Paris

We enjoyed the night train very much.  It was a great way to change cities overnight and save the travel time for sightseeing time!  It was neat to travel through the countryside of Spain and France, we wouldn't have seen that without the train.  There was a dining car and a bar as well as our room.  Dinner was excellent -- Byron had lamb, while Beth had hake.  Both were really good.  The room was teeny-tiny!  As in, wow I long for the spacious rooms they have on cruise ships, tiny.

Champagne on the train.  Stop that rhyming, I mean it!

Train dining room.

Our private bedroom/sitting room/closet.

When we arrived in Paris we made our way to the hotel.  It is noticeably colder here.  We were shivering when we first arrived, but adjusted to the temperature pretty quickly.  After a quick rest, we headed out on the town.  First stop, a quaint bistro near our hotel for lunch.  We were the only foreigners there and enjoyed great service.  The waiter even took the time to teach Beth some French!  

We covered a lot of ground here today.  We started out at Notre Dame-what an amazing place!  There were a lot of signs around celebrating the 850th year.  Amazing to imagine how they must have built it without all of our modern technology.  The cathedral is absolutely beautiful in person.  The organ is considered the most well known organ in the world, and many famous organists play there--even today we noticed a sign with free organ concerts listed. 

Inside of Notre Dame.  If you squint you can see the hunchback.

From there we headed out to the Arc de Triomphe, another impressive sight.  The traffic is crazy, an ~8 lane round about surrounds it.  Tough to tell since there are no lanes marked off.  The Arc itself is a monument to the many French soldiers lost in battle.  Every major war was represented with a plaque and there is also the tomb of the unknown soldier from WWI.  We went up to the terrace to get a better view.  It was fun to see the Champs Elysee from that height, but the best moment was seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time.  That was really special. 

Beth standing in the middle of the Champs Elysees for a photo op

A roundabout taken to the next level.

We took some time to shop on the Champs Elysee, what fun!  We didn't buy anything, but Beth had fun browsing.  We decided it was time for our first pastries, so we got a chocolate croissant and an almond croissant.  They were good, but we are hoping for even better tomorrow. 

Happy shopper  :)

Our final stop of the day was the Eiffel Tower.  What an amazing sight.  We got a couple of great pictures and decided to stay nearby so we could see it all lit up.  We found a little cafe and had a lovely meal with some wine from St. Emilion and some authentic creme brulee.  Everything was delicious, and the wait was well worth it.  

Pretty

After a full day, we are tired but happy.  We are looking forward to tomorrow as we are planning a bit more sightseeing and a cooking class for Beth.  It will be awesome to celebrate Byron's birthday here in Paris!