temperature so whenever we wanted an ice cold beverage we ended up at McDonald's to get cups of ice and while we were there we purchase a couple Royale with cheese.  There is so much to see and do in this beautiful city that we plan to return to visit the city of Versaille.