Paris, France - 2nd Time Around

The first time I went to Paris I was a little bit nervous. Not only did I not know ANY French BUT the US was doing the whole silly 'Freedom Fries' thing and I wasn't sure how I would be treated.
When Greg and I first got to Paris in 2005, we were looking around for our hotel on a huge street map. Within 5 minutes a lady came walking up and asked us in French and then quickly in English if we needed help finding our hotel. She pointed us in the right direction (right across the street....yeah we were blind) and every French person we came across was just as friendly and nice!

Same thing the second time around. On the train from Versailles to Paris, Greg was busy putting my suitcase, backpack and his on the train. I had Isabel in the pram and was trying to maneuver how to lift the pram up on the platform, so we could get on. A young kid helped me on and did it with a smile. At our stop, a group of men noticed we might need help and offered to help us. They helped by picking up ALL of our luggage and that started the second trip to Paris off with a bang.
Here are some pictures of us back in 2005...just a couple of kids in love :-)



This time around Greg had to work all day long and so that left Isabel and I to make our way through the city streets without my trusty navigator. I was a little nervous about taking her out in Paris by myself but I decided to head to the Eiffel Tower (as I could see it above all the buildings) and make my way along the Seine.












It was a gorgeous cool and sunny day and I couldn't wait to see Paris again.

















It was too long of a walk before we made it to the Eiffel Tower.













I could not get Isabel and the Eiffel Tower in the same shot but I got one of her looking up at it....close enough, right? :-)







Speaking of the Eiffel Tower, we were lucky enough to be there as the ol' tower celebrates its 120th birthday.
















To mark the occasion the tower displays a light show for twelve minutes, four times a night(it will do this until December 31st). We were able to catch this show the last night we were there.

After getting to the Eiffel Tower, Isabel was getting hungry and it was a little too cool to open up my jacket and feed her outside, so I scouted out a place that would be nice to have a little snack for both of us.

I was in luck as not too far away was a cute little place that offered dessert, or at least that is what caught my eye. I asked the waitress what she would recommend, the chocolate cake or apple pie? She said chocolate cake and boy was I glad that she recommended that because it wasn't just an ordinary piece of cake it was a cake that had melted chocolate in the middle. YUMMY!





Here Isabel is a little surprised to see her mom licking the plate clean.




















After we were both fueled up we headed out along the Seine.


Both Mommy and Isabel were really enjoying being outside in the sun.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






















Here is a little video clip of Isabel (be sure to push the play button)









































































I noticed a building that had the French flag on it and thought it would be a good background for a picture....so we would know Isabel was in France.

This gave me an idea of getting Isabel in shots of famous French structures.
















Greg laughed when he saw the photos and said Isabel looked like the garden gnome that made its way around famous sites in the movie Amelie, which is rather fitting since Isabel's middle name is Amelie.




















Some she was awake for and some of it she wasn't


















Here we are at the Louvre Museum.

Some girl came up and was sweet talking Isabel, the French way with their 'ooh la la' and 'coco coco' noises.












Isabel really seemed to like this.























Next it was on to Notre Dame, a beautiful Gothic cathedral.

I believe I read that construction began in 1163 and it wasn't completed until 1345.








































Facade, showing the Portal of the Virgin, Portal of the Last Judgment and Portal of St-Anne.
















Last time I saw Notre Dame it was at night.

Just about any medieval Gothic cathedral can seem spooky, but a lavish cathedral like Notre Dame can truly make you tremble. It's supposed to, with all those snarling gargoyles perched on rooftops and ledges.


The only downside about Notre Dame at night is that it is closed so we didn't see the inside.







This time I decided it would be nice to see what the inside looked like and so Isabel and I got in line. Thankfully the line moved fast as it was free entrance.
Beautiful stain glass everywhere you looked.



After a viewing inside the sun started to set and I needed to go meet Greg for an early dinner.

I actually found a taxi pretty quickly and we stuffed the pram inside and jumped in to go meet Daddy on the other side of town.




Here is a shot of Daddy looking rather snazzy and sharped dressed.
You can see the Eiffel Tower in the background as the light show was about to start.

As we were walking we found a restaurant that seemed pretty nice and was close to the hotel.

As we walked in I noticed the name of the restaurant was Andrea!

Pretty cool to end our last night in Paris there.













Isabel says goodbye for now or should I say au revoir!