David and I decided that while we were near Paris we should take a day trip to see the city and some of the sights that it has to offer. It’s not like we get to go on these kinds of trips everyday or anything.
We woke up early and made our way to the Eruostar train station. The train was very nice and offered a smooth ride and a tasty breakfast of an omelet, bread, yogurt and hash (mashed potatoes with carrots and peas). The ride was just over 2 hours long. During the ride we were able to see a lot of the county side between London and Paris. We saw so many little communities, with old homes and churches. It was nice to be able to sit back and enjoy the ride.
Once we arrived in Paris the day got a little confusing and hectic. The train station was full of beggars, and con-artist. One girl followed us for a long time begging us to do what was right. The problem with the beggars was that there were so many of them, and you really could not tell if they were truly desperate for money or just hanging out in the train station to see what heart strings they could pull.
The station in Paris was not as well designed or set up as well as the stations in London. It could have been that we did not speak French, or it could have been the station set up. It took us quite a while to find our way out and to find our next destination. We had decided that an open air tour bus would be great for the day, since we only had 1 day to spend in the city. In my mind I was also thinking that at least on the bus we would be out of the reach of the panhandlers and beggars.
We found a bus tour called L’Open Tour. This was a hop on hop off tour like the one we did in London. We were able to see a lot of landmarks and learn a lot of the history of the city. While the city had great architecture it just did not seem as nice as London. We enjoyed seeing the sites and enjoyed being together in the City of Love. Our 1st hop off was at the Eiffel Tower. So much happened at the stop, I think I will do a separate blog post.