Even though we had just visited Paris a few weeks before, we went back for a quick weekend trip. Some good friends were traveling through Europe (Italy, France and England). The closest they got to The Netherlands on a weekend (so Dustin wouldn’t have to take vacation from work) was Paris, so back we went. We took a train out Friday evening after work and came back Sunday afternoon. It was a short visit, but we were able to see some sights we didn’t catch last time around.
We met our friends Saturday morning at their hotel and walked to Luxembourg Park. It was kind of like Central Park in New York: a huge peaceful expanse of land in the middle of a big city. We let Jacob out of his stroller to stretch his legs.
From there, we headed to Saint-Sulpice (the church discussed in The Da Vinci Code). As usual, the cathedral was impressive.
After the church, we made our way to the Paris Catacombs. Terri had already seen them, so she stayed above ground with Jacob while Jason, Dustin and I went down below. To be honest, it was pretty creepy, and I have no desire to return. You literally walk through underground tunnels lined with bones. Millions and millions of bones.
Dustin had gotten a list of restaurant recommendations from a French colleague, so we headed to the Montmartre area of Paris for lunch. This checked off 2 things from our list – seeing the Moulin Rouge and having a fantastic lunch. Our last trip to Paris left much to be desired in the food category. The Moulin Rouge isn’t really much to see. It looks like it does in all the pictures. So, we got our picture and headed for food. Unfortunately, the restaurant was only opened for dinner. So we walked across the street and ate lunch there. It wasn’t on the original list, but was still pretty tasty!
After lunch, we decided to visit the Pantheon. In a sense, it’s kind of like Westminster Abbey for the French. Lots of famous French people are buried there.
For dinner, we picked a different restaurant off of the list. It was in a different area of the city that we hadn’t seen yet. On the way, we passed some sort of huge festival with extremely loud music. And I’m not just being “old”. It was really, really loud – deafening loud! The streets and sidewalks were packed with people of all ages. We ended up taking a detour to get out of the crowd. Pushing a stroller through that is not easy at all. After a short stop at a park while the boys figured out where we needed to go, we found the restaurant and had a traditional French meal. It was delicious. Dustin even tried the classic foie gras (duck or goose liver). It wasn’t his favorite, and I thought it looked disgusting. It was served as a chilled pate with jelly and toast. I’ve heard that warm preparations taste much better.
We ended the night in front of the Eiffel Tower. It is a fantastic sight at night!
We met our friends Saturday morning at their hotel and walked to Luxembourg Park. It was kind of like Central Park in New York: a huge peaceful expanse of land in the middle of a big city. We let Jacob out of his stroller to stretch his legs.
From there, we headed to Saint-Sulpice (the church discussed in The Da Vinci Code). As usual, the cathedral was impressive.After the church, we made our way to the Paris Catacombs. Terri had already seen them, so she stayed above ground with Jacob while Jason, Dustin and I went down below. To be honest, it was pretty creepy, and I have no desire to return. You literally walk through underground tunnels lined with bones. Millions and millions of bones.
Dustin had gotten a list of restaurant recommendations from a French colleague, so we headed to the Montmartre area of Paris for lunch. This checked off 2 things from our list – seeing the Moulin Rouge and having a fantastic lunch. Our last trip to Paris left much to be desired in the food category. The Moulin Rouge isn’t really much to see. It looks like it does in all the pictures. So, we got our picture and headed for food. Unfortunately, the restaurant was only opened for dinner. So we walked across the street and ate lunch there. It wasn’t on the original list, but was still pretty tasty!
After lunch, we decided to visit the Pantheon. In a sense, it’s kind of like Westminster Abbey for the French. Lots of famous French people are buried there.
For dinner, we picked a different restaurant off of the list. It was in a different area of the city that we hadn’t seen yet. On the way, we passed some sort of huge festival with extremely loud music. And I’m not just being “old”. It was really, really loud – deafening loud! The streets and sidewalks were packed with people of all ages. We ended up taking a detour to get out of the crowd. Pushing a stroller through that is not easy at all. After a short stop at a park while the boys figured out where we needed to go, we found the restaurant and had a traditional French meal. It was delicious. Dustin even tried the classic foie gras (duck or goose liver). It wasn’t his favorite, and I thought it looked disgusting. It was served as a chilled pate with jelly and toast. I’ve heard that warm preparations taste much better.
We ended the night in front of the Eiffel Tower. It is a fantastic sight at night!
