Notre Dame and The Arc de Triomphe

Saturday February 23, 2008

We woke up and headed down for our continental breakfast around 9:30am, which to our surprise was amazing. It was probably because it was Paris, but they had the most amazing croissants ever made. We filled up with the free breakfast and then headed out for the day. On our way to the Notre Dame Cathedral we ran into a flea market on the street that was pretty cool. I ended up getting three necklaces and then we headed on our merry little way again. We took a pit stop in Starbucks, they are everywhere in Europe, and went to the bathroom. Close to the river we saw a small stand and we all ended up buying something from the man, I bought a sweet Moulin Rouge poster. Next we found our way to the Notre Dame Cathedral and walked around for a while and took a lot of pictures. There is a circle on the ground outside of the cathedral that has a superstition that if you step on it, you will someday return to Paris…I figured why not? I took full advantage of that superstition. After the cathedral we found a little shop and I ended up finding a painting that I really wanted, so I bought it because it seemed more practical than a cheesy souvenir anyway. Although, the smiling beret wearing stuffed Eiffel Towers were tempting (NOT! They were pretty creepy). For lunch we stopped at a small café, got some food and took a break for a while. The prices weren’t actually that bad in Paris, you could find places that aren’t as expensive as others. After our sandwiches we took the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe and walked the 284 steps to the top. My legs were on fire by the time I had gotten to the top. After taking more pictures and enjoying the view, architecture and The Tomb of the Unknown Solider, we hopped onto the Metro and headed towards home. We stopped at a supermarket and bought a bottle of champagne for later in the night. When we arrived at the hotel we all took our Spanish “siestas” and then headed out for some souvenir shopping (postcards). We ended up walking to the Moulin Rouge and taking some pictures and stopping for dinner at the best little French café in Paris. The waiters were amazing, the food was exquisite, and the view was gorgeous. It was the typical “perfect night” in Paris. The food was a little pricy but we decided that we deserved it. On our way home I tried to buy a Coke bottle and failed. Ironically a few minutes later we saw/heard some men at a table that were yelling at us and right away I noticed that one had a coke bottle. Jackie took it upon herself to ask them for their Coke bottle and they actually gave it to us. Thus, the international Coke collection lives on.  We went back to our hotel and opened our bottle of champagne (I almost put a hole in the ceiling) and talked about our trip and experiences of the day. Afterwards we went to bed and crashed hard, its tiring being an international traveler!