Europe 2019 - Paris

My mom is right about many things, but telling me to go to Paris is definitely in the top five. Before this trip, I considered Paris a fun add-on, a city I could take or leave. After spending only a couple of days there, I'm SO glad we went! It was so much more than I expected.
Our trip started with a bit of a hiccup with a cancelled flight to Chicago, causing us to miss our flight to Paris. But we made it to France only a day later than planned and the people in Paris were very helpful as we rescheduled our time there!

We arrived at 7am on Thursday morning with plenty of time to kill before our hotel check in. We headed to a nearby cafe where we had a traditional French breakfast of a croissant, baguette, jam, and espresso. I'm happy to say that I can finally drink straight espresso! It's been coming in handy with the jet lag. Then, we walked to the Jardin du Luxembourg (we would end up being back several times over two days), the Church of Saint Sulpice, and the Church of Saint Germain. They were all uniquely beautiful!

Saint Sulpice

Saint Germain

Then, we headed to the Louvre to wander around. We ended up seeing the Arc de Carousel - this is a smaller version of the Arc de Triomphe! The Arc de Triomphe was designed and built by Napoleon as a morale boost for the military troops when they came home from war. Well, as we all know with construction projects, they often don't finish as soon as we want them too. When the Arc de Triomphe wasn't going to be finished in time, Napoleon commissioned the Arc de Carousel, a third of the size to be completed before they came home. Because the arch was too small for a battalion to fit through, they instead circled the Arc seven times - thus the Arc de Carousel.

The Louvre

Arc de Carousel

Later that afternoon, we went on a walking food tour! We went to Poulaine bakery, Patrick Roger chocolate, an indoor French market, and a wine cellar. We tried all different foods such as a whole wheat sourdough, apple tart, unpasteurized Brie, Comte, Camembert, unpasteurized goat cheese, salami, and pork pate just to name a few! It was delicious and paired well with a few wines too. On the tour, we learned about MOFs (Meilleur Ouvrier de France). These are basically food experts in their fields. They apply to the MOF competition, and if selected, go through four rigorous trials before a jury decides if they qualify for the finals. Once in the final trial, they must meet a certain criteria to earn the lifelong title. There have been some final trials where no one is awarded with the MOF title! It's extremely prestigious, and we were able to try a MOF chocolatier's desserts! SO good! My favorite was a lemon basil chocolate truffle. Sounds weird, right? It was actually one of the best chocolates I've ever had. You don't put lemon and basil in a truffle unless you know what you're doing I guess!

The signature bread from Poulaine

MOF Chocolate!

So. Much. Cheese.

The next day, we woke up and headed to the Eiffel Tower. I loved learning about the incredible engineering marvel that it was at the time. It still uses the same lift (elevator) system that was originally built with it! We got awesome pictures and just enjoyed the view.

We walked around a bit and ended up at Saint Chapelle, a beautiful chapel built by King Louis IX. The stained glass uses hundreds of little scenes to depict the entire story of the Bible! It was absolutely stunning. We also grabbed a selfie outside of Notre Dame!

Just one of the stained glass windows!

We finished our time in Paris with a lovely dinner cruise around River Siene. We passed by major monuments such as the Louvre, Notre Dame, Statue of Liberty (the prototype), Alexandre III bridge, and even saw the Eiffel Tower sparkling! It was a dream to say the least. But now, onto Amsterdam!