I mean, we were taking the time off to fly across the ocean.  A trip we likely won’t get to make again, so you better believe we were fitting a trip to Paris into things!

To get there, we had to wake up at 5am to have enough time to dress, last-minute pack and get to the underground to reach St Pancras Station on time for our check in. Needless to say, at now 6:30am as we made it through security, I was not awake enough to document that leg of our trip. But the station lounge was clean and very modern – with air conditioning vents in the floor which lead to a pleasant surprise for anyone wearing a skirt!

This was the only shot I took on the whole train journey.  I’m pretty sure that’s France out there, which seemed to be a bigger part of the trip than the English side of things.  And the Chunnel — it happened, we went through it, but there were so many tunnels before it that the only reason we were able to assume we were in the Chunnel was  because it was a longer period of time in the dark.  Kinda anti-climactic if you ask me.

We arrived at Gare du Nord and were thrilled to see that, though the signs were of course in French, they had English translations below so we weren’t totally lost. After a quick stop at a currency exchange we were on the street hailing a cab.

Our cab driver was a young guy, likely about our age and was very courteous and helped us learn a few words in French for things.  And as we drove closer to our hotel, we got our first glimpse of the Eiffel tower – in reflection on the other cars!

After unloading our bags at our hotel, our first stop was a cafe nearby for lunch.

A tasty chef salad (forget the French equivalent name, but it was delicious!) and eggs with steak frites for Molly.  A great way to start our culinary trip in Paris!

Obviously lunch was not the highlight of our day.  Just a quick 10 minute walk away was this little building.

Stay tuned for our ascent of the Eiffel Tower!

~ Beth