Day 14: Paris (Day 1)

Bonjour!

Today we were heading to Paris the city of Lights. We had a 10:20 train to catch at St. Pancras. Thank goodness that it was only 5 minutes from the Hostel. So we headed downstairs at a reasonable hour and had some breakfast, then walked to the train station. It was nice and smooth, unlike going to London! So we napped a bit on the train, a bit wiped from the crazy London tour...

Our Train in Gay Paris!

All I could hope for is that is was going to be a better start than Strasbourg...So now we needed to figure out how to get to our hotel from here...hummm....Metro, RER....well needless to say we figured it out and found our hotel room at le Hotel de Dieppe. It is in the Saint Lazar area...so we were able to get our rooms right away and we were just relaxing before we decided what to do in Paris. Then Jeff saw that Leif had posted to Facebook that he was in Paris with Celine. What a coincidence...so Jeff sent a text message to see if they were interested in doing something before he flew back to Canada...so Leif and Celine said lets meet for a night boat cruise on the Seine. Then we all decided to meet at 10:30pm near Notre Dame de Paris.

Notre Dame de Paris

While we were waiting we decided to go look for some dinner...unfortunately we made a poor decision when surrounded by tones of expensive restaurants in a trendy/touristy neighborhood.  We had way too expensive cokes and dinners that were Meh. After a poor start to culinary food, I was a little down. We decided to explore the neighborhood as we were in the Saint-Germain-Des-Pres area (I have fabulous Lounge music named this!) so I was excited to see or hear some good music...none of that either! (But I did get some French Accordion music in the subway! YAY!)

The four of us got on the boat at the back...really is that a surprise?? So of course we are all chatting as we putt putt down the Seine. It was really beautiful, but we were not listening to the commentator at all, but pointing out interesting things along the way. Celine saw people doing the Tango on the banks of the Seine...

Notre Dame at night

We were having such a good time that the sights just flew by.

Me and Celine at the back of the boat!

Of course Jeff and I had been in Paris since the morning, but we had not see the Tour d'Eiffel...and before you knew it there it was all bright and Orange! LOL... So we had to get pictures of it and I told Leif and Celine that they needed one too, so this is what kind of shot Leif gave Jeff...

Celine I don't know how you do it! lol

Leif always makes me laugh and Celine too (thanks the stars!). I can't even show you the serious picture...ok here it is:

This is Serious!?!?

Oh Leif, life would not be as much fun with out you...and we are so glad that Celine loves you too! Our night really ended when Jeff and I took the Metro with Leif and Celine to drop them off at Gard l'Est. We continued on the Gard Nord then a transfer on to our stop...now we got home at around 12:30pm...everything was dark and sketchy near the hotel. Even our hotel was dark, we had to buzz in and ask for our key. Oh yeah, you don't keep your keys here, you drop them off at the desk when you leave.

Bonsoir,
Ern