Paris, France

We went to Paris this past weekend. Andy had a 4-day weekend and we had to take advantage of it! The trip started off a bit rocky, but we ended up having a great time. We drove down Friday and pretty much spent the whole day traveling. It's normally a 5-hour drive, but it ended up taking us 8 hours. Andy was flying in from Dublin that morning as well and of course his plane was delayed because of weather. So, we finally took off around 11:30 and arrived at our hotel around 8 PM Friday night. We certainly have learned a few things from this past weekend. :) Once we got to Paris we parked the car and used their metro system to get around. Paris has a great metro system! On Saturday morning we headed out on the metro system to get to the Louvre Museum. Instead of making a transfer, we decided to get out and walk the rest of the way to the Louvre. It was only about a 15-minute walk and luckily it wasn't raining yet. Here we are taking some pictures along our way to the Louvre:

So, the first stop we made in Paris was the Louvre Museum. Of course you could spend a whole week there, but after a couple hours we had seen enough. It was super-crowded; however, we did get to take a peak at the Mona Lisa over the crowds! :) Here are some pictures of us in the Louvre: I took this picture from a window in the Louvre. And up above you can see Rachel checking out the painted ceiling in the Louvre. After the Louvre we headed over to Notre-Dame. There was a horrendous line to go inside, so we just took a picture from the outside. I'm sure we'll get back to Paris some day and get a chance to see the inside.

After Notre-Dame we hopped on the metro system and headed over to the Eiffel Tower. I don't think I have ever waited in more lines. We were probably at the Eiffel Tower for about 3 hours and we spent about 5 minutes at the top. We had to wait in line for the tickets, for the first elevator to take us up, for the second elevator to take us up, for the first elevator to take us down, and for the last elevator to take us down. It was crazy, but it was quite the experience. Rachel had no fear! :) It was freezing cold once we got all the way up, but at least it wasn't raining. And you can see all the pictures of Rachel being so patient as we waited in line after line after line...

On Sunday we headed to the Chateau de Versailles. We had to check in Rachel's stroller, so she had free reign. She did pretty good though! Rachel loved climbing up and down the stairs. As you can tell, we were pretty lenient with Rachel's binky this past weekend. But considering the lack of sleep and going places she wasn't really interested in, you couldn't blame us too much! :) Down below is a picture of Andy and Rachel in the Hall of Mirrors, which is where the Treaty of Versailles was ratified at the end of WW I. Rachel's favorite part of the Chateau was playing outside in the gardens. We should have headed there first!

Rachel loved riding the metro system. She always wanted to get "up" on the "train". Although once we would get on the train, she'd want to get off at the next stop. She made plenty of friends on the metro. After spending most of the day in Versailles we headed over to the Arc de Triomphe. It was cold and rainy, so we didn't stay long. Here we are in front of the Arc:
We enjoyed our little getaway to Paris. I'm hoping the next time we make the trip it will be a little less crowded (if that's possible) and a bit warmer! :)