Europe Summer Trip Recap

As I didn't blog as I went along, here's my attempt to remember the details of our trip, with the help of pictures of course.

Paris Day 1-4
On the Roissy-Paris bus connecting CDG and city center at 7 am on Sunday upon arrival, the city was still quiet. The architecture shifts to what's old, foreign but beautiful. As I watched the scenery with my eyes wide opened, I realized it is Sunday and I need to come up with a plan as most businesses are closed.

Paris has one of the most efficient public transportation we've found, esp. the Metro. Our hotel is close to one of the stops and we can get anywhere in the city w/in 15 mins. We discovered Rue Cler neighborhood to be a quiet refuge (although we're only 10 mins walk to the Eiffel Tower) after a long day of sight seeing. Good affordable food among locals and savvy tourists, sampling fusion and very French cuisine, while sipping on house wine by the 1/2 litres- that's what we found ourselves doing most nights in Paris.

Our days were usually filled with sight seeing activities. The Louvre is way too crowded- we should have known as it is summer, peak season. However, I did not expect it too be this much! We breezed (still took 2 hrs) through the Louvre, spent more time at the Picasso, Rodin Museums. We enjoyed our walks through Montmartre, the Left Bank, Historic Paris, the Latin Quarter, the Champs-Elysee, with stops for crepes and pain-au-chocolat along the way. But we especially enjoyed our night time stroll to The Eiffel Tower, waiting for the light display that happens on the hour. There is always a picnic, and someone is playing the guitar. We played with our new lens on the camera and got some good pictures.

A side trip to Versailles was a definite plus. I'm glad we got the Paris Museum Pass as we did get to skip a lot of lines. Strolling through the Palace almost by ourselves as we got there early right when it opened, I imagined what it was like to be a noble person of the court, playing pool with the King :) The gardens to me is even more extravagant than the palace itself. It just keeps on going. We even made a side trip to Marie Antoinette's quarters and tired our little feet out. I highly suggest Keens and Smart Wool socks by the way.


Sorry, the photos we took exceed the allowed size for blogger. So I have to re-size them before uploading. In the meantime, see our Paris pictures on Facebook.