On Assignment - Paris 2011

Bonjour Bloggers and a Happy 2012. Matt and I wrapped up a year of huge changes with a trip to Paris. It was really nice to hop on the Eurostar and 2.5 hours later arrive in France. I have always wanted to visit Paris and the proximityfrom England makes it an easy journey.

Matt and I arrived at night, and I felt a little like Anne Hathaway in the Devil Wears Prada, being whisked through the city, all lit up and beautiful. With that being said, I think Anne had a private car and a much nicer hotel than we did. Either way though it was a good feeling. Our hotel was small and quaint. The staff were very nice and the location was excellent. The rooms were pretty spartan and the bath was tiny, but it had a lovely free breakfast and a nice view of the Arc De Triomphe.

View from Room

The first day we met up with Brian and Elizabeth, family of ours and spent the day visiting Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and several other wonderful sites. Matt and I bought locks and wrote our names on there. We attached them to a bridge on the Seine and tossed the keys in the water. We then were promptly arrested. I'm kidding, the bridge allows you to put locks and it was really neat to see hundreds of locks representing couples in love.

Locks attached to a bridge overlooking the Siene

Brian and Elizabeth were wonderful guides and we were thrilled to spend our first day with them. Throughout the trip we visited major landmarks of Paris. The Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle, the Louvre, Napoleon' Tomb and several other neat museums and attractions.

By far, my favourite thing about Paris is the Louvre. Although it's more like an airport than museum, expansive and crowded, the art work pulls you in and I was able to see pieces from my favourite artists. The French collections circa Napoleon were probably my favourite.

All in all Paris is a wonderful walking city. We found the people to be polite and pleasant, the city was very clean and the metro not too difficult to navigate. Eating in Paris is very expensive, and I am not a huge fan of French food. With that being said, the cheese and bread are fantastic! I suppose the biggest obstacle is the language barrier, although most Parisians speak English very well. It was mainly Matt and I, who either spoke Spanish (for some reason), or my favourite, spoke English with a French accent. Either way though no one seemed to mind. We look forward to visiting Paris in the spring to catch a few things we missed (a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower) and the city in bloom.

2011 was a huge year for us. So many changes and things to learn. We have been very grateful for our time abroad and were excited to wrap up the year with a trip to France. We have more adventures lined up for 2012 and I look forward to a new year.

PS - You can see many more pictures of our adventures in Paris on Facebook. The Internet gods are not keen on me uploading photos today