On the way home from our trip from Nairobi, Kenya we had the opportunity to spend 3 nights in Paris, France. We landed via London Heathrow around lunch time on Aug 13th. We were hoping that to hop the subway and zip right to our hotel similar to the way we did in London in June. After spending an hour trying to figure out the french and get on the right train we get all 11 of our 50lb bags drug onto the correct train. What we didn't realize when we decided to take the train was that we were going to have to make 3 interchanges and drag the bags 6 blocks to our hotel.
Luckily the interchanges we made had elevators, but the waiting at the airport put us on the downtown streets of Paris at 5 pm. So as the four of us walked with 11 suit cases down the street there were thousands of people walking past us packing the sidewalks. It was one of the most embarrassing and exhausting moments of our trip. Finally we made it to our hotel room after another day of 24 hour travel. We took a brief nap and headed out to the streets of Paris a little lighter and happier this time.
That evening we didn't want to go to a sit down restaurant for dinner, so we stopped in to a local Monoprix, a grocery store, and grabbed a baguette, a block of Parmesan cheese, and some ham, then headed on the subway to the Eiffel tower. We brought our African conga's to use as blankets to sit on and had our first meal at the base of the Eiffel tower. The Eiffel tower is one of the largest tourist attractions in the world. You could simply sit, watch, and listen and hear more languages in 10 minutes then any of us had heard in our entire lives. The tower was bustling and beautiful. Once the sun set the tower would like up with sparkling lights and you could feel the electricity in the air.
During the days we toured the city, visiting the Louvre, seeing the Mona Lisa, Notre Dame, Mon Marte, and Moulon Rouge. We visited local shop vendors and had numerous picnics all around the city. Our favorite food in Paris was the Croissants. They were melt in your mouth good, you couldn't help but eat another one.
Even though we didn't speak any French we managed to get around just fine. The French were very kind to us and would help in whatever English they knew.
My favorite memory of the trip came the last night we were in Paris. Jen and I left the other girls after dinner and bought a bottle of white wine. We took our wine down to the Seine river and walked. We walked nearly two miles on the brick walkways along the river, reflecting on our time in Paris and in Kenya. The evening's best sight was watching the sun set on the Eiffel Tower. That night was an excellent cap to our summer and made us wonder why we were heading home, back to busy work schedules and long days.
After traveling to 5 countries and 3 continents in a matter of 2 months we are so excited to do it again! Seeing the world and interacting with people different that yourself is a growing experience that can't be matched by staying in one place.
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine
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