Paris

Nick and I headed to our weekend getaway while Opa kept the kids.  We left Friday morning and came back Sunday morning.  We rented a car so we could have a micro sized car while driving in Paris.  Good thing we did because there lanes in the city are not distinguished.  Pretty much you drive where you want, get honked at, and go where you want.  It's nuts!  About half way there I noticed our GPS flashing red.  Weird because we had it plugged into the cars cigarette port.  Against all odds, we got a car that the port does NOT work!  We freaked out, Nick thought about turning around and going home, but I said no way.  On we went.  We decided to turn the GPS off to reserve what little battery there was.  When we arrived at the city, I turned the GPS back on, hoping it would survive until we got the the parking garage, which was a few meters from the hotel.  We missed a turn, but found our way back to the road we needed.  The GPS was being really slow for the fast paced, quick turns in Paris.  We found the garage and checked into the hotel.  That night, we went walking around for 3 hours and enjoyed a Doner for dinner.  Okay, I didn't enjoy it that much, but Nick really did.  

Saturday morning we got up and ready to spend the day out.  Rain!  Oh rain, why do you have to spoil such fun?!?!  We went out for 4 hours and my poor hands felt like they were going to drop off.  I really hate having raynauds at such a time when fun is possible.  We walked all the way near the Eiffel tower.  Was probably about 5 blocks away and we decided to head back to the hotel, probably 4 miles.  We were able to enjoy the Christmas market and window shopping.  Such amazing stores in Paris.  High end, that's for sure!  It was beautiful and I loved it.  I just really hate the my hands ruin everything...all the time!  I have gloves on with hand warmers inside...still don't work.  I even bought special raynauds gloves last year, don't work!  It sucks!  Nick was telling me that he always knows when my hands start hurting because I get quiet and are focusing too much.   He's right.  I do get quiet and that's when he said it was okay to go back and warm up.  You'd think warming up would be great, but not really.  It seems to hurt just as bad, if not worse, getting them warm again because they burn and tingle so bad.

Our pants were wet up to our thighs, so when we got to the hotel we undressed and hung our shoes, socks, and pants on the external towel/room heaters.  We stayed in for 2.5 hours and ventured back out.

This time our focus was on seeing the Louvre and the Notre Dame.  We made it to the Louvre and started walking towards the Notre Dame, but we forgot our umbrellas on the trip (because it had stopped and the forecast didn't show any for the rest of the night), and it started raining and our camera was getting wet!  Not good!  We tried putting it in our coats, but it still stuck out and was getting wet.  Nick wanted to head back.  We dropped the camera off at the hotel and walked down the road to an italian restaurant I found online. It was delish!  Finally a meal I enjoyed.  We got back to the hotel around 10:30, showered and went to bed so we could get up early and get out of the city before it was crowded.  And since the GPS was red on the way in, we weren't sure we'd find out way out with bumper to bumper traffic.  Early it was, 4:30 we were walking out the hotel, at 5 we were out of the city!  It was perfect.  We were expected to be home around 9:15, but I guess we took a wrong turn because we were now down towards the southeast of France.  Good times!  We finally arrived home about 10:45 and man was it nice to see my babies!

Let's talk about this hotel...this was it, besides the tiny bathroom i'm standing next to as you walk in the door.  European hotels are expensive and small.  This micro sized room was $540 for 2 nights! The bed was not comfortable.  The water was hot.  The location was great for us.  In the states, we pay a lot for a room, however, the room is usually large and has lots of nice amenities to it.  These here...nothing.  Okay, you get some towels to use and shampoo and soap if you forgot yours.  It was fun though and I'm glad we went...even with the high prices :(

this was taken before we went across the bridge to get to the tower, that we never ended up getting to...ha!

on our walk back to the hotel to warm up

Palais de la decouverte

from the Louvre

playing with the camera settings

we liked the night vision setting!

Louvre

on our walk to the Notre Dame

This bridge was pretty awesome.  It had millions of padlocks locked to it.  It's the "love padlocks" which symbolizes everlasting love!  How cool is that?!?  

this here...well it was my "if I know where the ferris wheel is, I know how to get around"...ha!

Even with the rain, cold, and dreary weather, we had a great time.  All thanks to Nick's dad for keeping the kids so we could have a break away.  Because we couldn't see everything we'd hoped, Nick wants to come back with the kids.