Arc de Triomphe

We made it to France!  Even though the plane was awesome and the seats were comfortable, it was still pretty hard to sleep on the plane. We were quite tired when we got here.  We got our luggage just fine and made our way to figure out how to get on the train to Paris.  We stopped at an information booth to get help.  There we also picked up an 'All Museums Pass'.  Everyone we have talked to recommended it. Mike has today and Thursday/Friday where he can use the pass.  We ended up both getting a 6 day pass.  Later we found that because it is the first Sunday of the month most of the museums are free.  Whoops. We asked the information lady if we could buy a train ticket from her. She told us it would be cheaper to get it somewhere else.  We found train ticket vending machines, but our card wouldn't work.  Megan had warned us about that.  At a lot of places in France they will only take cards that have a chip in them.  We had euros, but we were trying to figure out what the best thing to do was.  This guy came up to help us.  I wasn't really paying attention because he was talking to Mike.  He asked if we had euros, we did.  We thought he was going to help us work the machine, but he put his credit card in and bought our ticket and wanted us to give him 20 euros.  Mike didn't want to.  Mike said, "But it says it (the ticket he handed Mike) is only .90 euros."  The guy told Mike that was the airport tax.  Everything is in French, so I have no idea what is going on.  Mike didn't feel good about it, but the guy was so pushy Mike ended up handing him 20 euros for the tickets.  The guy helped us get on the train and we were off to Paris.  Mike was so mad at himself.  He kept saying, "I know he ripped us off.  Why did I let him do that?"  Besides, now Mike can't get reimbursed for the train ticket.  Anyway, when we were transferring from the train station to the metro the doors wouldn't opened.  Yep, the guy ripped us off.  He bought a ticket for the next stop over and we had no idea.  Looking back it was pretty obvious.  Mike said the guy was pretty secretive when he punched in the information, he kind of angled his body so Mike couldn't see what he was doing.  He hurried us onto the train before we could figure it out.  I thought he was just being nice.  Mike ended up pushing his way through the stall.  He was carrying two suitcases, so it looked like he just got stuck.  I ended up following someone through the stroller exit with my two suitcases.  We then got on the metro and we were able to make it to our hotel.  Mike said, "Well, I don't feel good about it, but I don't feel bad about it."  He was totally mad about the guy and that he gave him the euros, but relieved that we were able to make it to our hotel without having to pay again.  Hope the rest of the trip doesn't turn out like this!

Check-in time at the hotel is 3:00.  We got here around 11:00.  Luckily we were able to get a room.  It is a different room then what we would have had, but we were fine with it.  I'm pretty sure our other room had a view of the Eiffel Tower, but it was worth it to get a bed quickly.  Mike took a nap as soon as we got here.  I have a hard time taking naps, so that didn't really work for me; but it was nice to rest in a calm environment.  We left the hotel at 3:00 so Mike could get registered for his conference, then we decided to walk the streets of Paris.  We ran into this sheep that reminded us of the one Mike grew up with. Grandma Honey had three different sheep similar to this in the family room.  My kids loved to play with them.  Especially Maysen.

We walked to the Arc de Triomphe.  It is about a 15 minute walk from our hotel.  It is huge!  Napoleon wanted this built to honor the soldiers of France.  The carvings are just beautiful.  There used to be parades that would go through here celebrating their victories.  Once a plane even flew through it.  Now there is an unknown soldier buried here along with an eternal flame.  They still have parades, but they go around the Arc now.

Stephanie

We climbed many, many stairs to get to the top.  They were spiral stairs and really close together.  If you are severely claustrophobic this would be tough to do!  At the top of the Arc you can see all of Paris.  Every direction has something beautiful to look at.  It is really cool.  We saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time from the top.  Awesome. 

 Stephanie & Mike

 Stephanie

We then made our way to the Tuileries Gardens.  Mike loved this face palm statue.  It was sculpted in 1896 by Henri Vidal.  It is named Cain and is supposed to be Cain after he killed Abel.

I think the face palm is because he forgot to wear pants.

 Mike and I in front of the mini-arc.
The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

 I guess this arc wasn't big enough so Napoleon needed another one.

Next we went inside the Louvre and found the Mona Lisa.  It seems tiny compared to the giant mural  that is in the same room.

Mike thought this painting was the greatest.

I wanted to see the Venus de Milo, but the museum closed while we were looking for it.  Our walk back to the hotel took about an hour.  We passed all these stores, but the craziest ones were the car stores.  Maybe this is how they sell cars in France, but it seems so crazy!

Giant slide at a fancy car store

We ended the day at the restaurant in the hotel.  It was pretty late when we got back and we were hungry!  My feet are sore.  Tomorrow I am wearing my tennis shoes!