New Thing #94 - Wanderlust (Paris & Barcelona Day 1)

Month 6 - Wanderlust

November 29/30, 2018 - Travel and Paris: Day 1

Okay, so wanderlust isn't a new thing for me. If you know anything about me, you know it's been in my blood for as long as I can remember, finally kicking in gear over the last decade or so when I became financially able to fulfill my travel dreams. And I know I have a big 40th trip planned for next year (stay tuned to hear about where I've decided to go), but that didn't stop me from planning a semi last minute trip back to Europe.

I love Europe. The architecture. The food. The history. I've only scratched the surface of cities to visit, but each time, I chip away at my bucket list. After all these years, I still hadn't made it to Paris or anywhere in Spain, though Spain has ranked rather highly on my list. A few months ago, I found a travel deal for 3 nights in Paris and 3 nights in Barcelona. I've never done one of these pre-planned trips before, so I was a bit leery, but decided to give it a shot since it was so inexpensive. Like, stupidly inexpensive. Like the 3 plane tickets, 2 hotel rooms and 2 airport transfers cost as much as one of my previous flights to Europe.

Sandi, my Peru partner from last year, joined me on this quick jaunt across the Atlantic. This would only be her second international trip and her first ever to Europe. (I'm breaking her in to this travel business!) Her parents were kind enough to take us to the airport and store my car for the duration of our trip. Did I mention I got to fly out of ST. LOUIS?! For the first time in my travel history, I was able to fly internationally from StL rather than driving to Chicago. It was glorious.

The only drawback to flying from StL is there are no direct flights to Europe. But, for this trip, I was willing to forego the direct flight for the ease of traveling from my home city. We had a quick 1.5 hour flight to Detroit before the long leg of our flight to Paris. I cracked my skull on the overhead bins trying to quickly shimmy into my seat, so that was a lovely throbbing pain for the better part of the rest of the day.

We had a fairly short layover (Yay!) and boarded our plane on time, though we lost some time getting de-iced. I've never been on a plane that needed to be de-iced before. I felt like we were getting a very large carwash. The 7 hour flight wasn't one of the longest I've ever had, but I found it incredibly difficult to sleep (even more so than usual). Which wasn't great since I needed to sleep to avoid jet lag. Watched a few movies, ate some food and tossed restlessly, but pretty much never slept. Neato.

Getting de-iced.

Airplane food is surprisingly less terrible than people might think. I try to block out thinking about how much sodium is in there though to improve the flavor.

Breakfast.

Arrived mostly on time, easily went through customs, but waited quite a while for our luggage. Luckily, our driver was waiting on us, and he spoke enough English to communicate fairly easily. We pre-booked a driver to take us the hour ride to our hotel since we had a feeling we'd be super jet lagged and not in any mood to deal with public transportation. And we were right. Private driver was THE way to go. Though, he was a bit too chatty for us, strictly due to the fact that we were struggling to stay awake and form coherent thoughts. Why couldn't I fall asleep as easily on the plane as I did in the back seat of his car?

Since we arrived prior to check in at the hotel, we dropped off our luggage and started to wander. The weather was beautiful, if a bit chilly, but it was the best weather day we had the entire time we were in Paris. Stopped in to have some crepes for lunch since we were hungry and weren't ready to power walk just yet.

Found this creperie, which turned out to be the first of many just on this street alone. The lunch special came with a buckwheat crepe, dessert crepe and a tiny jug o' wine.

Blue jug of water and tiny white jug of wine. Turns out wine when jet lagged equals hilarious shenanigans.

Buckwheat crepe with egg, ham and cheese. It was just meh. I could have used more filling and less crepe.

Dessert could either be a dessert crepe or sorbet. I had enough carbs so I went with the tartest lemon sorbet I've ever had topped with a ginger biscuit. Very weird flavor combination.

Cute little shop. Despite the chilly weather in Paris the entire time we were there, people still sat outside to eat. (Not in this pic though, obviously. We were super early for lunch, and the place filled up as we were finishing.)

Loving the architecture as we walk.

Le Jardin du Luxembourg was not far away, so we took a stroll in the 17th century park. It was still beautiful despite the time of year and the lack of leaves on the trees. The brisk wind didn't stop hundreds of patrons from strolling through, eating lunch on park benches, or others going for a run along the main path. I was actually surprised with how many people were out, given it was only in the upper 40s today.

Sadly, we never made it back here, but I'm curious to know what French tacos are...

Jet-lagged....and a little tipsy.

So, I love doors. A lot. But not just any doors. Old and ornate doors that tell stories. Usually I take photos of all the cool doors I see on vacation. Turns out both Paris and Barcelona have more awesome doors than I have storage on my phone. After 3 sets of doors in as many minutes, I realized that I would never see anything else if I just took photos of doors. So, you get these 3 and a few more sprinkled in throughout the trip.

Turns out Sandi loves doors as much as I do. Must be the designers in us.

We walked a few blocks north to Saint-Sulpice, a 17th century Catholic Church, that I didn't remember until a few weeks later was featured in Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code". It was absolutely gorgeous inside this church.

These chairs are even smaller than they look, and the church was filled with them. If they're trying to make church more uncomfortable for people, they are succeeding.

I might love ceilings as much as doors. Though I have no control when it comes to taking photos of ceilings.

BDO (Big Damn Organ)

Unfortunately, lack of sleep for us both and a quarter carafe of wine for me was a dangerous combination. Everything was comically hilarious, and I realized if we didn't take a nap soon people might start to think we had lost our marbles. Though, it was France, so I assume they already think us Americans are cray cray.

We walked back to our hotel and were able to check in to our room. It was a cute room with a queen bed and tiny bathroom, but we didn't need much more space. We immediately took a 2.5 hour nap, followed by a shower to start to feel human again.

Quiet little corner for our hotel.

Our feet hurt, and we realized our hotel wasn't nearly as close to all of the main attractions as we thought when we booked it, so we Ubered to Notre Dame to sightsee and grab dinner. It was gorgeous at night, but we didn't go in, figuring we'd have plenty of time in the next two days. Walked some more around the area where Christmas music was playing and people were milling about. Stopped at a restaurant/bar for some wine and croque mosieur (ham and cheese on toast) with fries and a salad before heading back to the hotel for sleeps.

Notre Dame

The archway might be more impressive than the doors.

The River Seine

We have a boat tour scheduled for tomorrow, so we'll see the Seine at night.

Schmancy hotel!

  

Inflatable igloos with Christmas music.

Not really sure what's going on, but at least they're festive!

When in France, you drink delicious French wine. With a rose, cause you're classy like that.

Cheese. Ham. Toast. Fries. Can't go wrong with that!

This is the first time in all my European trips where our key card is required to turn the lights on. It took Sandi and I an embarrassingly long amount of time trying to figure out how to turn the damn lights on tonight. Eventually we figured out we had to insert our room key here. We'll blame it on the jet lag!