Hello friends. It is midnight in Paris.

Today my fitbit clocked 48,518 steps or 20.26 miles.

It was a big day.

We woke up at 5 a.m. in London. Checked out of the hotel at 5:30 a.m. We were on a train by 5:46 a.m. We boarded our Eurostar train to Paris at 6:45 a.m. and left the station at 7:01 a.m. exactly. The train ride was easy and smooth. I bought us some pastries and juice for breakfast. Jacob took a nap and I played some solitaire.

We arrived in Paris just after 10 a.m. and walked right across the street to our hotel, the Ibis Styles Gare du Nord TGV. We were unable to check in that early but they held our bags for us so we could go explore.

Due to the rail workers strike we have more limited options for train travel so we walked the two miles to Notre Dame. Along the way we stopped at St. Jacques Park and ate some snacks.

I needed a toilet and there was one public toilet in the park but it didn’t have a toilet seat and I wasn’t that desperate. From there we walked to Notre Dame and followed signs for a public toilet. However, it was closed…. so we stood in line to enter Notre Dame. I was hoping they would have facilities in there, but they didn’t. We took some pictures and took in the sights. A service was just beginning while we were in there which was interesting to witness.

After that we continued my quest to find a toilet and again were unsuccessful as the “street wizzers” as Jacob called them were also out of order.

We wandered a bit more before stumbling across a park behind Notre Dame that finally had my saving grace, a public toilet that was in service. Thank God!

Anyway…

We walked around a bit more before pulling up the Rick Steves walking tour map to make sure we were catching all the big points of interest. After walking all over the touristy areas, we had to walk the two miles back to the hotel and stopped to grab lunch at a shop in the train station across the street.

It was now 3 p.m. and we were totally exhausted. We both laid down and took short naps. Then I enjoyed some time just people watching from our window that faces the front of the Gare Du Nord International Train Station.

Once we were rested we decided to trek on over to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, commonly known as Sacré-Cœur Basilica. It is a church up on a hill with spectacular views of the city. We took some photos and then walked inside and toured the church. While we were walking down the hill to leave, a man told Jacob to not look scared but to look happy – which made me smile and laugh, then the man said – see like this beautiful woman! Ha!

We walked to the train station from the church and hopped on to take it to the Louvre. Jacob was a little worried because he doesn’t know the system and was worried he would send us the wrong way, but he did everything great! We arrived near the Louvre, took some photos and then entered.

The Louvre is huge, so we meandered quickly through making sure to see Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa before leaving.

From there it was back on the train and over the the Eiffel Tower. Due to the rail workers strike, we have to take different trains and odd routes but we made it. We stopped at a food stand and bought pastries. While we were eating our pastries on a bench, we could see the Eiffel Tower light up and sparkle. It was 10 p.m. at this point.

We then continued our walk to the Eiffel Tower and took photos of ourselves and the tower. At one point a man walked up behind us and was persistently trying to sell us wine or champagne (there are vendors like this all over). After we told him no many times we walked away and I went to grab my phone and realized it was missing.

I checked my purse, my pockets and then I panicked. I thought of losing all my photos/videos of Richard, all the photos I had taken today, being unable to contact my family…etc, etc. I just couldn’t believe that man had distracted us enough to steal my phone, so I turned around and I bolted after him.

When I got close I said, “I’ll give you $20, just give me back my phone!” The man was confused, and kept saying, “Look at me, look at me.” I was persistent, “Give me back my phone, where did you put it!?”

In the midst of this I looked down at my purse and rummaged through it one more time……. and there it was, my phone. I had it. The. Whole. Time.

I was so embarrassed and felt so horrible, I apologized profusely and offered the man $5 as an “I am sorry” and “for your troubles.” He refused the money until Jacob slowly walked up, asked what was going on, then he accepted it with a smile.

I hope in my heart that the language barrier meant he didn’t really understand what had happened, it seemed like after a bit he thought I wanted him to take our photo. I felt bad the whole rest of the day and I still feel bad. I know I jumped to that conclusion because people constantly say to watch for pick-pockets and I know people who have been pick-pocketed while traveling abroad, but it doesn’t make me feel any better about my actions. Ugh!

When I asked Jacob why he didn’t stop me from running off, he said that I took off too quickly he didn’t have time to think.

Oh well…

So from here, we took a few more photos then made our way back to our hotel. We arrived back just after midnight and it is time for bed. Some photos from our day are below.

Tomorrow we are sleeping in, enjoying some breakfast and then possibly hopping on the train to Versailles. Until then!

 

 

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