Today we woke up again to rain… but the rain was heavier and lasted a lot longer! This was OK though, because we were all pretty tired, so we slept in and got a slow start to the morning.
For our first stop, we headed to the neighborhood of Montmartre.
We ate lunch at a sandwich shop called Fric Frac. Katelyn got a croque monsieur, Geoffrey got a grilled shrimp sandwich, Grant and I shared a goat cheese sandwich with nuts and fruit, and Geoffrey also got a salad and caramel French toast. They also had homemade peach iced tea, which was delicious! But boy, do I miss my free refills.
After lunch, we wanted to take the funicular up to the top of the neighborhood where the basilica stands. Unfortunately, when I put directions to the funicular in my maps, it took us to the top station… so we ended up walking all the way up. Lol.
At the top, we had amazing views overlooking Paris. We got in line for security to get into the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur, which was really long. It took us about 15 minutes to get inside, and just a few minutes before we got in, the rain started coming down hard.
After we left the basilica, we walked down the charming streets of Montmartre, past artists and cafés, to the windmill from Moulin Rouge, and then back to the metro.
Next, we headed to the Louvre area. We saw the glass pyramids, the Palais Royal, and the Tuileries Gardens. In the garden was the large balloon where the torch ceremony ended during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games. It was here that the torch lit up the basin under the balloon, and the balloon rose into the sky, signaling the start of the Olympics. We took a picture in front of it! Super cool.
Back to the metro we went, and this time we went to the Bir-Hakeim Bridge, where Inception was filmed. Geoffrey and Grant geeked out and got lots of pictures—even of the same graffiti on the ground that appeared in the movie. This was also a great place to take pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower with the Seine in the foreground.
We ate dinner at a restaurant nearby, La Passy - the most spacious one we’ve been in the whole time. The tables weren’t crammed close together, and it felt very American. But the food was still very Parisian and delicious. Grant and I, Geoffrey, and Angie each got steaks, and Grant and I also shared a chicken, avocado, and pomegranate salad with feta cheese. Katelyn got pasta with ham.
Next, we headed back to the Eiffel Tower and went through security to go underneath it. We thought we’d take a shot at possibly going up, but the top was sold out to capacity. So we just got some pictures from underneath and watched the sparkle show at 10 o’clock.
We headed down to the dock and were lucky that the boat cruise we had been thinking about taking was available for an 11 o’clock sailing. We grabbed tickets—€19 per person, and less for Katelyn. Because it was the last boat ride of the night, it wasn’t crammed full of people like usual, and we got great seats on the upper level in the front row, toward the center of the boat. The seats faced outward—not inward like many other tour boats—which was awesome.
The boat ride was gorgeous. As we left, we saw the 11 o’clock sparkle. We cruised down to Notre-Dame and back again, seeing all the sights along the river lit up. We arrived back at the dock just as the midnight sparkle was starting. (The Eiffel Tower only sparkles on the top of the hour for five minutes at a time, starting at 10 PM and going until midnight or 1 AM. The 10 PM one, as you can see from some of our pictures, isn’t even completely dark outside yet!)
(Right now I’m waiting in line for a ride at Disneyland… which you’ll hear more about in a future blog… but it’s 10:09 PM and it’s still not completely dark!)
Following our boat cruise, we headed back to the hotel. We had a great three days in Paris! We learned a lot—like how many things you have to book ahead of time that we weren’t planning on—but there is still so much to see and do that it didn’t feel like we were missing out at all.
Grant and I have been to Paris three times, and we saw places on this trip that we’ve never seen before. Such an awesome city.
Bonsoir!
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