On Monday morning, really early, I checked my phone. I knew my mom had to be in the train on the way to Paris by now and I wanted to make sure she made it. Well she made it, but they were already incredibly delayed! I called her and she told me the situation. I was incredibly pissed off: we had payed a lot of money for her ticket and now she was delayed and she didn’t have her own seat! I was really angry and immediately planned to file a giant complaint.
The only bright side of the situation was that I could actually accompany Emilie to the station instead of saying goodbye at the hotel. We went to get breakfast and Emilie packed her last things, after which we left the hotel. We took the metro to Gare de Lyon and just talked a little. Emilie would stall her suitcase at the station, after which she would visit the Titanic Exhibition and then return home. While we were almost at the station, my mom texted me she would arrive a bit earlier than expected. So I said goodbye to Emilie at the station. It felt weird to suddenly having to say goodbye after spending four days together, but it wouldn’t be for long… ;)
I waved Emilie goodbye and suddenly I was all alone. Never before had I been in Paris all by myself! It’s not that I was scared, I actually felt really cool! I took the metro to Bastille (all by myself~!). I was confused for a moment, because I thought the metro line I would need was closed, but it turned out it wasn’t. I got pretty lost at Gare du Nord, but luckily a staff member could help me out. Eventually, I found the right platform where the Thalys would arrive, but my mom turned out to arrive at the planned (delayed) time after all, which was 1½ hours later than planned! After waiting for at least 30 more minutes, I could finally see the Thalys arrive in the distance! I walked up to the train, looking for someone wearing a hat and a striped shirt and finally I found my mom~! ♥
Of course we hugged and a Thalys staff member asked us if we wanted a picture together. Yes please! ^^ We also asked him where to get a form for delay and went to get it at the Thalys desk. I was still pretty pissed off, but I tried to not let it bother me. Despite having missed some extra time together, my mom and I made the best of our day anyway. Eventually, we got some money back from Thalys (although not enough in my opinion).
I had already charged my mom’s Navigo, so we could immediately take the metro to the hotel. My mom was so happy to be back in Paris! She had missed it so much!
We arrived at the hotel (my mom loved the view from our window, as usual) where my mom dumped her stuff. I asked her where she wanted to go first and we decided to start at the Arc de Triomphe! We freshened up a bit and then went on our way!
We got out at Charles de Gaulle Étoile and went up the escalator, from where we enjoyed the view upon the Arc de Triomphe. I love the Eiffeltower to death, but the Arc de Triomphe is the most beautiful building I have ever seen! I always forget how big it really is and the sculptures are magnificent!
My mom was really happy about the weather. It was just perfect! During our previous three times in Paris the weather wasn’t bad, but never really beautiful. Now it was!
We took a lot of pictures of the Arc and our surroundings, but we decided not to take the tunnel to the building itself. We had done that before already and we didn’t feel like doing it again this time. My mom had taken our Paris bear Amélie with her, the little plush she had bought during our previous trip, to take pictures with!
We decided to proceed to the Eiffeltower. You’re not really in Paris until you have seen it! ;)
We took the metro to Trocadéro and got out. We walked up the stairs, went around the corner and looked upon the Eiffeltower bathing in the sunlight. So pretty!
Unfortunetaly, Trocadéro wouldn’t be Tocadéro without its fences. It was not possible to walk up to the Tower straight from there. Oh well.
We took some lovely pictures of the Eiffeltower with the incredibly blue sky background.
We also took some jumping pictures. We kept the tradition intact. ^^
Since we couldn’t walk straight to the Eiffeltower, we walked all around Trocadéro. There were some big rocks placed next to the sidewalk and since my dad loves rocks and stones, my mom and I joked about taking one with us. Of course this resulted into a funny picture of me trying to drag one of the rocks along. XD
We crossed the street and walked up the Pont d’Iéna, in front of the Eiffeltower. The Seine and the banks looked so pretty in the sunlight! I do have to add that it was also very hot, haha! I made sure I used enough sunscreen. ^^
We walked underneath the Eiffeltower where the long lines of tourists were. There were a lot of people, but at least the elevators were working! We hadn’t planned on going up, so my mom and I walked up to the park behind the Eiffeltower, Champs-de-Mars. Of course, more fences here (they were building a stage for the 14th of July concert), but a little further away we we could sit on the grass. We took a lot of pictures in front of the Tower with different poses!
We sat down in the grass and drank some water. You have to stay hydrated on days like this! We saw a cute old couple taking a self picture, so sweet!
We left Champs-de-Mars again and walked back underneath the Eiffeltower again, but instead of walking up the Pont D’Iéna we walked down the stairs to the river Seine. We really wanted to have a crêpe there, but we also really wanted ice cream. Solution: we bought two normal sweet crêpes and two ice cream cones! XD My mom took chocolate vanilla, I took strawberry vanilla.
The idea was essentially briliant, but because we didn’t have spoons it kind of went wrong. XD I managed to eat my crêpe quite elegantly despite the melting ice cream, but my mom made a total mess! It was quite funny. The crêpes were quite nice by the way. :)
After we finished our meal, we decided to do a river cruise! Yes I know: we’ve done that twice before already, but now was the perfect weather and my mom loves river cruises on the Seine so much!< br> We bought our tickets, paid a visit to the toilet (literally) and browsed the souvenir shop for a bit. Then we went to stand in line and after a little waiting we could enter the boat. Initially we sat down at the back of the boat downstairs, but I suggested to sit on the upper deck after all. We had quite a nice view from there. The boat photographer snapped our faces (I squinted quite a lot against the sun, ahem) and we went upstairs. After I lend out my sunscreen to a friendly grandma and her grandson the boat departed.
