Date Night Paris Style

Once we ate dinner and got Jared and Lydia settled at the apartment with Sue we headed out for a night on the town.  Earlier in the day we had attempted to visit Sacre - Coeur but could not for the life of us find a way to drive there.  All the streets we needed to turn onto were blocked by police allowing only motorcycles through.  Mark successfully made 2 laps around the crazy busy Arc De Triomphe but we could just not get through to the church and our GPS was not helping.  We decided to make it our first stop on our date.  Often when we do go on trips somewhere we rarely see what the city looks like at night because we need to get Jared and Lydia to bed at a somewhat decent hour so I was really excited to have the chance to see Paris at night. It was so fun and special to have a night out with Mark there.

We took the Metro to the closest stop and then began the hike up to the church.  I am sure there is more than one way to get there and we did not find the easiest one.  The neighborhood we walked through had great architecture and cute cafes.  The streets were narrow and cobblestone, it seemed like a quintessential Paris neighborhood and then we found the staircase.  Each set of stairs had 21 steps and there were at least 7 sets.  We made our way up and were treated to a beautiful view at the top.

As we were walking around we heard a younger girl talking about the string men at the bottom and warning her friend about it. I had never heard about this before and then we ran into them right after.  I saw him approach us and then when he reached out and grabbed my wrist I was irritated and mad!  I know these things are common at tourist places but for real I in no way looked interested at all.  People need money, I get it but it is really off putting especially when they are super aggressive. So many Egypt flashbacks.  We quickly got out of there and headed towards the city.

We stopped on a street full of souvenir shops, ones we actually wanted and grabbed a few things.  It was a much pleasanter experience shopping for them without Jared and Lydia.  Then before taking the metro back to the city center we stopped for our second crepe of the day.  We took the metro over to the Place de la Concorde  and enjoyed a view of the Oblesik, ferris wheel and Eiffel Tower over the river.  While we were there the Eiffel Tower light show went off and it was great to get to see it.

One other item we wanted to do in Paris but weren't sure how to do with Jared and Lydia was walk along the Champs-Elysees towards the Arc De Triomphe. Its a long stretch of road full of shops and great architecture, not exactly ideal for a 6 and 8 year old. As we walked along we both mentioned how it reminded us of Las Ramblas in Barcelona. I think most European cities have a similar famous road to stroll on and we are glad we made it happen.  It was lovely (and long) to walk along holding hands in the lightly falling rain just thinking about how we were out together in Paris.  It was nice to see the Arc De Triomphe in the daytime and the nighttime.

 

We are so glad Sue suggested us going out that night. We didn't get back to the apartment till almost midnight and with the time difference and lack of sleep we were super tired but we would do it again in a heartbeat.  Such an unexpected outing.