Paris, France

One can only stay away from Paris for so long. It had been 5 years since Erin and I had visited Paris, and with Erin's increasing love of all things French and Jenna's interest in visiting the city, we booked last minute cheap flights to visit for the weekend to see the sights.

We arrived pretty late on Friday night, but luckily booked our hotel in Marais, a mere 30 yards from a great Bistro that Tanya recommended (http://parisianspring.blogspot.com/2009/10/best-brasserie-in-paris.html). 

It was a great little spot that had everything you need; the steak frites was nicely complimented by a couple bottles of cheap, but delicious Rhone red. The restaurant, Bouquet Saint Paul, is a must for reasonably-priced bistro food with a good vibe; a great place to relax the feet after a long day of power-touring!

The next morning, inspired by the movie Marie Antoinette, we made the quick trek out to Versailles to see perhaps the most amazing palace and garden combination in the world. We purchased the Paris Museum pass which is EUR30 for two days and worth the money in terms of skipping long ticket lines and getting access to over 60 museums and sights. 

The crappiest part about it was at Versailles, in what is blatantly a ploy to make tourists that have came from afar pay extra, charged an additional 8 euro to get access to the gardens because of two daily water fountain shows. So you not only have to pay the 8 euro to see the museum, but an additional 8, not covered by the museum pass to see the gardens, even if it isn't close to the time of the fountain show. Due to principle, we choose against seeing the gardens; which is a pity because the gardens are perhaps the best part about the estate. The museum pass does however, cover Marie Antoinette's hamlet and mini-palace, which was really nice and provided a great setting for our picnic lunch, picked up at the great market in Versailles village. We opted for a whole rotisserie chicken on a baguette!

After the morning and early afternoon in Versailles, we headed back to the city and went to the Louve. What a great museum. One of my favorite parts is the old fortress, which the Louve is built directly on top of, but the foundations and old moat are part of an exhibit in the museum. 

Following the Louvre we went to a little bistro by Centre Pompidou called the Hanger, which had excellent home-made raviolis and good steaks, of course washed down with some nice house wine.  We hustled back to Pont Neuf after dinner (after learning nobody else was being let into the Notre Dame towers). Regardless, we had a nice sunset on the pont. 

The following day consisted of breakfast crepes, a nice coffee then it was off to the Eiffel Tower. If I would give any advice to visitors going to the tower, it would be to purchase advance tickets and avoid a lengthy wait (at least 90 minutes) to try and buy tickets the day of. I imagine Rick Steves says the same thing!

We were smart to get tickets in advance and got to the top in about 30 minutes (i.e. there is even a small wait when you already have tickets). 

After the Eiffel Tower, we wandered towards Luxembourg gardens and had a nice lunch, before hitting up Saint Chapelle before making our way back to the airport. It was too quick of a weekend and we all wished for a few more days to truly appreciate Paris!