Au Revoir Paris... Buon giorno, Italia!

This will be a quick post since we're so tired! Today was a travel day. Left Paris to fly to Pisa. Swung by the leaning tower to snap a few pics then hopped on the train from Pisa to Florence. Had an awesome dinner thanks to a recommendation from my sis-in-law.

Of course I had to take the cheesy holding-up-the-tower picture below!

And of course Kyle refused to do the same...

 

 

 

 

Food

Today's focus was food (reflux be damned!). There were certain French foods I wanted to eat "one last time". We also managed to squeeze in some non-food related activities, such as going to the Rodin museum, Notre Dame Cathedral, and walking around various neighborhoods(Latin quarter, Marais and St. Germain neighborhoods). Oh, and what a surprise-- we ended the evening going up the Eiffel Tower and spontaneously deciding to eat dinner at the restaurant there. Dinner was over at around 11, and afterwards we decided to walk around the tower(naturally), when at about 1130, some guards walked around to kick people out. Point of the story is that we SHUT IT DOWN. Tres feroshe, if you ask me. As I sit in my Eiffel Tower pj's writing this, I am sad that we are leaving tomorrow, but so happy at what a wonderful time we've had in Paris.

Eating a croissant.

The Thinker, in Rodin's garden museum.

Gates of hell.

Eating a baguette sandwich/ Notre dame.

Eating French onion soup.

Escargot.

Eiffel tower again.

Eiffel tower restaurant

French translation by the Eiffel tower elevator.

 

Rendezvous-ing

Today started off with a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower (sorry, this will be the last pic of the E.T... maybe). The tower has a 1st and 2nd level, both somewhat in the center of the tower, and then there's the tippy top 3rd level. Turns out the 3rd was closed due to "mechanical problems." We begrudgingly took the elevator to the second level . The second level was very nice... Until Tiffany, aka "le hulk incredible" ripped out part of the chain link fence keeping us all safe and starting scaling the tower to the top. Luckily, I was able to talk her down with a croissant.

After spending an hour or so on the 2nd level, we "discovered" a staircase down to the first level. The walk down was scary but really neat, you kinda felt like you were walking down in just cobwebs of steel. At one point we saw some workers hanging from the webs, cue the sweaty palms and shaky knees!

After the Eiffel Tower, we did what all tourists do in France - we rendezvous-ed with friends for lunch! One of Tiffany's college roommates, Alicia, and her husband Craig, also are in Paris right now, a fact we figured out due to wonders of Facebook.

After lunch we headed to the Sacre-Coeur (sacred heart) basilica which is situated on top of a hill which is the highest point in Paris, so the views were great. The neighborhood it is in is called Montmartre, which was where all the artists rendezvous-ed, so it had a hipster-esque feel to it, kinda like the Wicker Park of Paris! The Moulin Rouge is in this area as well.

Next we headed to the Orangerie museum which we'd never been to. Monet had painted murals to go in this museum which were cool. No pics to post from that though since we weren't allowed to take any. After that we headed to the Louvre. Didn't get to go inside though as we got there at closing time, but that's okay. We've seen the Mona Lisa before and didn't need her creepy-cool eyes staring at us.

For dinner we rendezvous- ed with my French 'sister' who I lived with for a week when I was 15 on a high school trip to France. Her and her Fiancé, Xavier took us to a wonderfully french restaurant. The food was awesome. What really stood out were the au gratin potatoes and the chocolate mousse dessert. It was great to see Virginie again, and it was her birthday!! After dinner they were very kind enough to take us on a driving tour of Paris, which was really really cool. I've always wanted to drive through the crazy traffic Circle of the Arc du Triomphe!

 

Tres bien

After we checked in and showered, we headed out to walk to the Eiffel Tower , then to the Arc Du Triomphe and down the Champs-Élysées. I just can't get enough of the Eiffel Tower. We didn't even go up it yet...that's for tomorrow morning. After this long walk we headed home for a quick nap before dinner. We ate down the street from our hotel at a place called Fontaine De Mars. The Obamas ate there last year. It was full of locals, and very delicious. It was a full day after going on just a couple hours of sleep. But we powered through!

For the pic below I was trying to recreate a pic that Kyle and I took when we were 17. Kyle was looking off to the side, I had my hands clasped in front. The spot we are standing in is the exact same. Of course now it's 14 years later!

From the top of the Arc Du Triomphe.

 

 

 

 

We're Here!

We made it! Flight went great, the plane was only half full (apparently some people think late February is not the best time to go to Europe!). Just got to the hotel - 10:30 am local time, 3:30 am Chicago time... But no rest for the weary! A quick shower and we're off.

Just wanted to post a pic from our hotel. Some of you may not know this about her, but Tiffany is a little, shall we say, obsessed with the Eiffel Tower. So we got a room with a view.

And just to prove it's our room...

Getting ready!