I'm going to finish Paris Day 3 with one really long post. Here we go!
After we finished shopping on Champs Elysees we continued our walk to the Arc de Triomphe.
Looking back down Champs Elysees.
We made it! Well not quite yet. You have to use the stairs to walk under the road to get to the Arc.
There is no way you can cross this road. There is traffic constantly. There are actually no lane lines, so cars just go wherever they want around this circle and at a pretty high speed too.
We walked under the road and made our way the Arc. We really wanted to walk up the Arc to see the amazing views from the top, but we were just too tired and there is no way my legs would have made it. One more thing to add to the list of things we have to come back to do (my list is getting pretty long, I think we will have to stay at least a week next time ;)).
There were a lot of people at the Arc.
This is also where the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is.
We were planning on taking the metro back to the hotel so Stephen was reading the map to find out where we needed to go so I snapped a picture.
We walked back down Champs Elysees to get to the metro, but couldn't find where we were supposed to be going, so we stopped at a restaurant and asked the hostess where it was. She told us a better stop to go to so we started walking towards it. Right as we got to the metro stop, we saw a Velib bike station.
Velib bikes are pretty new in Paris and they are a way for people to bike around the city. Parisians get a microchip added to a credit card and when they want to use a bike, they swipe their card, take a bike, use it and then return it to any Velib bike station. It is such a neat concept! Tourists can order a day pass in advance and use the Velib bikes as well. I had already signed Stephen and I up for days passes on Saturday.
When we saw the Velib bikes Stephen suggested we ride them instead of taking the metro. I was hesitant, because the cars in Paris are crazy, but decided to give it a try.
I was worried about my camera, but just put it in the basket and hoped for the best. We ended up stopping after a little while and Stephen carried it for me. I hit a bump and my camera bounced up and I was scared to death it was going to fall out.
Stephen finding our route.
We needed to go down Champs Elysees. Do you remember all of the traffic on this street? Plus Paris drivers are crazy! So, we started out on the sidewalk.
That wasn't working well, so somehow Stephen convinced me to get on the road.
It was absolutely crazy!!! I may have screamed a few times when we had to literally pull out in front of cars going very fast!
Of course I was still able to take pictures with my cell phone though. I HAD to document us doing this!
We made it down Champs Elysees alive!! We were going to ride through the Tuileries Garden, but didn't see anyone riding bikes and we didn't want to get in trouble, so we found some small roads to ride down to get to our hotel.
This was so much fun!!! One of the best things we did on this whole trip!
We got back to the hotel and our room was being cleaned so we went down to see if Steve and Nancy were in their room. Nancy and Taylor were there and Michael came in soon after. We told them all about our adventure and Taylor and Michael wanted to go ride bikes with us. Mary and Gary came in and said they were headed to the Eiffel Tower so we told them we had a great way to get there! Mary needed a little convincing, but soon enough we were all set up and ready to go.
We made it and it was SO much fun!
We actually ran into Mike, Shelly, Cameron and Steve when we got there. They had been on the big red bus and just got off and were deciding what to do.
We hung around for a while, took a few more pictures, got a snack and then headed back to the hotel.
We even convinced them all to ride down Champs Elysees with us. Because we didn't think risking our lives once today was good enough, we decided to give it another shot. But we made it out again alive!
Riding Velib bikes through Paris was one of the most amazing things! The whole time we were riding I kept saying to myself, "we are riding bikes in PARIS!". So amazing!
We went back to the hotel to rest and get ready for dinner.
Since I am crazy, I had to take pictures of my macrons I had gotten earlier at Laduree.
They got a little messed up on our bike ride.
They still tasted great though. Vanilla and raspberry were my favorite!
We were going to a very nice restaurant for dinner, so I dressed up. Do you like the tape on my feet? My blisters were killing me!
We went to dinner at Cafe de la Paix, which has been in Paris since 1862. It is an extremely nice restaurant. Apparently only half of the table got the memo a picture was being taken- haha!
I had the french onion soup as a starter. It was seriously amazing! Best french onion soup I have ever had!
Stephen had the shrimp ravioli, which was interesting.
Michael had the asparagus salad.
This was Cameron's meal. A huge plate of seafood.
I had a fish dish. The fish was called Ben Horry.
And even though I couldn't eat one more thing, I managed to squeeze in this Napoleon. It was wonderful!
It was pretty late after we left dinner and we had a super early flight so we all went back to the hotel to pack and get some sleep.
Paris was absolutely incredible! There aren't even words to describe how great of a time we had here. I was so sad we had to leave! I know that I have to go back one day!
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