We passed many beautiful sights in Paris. While we looked around, guides in French, English and Spanish told us facts about the buildings along the Seine. Despite having done this river cruise twice already, I had forgotten quite a lot of things already! We passed the Pont Alexandre III, Musée d’Orsay, Musée du Louvre, île de la Cité, the Nôtre Dame, the Conciergerie and so much more!
When the boat turned around, we went to sit downstairs after all, to have a different view (and it was hot upstairs). It was quite nice there after all. ^^ There were more people sitting there, including a couple with two children. The guy had a huge camera, but after I took a picture for them and he took a picture of us, we discovered a big camera doesn’t mean great camera skills. XD
The boat arrived back at the starting point and we went to check out our picture. We rarely buy pictures like this, but my mom liked it so much she bought it after all!
Since we were really hot, we decided to sit down at the Seine to let our feet rest in the water to cool down. Of course, just my feet wasn’t enough for me. XD
I knew the Seine is not exactly the cleanest river out there, but it was refreshing! *_* I was really hot!
We decided to go on to Hôtel de Ville. The last time we had been there was by accident and the weather was extremely gray. We wanted to see it again in the sun! We walked up the stairs again and walked up the Pont d’Iéna, where I took some lovely pictures of my mom.
Suddenly I noticed a big cloud of gray smoke! There was probably a big fire quite nearby! Since we couldn’t do much about it, we took some jumping pictures and when I looked again, the smoke was gone! Later I heard about an old building in Paris that burnt down…
We walked all the way back to Trocadéro and took the metro from there to Hôtel de Ville.
We exited the metro and found ourselves at the square in front of Hôtel de Ville, which looked ten times more beautiful than last time! There were lots of fountains and since I had gotten hot again, I was very happy about that! ^^
We took some pictures of the building and the fountains. There was a guy sitting on the edge of one of the higher fountains, which inspired me to climb onto them too! My mom stayed on the ground and took pictures. ^^
The fountains were sooo refreshing! The skirt of my dress got all wet, but I just didn’t care at all, haha!
We decided to cross the square and take pictures at the fountains on the other side. I walked on my bare feet, but the ground was really hot! I had to sit on a bench to take my feet off the ground at least three times! XD We arrived at the other side and I climbed onto the fountain again. I wasn’t really sure if it was allowed, but then I saw a sign that said ‘No swimming’ and a little further away kids were swimming (fully clothed!) in the fountain. Then I didn’t feel so guilty anymore. ^^
We took more pictures and my mom dipped her feet in the water as well. It was so nice! *_*
We decided to walk on to Centre Georges Pompidou, to see if it looked better in the sunshine as well. We put our shoes back on and crossed the square, after looking at the beautiful flowers planted all around.
I filled my water bottle at a special tab and we left the square. We crossed the zebra and quickly visited the Lush (my mom loves that store). We kept on walking and quickly noticed the big, colourful pipes of Centre Georges Pompidou. We walked around the corner and sat down on the pebbled square across from the big building. Despite the fact my art books always went on and on about this ‘wonderful’ building, it doesn’t appeal to me all. I like the escalators on the outside, that’s it.
While we sat down I realised how tired I had gotten. I suggested to go back to the hotel (it was around 5:30 pm by now) and have dinner. My mom agreed, so we got up and went to look for the nearest metro station.
We rested for a bit in our hotel room and then went to eat at Café d’Albert, the restaurant across from the hotel we loved a lot during our previous trip. I had dreamed about eating one of their salads with potato chips for over a year now and now I could finally have one!
My mom and I both chose a ‘Salade Loisir’, a salad with green salad, tomatoes, smoked salmon, crème fraîche, olives and potato chips roasted with garlic. Even though they forgot the olives (boo!) it was so good! ♥
After dinner I wasn’t tired at all anymore, so we walked down the Rue Ordener for a bit. After we almost got bothered by a weird guy in a convertible, we suddenly saw Sacré Coeur in the distance, which inspired us to go see it while it got dark! My mom waited at the entrance of the metro station, while I went to get her camera. When I arrived at our room, I noticed the door was open! I immediately checked all of our stuff, but nothing was gone luckily! We probably hadn’t closed the door properly. Stupid us!
We went to station Anvers and walked up the street to the Sacré Coeur hill. Despite the fact it was quite dark already, the church wasn’t illuminated. Suddenly I heard someone say the lights would go on around 10:30 pm and it wasn’t time yet, so we took the Funiculaire up the hill and waited there for a while. Lots of people were sitting on the stairs in front of the church, enjoying the view. The view on the city was amazing: the houses and buildings seemed to be dark blue and there were lights everywhere. Finally, the lights on the church slowly switched on, setting the church in a dreamy, yellow light.
We decided to go back to the hotel. We took the Funiculaire down and returned to the metro. Back at the hotel we took a shower and went to bed. Even though we had told ourselves to take things easy, we clearly did not. XD But it had been a fun and exciting (and hot) day, so it was worth it! ♥
Oh wow, your pictures are just so pretty! Love seeing Paris from your angle, it's the part I like the most!
ReplyDeleteYou and your mother were adorable and had a lot of fun, lucky you!
Thank you so much!
DeleteWe adore Paris. *_*
Glad to hear everything worked out!
ReplyDeleteAnd omg your photos! I especially love that one of you in the water up to your knees! It's almost like a portrait <3
Kieli~♥