I . . . love Paris!

Notre Dame - 400 steps. Arc de Triomphe - 298 steps. Eiffel Tower - 710 steps. My week - 1400+ steps.

*Give or take a few steps on each. I'm not positive on the exact numbers.

Somehow I managed to be here in Paris for over a month without going up to the top of Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, or the Eiffel Tower. Then, I somehow managed to do all three this week!

It's been a crazy week - but an AMAZING week. My legs are on the brink of a rebellion, but it was all so worth it. Each of the experiences and views were so different and so great. As you saw in my prior post, the view from Notre Dame was amazing. The walk up was intense with the little tiny spiral staircase.

Then on Tuesday we did Arc de Triomphe. This was INCREDIBLE. We went up there at night. The city is a completely different thing at night. The view was beautiful and the city was fantastic. It was as I was standing there on the clear night, with the perfect weather, with my head in between the bars staring out at the beautiful city that I truly fell in love with Paris. I've loved Paris since I got here, but that night it became so much more. I don't know how I am ever going to leave it. (And I saw the Eiffel Tower sparkle for the first time that night too!!)


And it gets even better! Today we did the most iconic building of them all. The Eiffel Tower.

I see it like every day and I've been there multiple times, but it was my first time actually going up in it. My legs were pretty sore (shocker), but we made it! We obviously paid the second fare to go all the way up to the top from the second level (via elevator luckily) because how could we not have? It was so . . . just wow. The whole experience was amazing. Oh I just love Paris so much.

Some of these were taken on the stairs on the way up, some on the first floor, some on the second, and some from the top. Hopefully you can tell the difference.



So the reason we did the Eiffel Tower today was because it was in the walk we were doing. Or we did the walk because we wanted to do the Eiffel Tower today . . . ? Either way, it was part of the walk. This walk was like super mega walk. It took ALL day. We went all over Paris, I swear. The three major things that we hit were the Musee Rodin, Invalides, and the Eiffel Tower. The Rodin Museum was AMAZING. I have always loved Rodin, so I absolutely loved seeing his work. We saw the Thinker!



And the Kiss! (which, btw, is my third favorite sculpture - wow, you just know so much about my sculpture preferences!)



And so many other things.

It was incredible. Like wow. And the gardens were just breathtaking. This was seriously my favorite museum I've been too. It was just so great. (And I don't know if that includes the Louvre - because the Louvre is not just a museum, it's like it's own city.)

Then we went to Invalides, where we saw Napoleon's tomb and went into the Musee de l'Armee. The Army Museum kind of bored me to be quite honest. Apparently I am just a bad person who didn't appreciate how amazing what she saw was. But I am kind of okay with that. After the museum, we went to lunch at the Cafe de Marche. I had Tartare de Saumon. (That's salmon, in case you didn't assume as much already.) It was good, but not the greatest. The duck I had there before was way better. Then we splurged and got some amazing gelato from Amorino. They have phenomenal gelato. And when you order it in a cone, they make it into the shape of a rose! How cool is that? Maybe I will get a picture of it one of these times. After the gelato, we headed to the Eiffel Tower. Which brings us back to the semi beginning of this post! Yay.