Mr. Eiffel

Well, we did it again. We grabbed our bags and we headed to the airport at 5:00 a.m. (on the correct day) for our flight to Paris. Parking and walking in, an overwhelming excitement came over me in realization that Paris was in sight for the next 4 days. Being so anxious neither one of us slept on the plane and when we landed in France, I became a little girl again. The most romantic city in the world and for four days with the ‘manfran’, not real life…. Not real life… We got a cab from the airport to our previously booked hotel and as we are zooming down the streets, Luey looks to his right and simply states “Oh… Lo… do you know what that is?”…… OF COURSE I DO! IT’S THE EIFFEL TOWER!!! After my slight freak out we land in front of our hotel, Hotel Derby, and we check into the small room with separate beds (note that the Lord holds standards in my heart and in Luiz’s heart and that we both hold steadfast to our commitment we have to Him, which kept us pure) and we tidied up and we out on a Parisian escapade!

Seeing the Eiffel tower straight from our hotel doorstep, we made our ways over to it and had to stop every other second just so I could capture the architectural  phenomenon from the 1880s. I was then impressed because the man I was accompanying was capable of switching from French, to English, to Spanish to help out other tourist… jeal much? After making our way across the large land space in front of the tower, I kept snapping pictures to try and capture how significant this huge monument is.. but it couldn’t be done. It was so breathtaking. Every time I would look at it, I would squeal with excitement. We found a little stand on the edge of Mr. Eiffel and we order panini’s for the two of us and we make our way up further to the Palais de Chaillot where we had the perfect view of the iron tower and a perfect spot to place our bottoms. Wanting to explore more we took our time just walking down little streets and absorbing the cool weather, and the clean and restored buildings which all held a little history within them. Paris is by far one of the prettiest cities. The structures that it contains, the history it holds, and the way it is maintained with vegetation and constant services to improve the streets of the city… it all baffles me. There were even memorials built on the side of the wall for the veterans and the government is what kept up with providing the flowers. As we kept walking (& after buying a can of Orangina, duh) we found ourselves in front of Hotel des Invalides which was another ginormous structure built to store all the historical treasures that revolved around the wars that France fought in, and if you mention fighting and France your brain probably wanders to the great Napoleon Bonaparte. Which his also overly large piece of golden-work building was placed directly behind the museum. We walked over there with our heads constantly looking up because of how massive this sanctuary was accompanied by an golden laid dome sitting on top.

If you had any doubts that this guy thought highly of himself, this tomb/cathedral was sure to remind one of his significance. There was even a private garden that had an wide assortment of neatly put together flowers and clean shrubs and large trees that had perfectly placed benches underneath to provide a little shade on a sunny afternoon. We walked over there and just sat and took in the fact that we were in Paris. Paris, France… not Paris, Texas. Once again, it felt like a dream. And feeling like it was a dream we headed back to Hotel Derby where we decided to have a little shut eye before we ventured out again… a nap on the plane would’ve come in handy here.

Waking up and feeling rejuvenated we walked outside and peered at all the open seating in the front of the restaurant that and after looking at a couple of menus posted outside, we chose the perfect place to dine. It had big, red velvety chairs and once opening up the menu, it wasn’t hard to decide what we each wanted to munch on. Being spoiled this entire trip, this night added to it. First off, I tried the most Frenchiest food of all French food… caviar. Not bad my friends, not bad… with a little lemon and garlic flavoring, I too could eat this snail without wanting to spit it out. I even ate 3 of them. Then I was served artichoke heart, sea bass, and a plate containing miniature sizes of crème brulee, chocolate fudge cake, strawberries, and an espresso. Parfait! The conversation was good and the food was even better and all in all, my first day in Paris couldn’t have gone better. Walking out the doors we came in, we had to go see Mr. Eiffel once more before saying goodnight, and as soon as we were making our way over there, he began to twinkle in the most magnificent way! I loved it even more if that was possible.

Not every monument twinkles and shines on the hour, that’s for sure…