J’adore Paris!! We left London this morning and took the train to France, captivated by the beautiful countryside along the way. We arrived in Paris and checked into a rather sophisticated hotel, the Golden Tulip at Opera de Noailles. We were excited to discover that our room opens to a private patio, where I can imagine myself sipping on a café au lait in the morning. After settling in to our new modern maison, we stopped at Galleries de Lafayette, the famous Paris department store. The top floor offered the most incredible view of Paris, and as we caught our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, I felt goose bumps all over and a certain sort of excitement that I can’t begin to explain.

We then took to the streets in search of my favorite Paris treat, a crepe!! The crepes here are literally the size of a pizza, and come with various fillers such as Nutella, lemon and sugar, or today’s choice of jambon et fromage! Without wasting any time, we made our way to the Louvre, and walked through the Jardin des Tuilleries to l’Arc de Triomphe. My favorite part of the walk was strolling down the Champs d’Elysees and window shopping in Louis Vuitton. The lyrics of one of my favorite French songs could not have been more true- “Je me balladais sur l’avenue, le coeur ouvert a l’inconnue, j’avais envie de dire bonjour a n’importe qui.”

We ended the day dining in an open-air restaurant overlooking l’Opera. It felt risky to order from a French menu. No matter how hard I try to speak in French, my American accent always sells me out, and fortunately that translated into an English menu. Perhaps that saved me from ending up with some kind of weird snail on my plate. I’m actually finding Parisians to be rather polite, contrary to stigmas that suggest otherwise. I guess tomorrow I’ll exagerate my accent and try to speak more “nasal-y.” As the sun set at around 11, we strolled back to our hotel, pinching ourselves and feeling like the luckiest two people in the world!