Alarm came way too early this morning. It was five am and I was not quite ready to get up yet. However, I knew we had a train to catch, so I got a move on. When we left the flat, it was still dark outside.
We walked to the first tube station to catch the train to King's Cross / St. Pancreas (I was excited for this one). Unfortunately since was still needed to go through immigration, there was no time to stop at Platform 9 3/4 on the way there.
We grabbed a coffee and a chocolate croissant (I dont think I've ever drank as much coffee as I have this week). The train to Paris actually went rather quick. We got into the station and it was .70 euro to use the restroom. As I still only had pounds, I had no choice but to wait.
We hoped aboard the metro and it was off to our walking tour. It was supposed to last 3 1/2 hours but ended up taking 4.
That was perfectly fine with me. Our tour guide Sam was pretty awesome. We saw Notre Dame, The Siene River, several of the bridges (the Love Lock bridge was my favorite), the Louvre, the gardens, the Arc de Triomph, Champs Elysees, and of course the Eiffel Tower. (I realize my spelling maybe a bit off but French was never my strong suit, as we learned today). We were heart broken to learn that Eiffel Tower isn't lit up until nine because that's when our train was leaving.
For lunch we went to the recommended cafe and I was feel gutsy so I decided to try something new, Duck. It ended up actually being quite good, despite looking slightly questionable when arriving to the table (pictures below). Of course, being in France, I washed it down with white wine. While there, one of waiters comment to me butchering the beautiful French language (think Brad Pitt speaking Italian in Inglorious Bastards) was you speak very good English while giving me a hug. He proceeded to then tell Kendra she is beautiful and that one of our tour group buddies should take advantage. He was also about 60. So there you go.
After that we wanted to get up close and personal with the Eiffel Tower. We walked over to it. Did the full lap around it and everything. Unfortunately the line was so long we decided against making the voyage to the very top.
From there we jumped back and the metro to see the Arc up close and walk down the Champs Elysees (not that I could afford anything there).
After finishing that, we jumped back on the metro and set off in search of Angelina's chocolates. We walked probably two miles or so and finally find it. There the server was extremely rude so we promptly left and went next door for chocolate crepes (which was none of the fifty crepe places we passed to get there).
We shopped the touristy shops and I bought a scarf, keychains for those of you at home, and some items for my shadowbox project (if you are not sure what I am referring to, all shall be revealed in a later post).
We talked to a lady selling paintings on the side of the street. She tried to convince us she was the artist "Georgia" (okay, so maybe I believed her at first). We ending up buying some prints because they were very cool and the price was right. After walking away, we.realized about 18 different vendors were selling the same exact images. I am still happy with my purchases.
After all of that we were completely walked out, we stopped in a street cafe, split a bottle of wine and watched the streets of Paris.
As we were headed to the train station, we were really close to the Louvre and there is a vantage point to see the Eiffel.Tower. I thought just maybe, it might be lit up. We quickly hurried as it was eight and it lights up on the hour. We were in luck! The Tower was lit up and sparkling away! But as we had a train to catch, we moved rather quickly to the metro station to head back to the international train station. Kendra almost decided to extend her stay in France as she had fallen in love with the immigration officer. Hey, they say Paris is the city of love (and infidelity, as I learned today).
We made our train and headed back to London. We arrived at King's Cross and grabbed dinner (togo sandwiches and bottled water). Since we were at King's Cross, it was time to go to Platform 9 3/4!!! My inner Harry Potter nerd was so very happy at this. I pretended to run through the wall with my trolley and took my picture.
Finally we dragged our tried feet and eyes back to the flat. Now headed to bed.after 19 hours.
Until tomorrow...
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