Paris - Day 1

Waking up when it is completely dark is not very easy. Because our flight was at 7:25am out of Heathrow, we decided it might be a bit tight to take the tube, so we got the name of a car service from who else but Rachel and Dave.

I dragged myself out of bed at 4:20AM and we were in the car before the appointed time (impressive, I know). We were in the airport before 6am so we had plenty of time to vegetate. And needless to say neither Jon nor myself had any trouble dozing off on the hour flight to Paris.
We've been a bit bummed all week that the weather forecast predicted a chilly and rainy weekend, but we packed for it and arrived prepared for the worst. We got to our hotel and were certainly surprised that we were greeted with beautiful, sunny skies. We're never keen on sitting and relaxing, so instead of waiting 20 minutes for our room, we opted to get a move on and walked over to Trocadéro, the plaza across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. We enjoyed a rollerblading competition before making our way up the stairs to enjoy the magnificent view... there was a couple taking wedding photos - pretty tough to match that background!

We walked through a local food market on our way to the Champs Elysees, and a gypsy lady walked up to Jon and asked do you speak English - let's just say I had to pull him away. After braving it through some pretty scary looking meat (identifiable animals, some with feet), we walked toward the Champs Elysees and enjoyed the view of L'Arc de Triomphe.

After a good lunch in a side-walk cafe that was clearly a tourist trap (clue: bill arrived with each coke charged at €5), we browsed through some shops, in search of shorts for Jon who was feigning signs of heat stroke and of course tracked down a Le Petit Bateau shop - because no trip to Paris would be complete without replenishing my t-shirts.

Later in the afternoon, we walked around the Le Marais district. I read that you should follow this route and we really did try:

Follow the rue des Francs-Bourgeois, the perfect source for unusual gifts, and peer into the Cour d'Honneur, the astonishing main courtyard of the Archives Nationaux. Then take a detour along rue de Sévigné, where the Musée Carnavalet and some quirky fashion boutiques are located. Cross lovely place des Vosges and walk through the two courtyards of the Hôtel de Sully

We enjoyed the XXX, a beautiful neighborhood park and stumbled into the Cour d’Honneur that was indeed very special. Finding the rue de Sévigné proved to be quite an adventure - but we did find it in the end :)

By the time we stumbled back to the hotel, we were due for a nap and just made it to our 9pm dinner at La Ferrandaise, a rustic restaurant near the Luxemburg Gardens. We started a trend (which really is not so surprising) of eating, extremely well while on our trip to Paris, by ordering the 6-course tasting menu (after verifying that it didn't include the evening's special, lamb's head).