Snapshots of Paris

So, Mary Polly and I went to Paris for two days and nights with our dear friends, Sarabeth and Elizabeth. They were stopping over on their way to Kenya, so we jumped at the chance to stopover with them.

To Paris!

Because Paris is always a good idea.

We were positively giddy to be in the City of Light. We kept looking at each other and saying, “Oh my gosh! We’re in Paris!”

We had to keep reminding ourselves because our time there was so short that it felt like a dream.

Also, it was just a little bit fast and furious, because I had to keep these girls moving in order to get through our Paris Dream List.

Which looked like this:

We planned to meet up at Shakespeare and Company, because it was fairly close to our Go with Oh apartment in the Marais district.

Mary Polly and I were late to this adorable bookshop because of flight delays, a train strike and an unaccounted for time change.

Not to worry. Mary Polly and I were just giddy to be walking on one of the many bridges that crosses the Seine.

And after a wander through the neighborhood, we met up at a wonderful cafe, right across from the Centre Pompideau.

The whole area was bustling with people and activity in the evenings.

Since the cafe was right around the corner from our apartment, I went by our last morning and took a picture or two as a souvenir of our lovely first evening in Paris, laughing and having drinks in a street side cafe.

We loved the courtyard of our apartment so much.

Sarabeth and I snuck out early while our daughters were still sleeping to have a coffee in a cafe. Then we brought back warm pastries from down the street.

Pain au chocolat? Yes please!

After breakfast, we rented four bikes and took off down the Rue de Rivoli and the Champs-Elysees until we reached the Arc de Triomphe.

Riding bikes in Paris was super happy to me. I love seeing a city that way. Breeze in my face, glimpsing amazing architecture plus the thrill of almost being hit by buses.

Okay, maybe not the part where you almost get hit by a bus, but we did feel such a great sense of accomplishment after riding bikes all over Paris.

And it was a great way to quickly get to the next major monument.

We bought sandwiches and other picnic foods to eat in front of the Eiffel Tower, so we spent a long time sitting on the lawn and watching all the people.

Our favorite street performer near the Eiffel Tower was this man with a simple string and a tub of soap bubbles. He was a magnet for all the kids milling around and we loved watching them be amazed by his string of bubbles.

There’s something pretty magical about the Eiffel Tower. You kind of can’t take a bad picture of it.

And it’s fun how it pops up in pictures for a while, even when you’re not right in front of it anymore.

After Le Tour Eiffel, we went for treats along Rue Cler, both sweet treats and eye candy treats.

First, crepes!

Then flowers!

Especially peonies!

And then gelato!

How can you not love gelato sculpted into a flower.

Also, it tasted amazing! We had gelato three times from three different Amorino’s and one was right around the corner from our apartment in Marais! So good.

After all the treats, we walked and biked some more along the Seine in order to work off all that food. We loved this area near the museums that was full of public art made from recycled materials.

There were old containers turned into meeting rooms along the river and you could see people who had reserved them having meetings or playing games or working inside of them.

There was also a pop up dance floor where you could plug in your phone and have an impromptu dance party, complete with a disco ball.

Mary Polly left her mark on this chalkboard wall.

My favorite Paris museum is the Musee D’Orsay. I wanted everyone to see it but the girls really did not want to wait in a line to get into a museum. Especially since they weren’t super sure they wanted to go to an art museum at all. But the Musee D’Orsay is open late on Thursday evenings so we wandered by at about 4:30 just to see what it was like.

There was no line to get in and it was free for both the girls!

Perfect! We went right in and I got to show Mary Polly some of my favorite paintings in the whole wide world! Such a treat!

Also, you can go outside from the top floor and look over across the Seine at the Louvre!

SO beautiful!

 Later we rode our bikes right through the courtyard of the Louvre!

After the museum and a little more lazy sitting along the Seine, we hopped on bikes again and headed back to our apartment. Up the stairs we went for a little rest before we went with friends for a dinner picnic.

I told Mary Polly that I almost looked Parisian with baguettes coming out of my backpack.

She totally disagreed.

Yummy picnic dinner + the sun going down behind the Notre Dame = PERFECT last night in Paris!

We are partnering as a family with GowithOh this year as we travel around Europe, so we received our apartment in Paris gratis. We love staying in neighborhoods and having space to hang out together, as well as being able to cook. We even had friends from Arkansas visit us in our apartment in Paris! (Hi Stacey and Anthony!)

Stay tuned for more photos and stories from our time in Paris!

 

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