Au Revoir, Paris

Our Airbnb stay was up but we weren’t ready to leave Paris. We decided to book one more night at an inexpensive hotel we found on the app HotelTonight. This app is super helpful for last minute places to stay for reasonable prices. Nick and I used this app almost exclusively during our honeymoon in Italy.

We packed up our stuff, cleaned up the apartment and headed via the Metro to the Catacombs for another attempt at seeing it. After waiting almost 2 hours, we were able to get in. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was really nervous. There was something claustrophobic about being so far underground surrounded by skeletons that are 100’s of years old.  It’s creepy for sure but also cool. I think it’s really overpriced at 12 euros a person.  After about 10 minutes down there, you’ve really seen it and there was no reason for it to take an hour. It’s definitely something that is uniquely Paris and has a significant history behind it. It was originally a quarry that provided the stones to build a considerable portion of the buildings still standing in the city. It was then re-purposed as a burial ground that we know of today. Nick had an “awesome” idea to watch a horror movie that night called “As Above So Below” about the catacombs. Needless to say, I caught no zzzz’s that night. I was up afraid of ghosts.

After the catacombs, we were hungry and realized we haven’t eaten anything Parisian. I could not convince Nick to eat snails with me. For some reason, he thinks they are gross.  Instead, there was a delicious crepe house right around the corner. Lucky us! We filled up on savory and sweet crepes and then headed to the hotel. We were tired and wanted some time just to relax. We decided to use the hotel pool. These are very rare outside of the US, so we felt obligated (but mostly excited) to go for a swim.  After our dip, we napped and showered and headed out for Pho. Yes, Vietnamese food. It was not as good as our favorite joint in San Francisco, but it was satisfying. We walked around the city for awhile and hung out at the Opera Building. It is an amazing sight. We then meandered over towards the Jardin De Tuileries and saw the Eiffel Tower beautifully lit up. I think it’s even more beautiful at night. The giant ferris wheel lit up in red, white and blue was also gorgeous against the night sky. We pulled up chairs and sat in the park overlooking the landmarks shining in all there glory.  It’s called the City of Lights for a reason.

As we walked back to the hotel, there was a tango lesson happening right in one of the public squares. Ah…Paris. Why must you make me love you so?  

On our last day, we decided to take the train to Versailles to see Louis XIV’s famous monstrosity.  Well, this was a major fail. First, we left way too late. Second, it took forever to get there because there was construction on the tracks. Third, I am an idiot and thought the garden was free with the ticket I bought- it was not. The garden is never free. Fourth, the stupid heat. Holy cow it was hot again and it was starting to make me cranky. Regardless, we made it. It is definitely opulent.

We decided to tour the chateau first. For 15 euros each, I was disappointed. You don’t get to see the bulk of the chateau and you only get to see the fancy stuff. We wanted to see the kitchen, the maids quarters, etc. Show the haves vs. the have not’s in one building! The Hall of Mirrors is spectacular as well as the King’s Apartments. However, my favorite part of the chateau was the “Mistress Quarters”.  King Louis XIV had so many mistresses he had entire apartments built for them so they could live right next door. These were beautiful and hard to imagine how much money was spent on this palace. The French have actually tried to calculate it and have estimated it to have cost 2 BILLION to create. 

We finished the chateau tour and tried to get into the gardens for the last hour we could spend before having to catch our train to Amsterdam. OOPS! I did not buy the right ticket and we faced the dilemma to pay an additional 9 euros each for the next hour. We decided against it. In hindsight, I would have only spent the 9 euros on the garden and skipped the chateau. I’m really, really, really bummed we missed the gardens. Well...lesson learned and now we have to go back. 

We decided to eat the picnic lunch we brought out in front of the palace and head back to Paris. We had just enough time to grab our bags and get to the station. While the Metro in Paris is fantastic, Gare Du Nord station is not as easy to navigate. We had a very hard time finding our Thalys train. After stressing, we decided to just ask for help and found our way pretty quickly. We arrived just as they were beginning the security screening (a first for me on a train…) very sweaty and tired but we made it!

We are very excited to visit Amsterdam. We were originally going to try to see Belgium as well, but we felt we would get to really enjoy both places. We decided to stay in Amsterdam, about 7 days,  until we fly to Iceland! 

FINAL THOUGHT: 

I'm sad to leave Paris and a little mad at myself for not moving here at some point in my life. Multiple times on this trip I've found myself evaluating each day and asking myself, would I do it again? Could I live here? What business would I start if I lived here? I've never had so much time to evaluate my own life and compare it to other ways of life I see around me. It's our goal to go through this trip with intention and not just sightsee. I hope through this blog and my own separate journal writing that we continue to be grateful and soak up as much of this experience as we possibly can.