simply n*amoured: My Summer 2012 Travel Diary: Paris Part 1

Now that summer is coming to an end I thought I might share my summer activities with you. Brace yourselves for a photo-heavy entry :)

This summer we had made plans to visit Boston. The husband and I spent a good chunk of our lives there so it's like a second home to us and we miss it dearly. Unfortunately, as summer approached we ended up having to shuffle our plans around and postpone our Boston trip :( Buuuut I wasn't completely devastated as our new vacation plans involved visiting all of Italy, prefaced by a stop in beautiful Paris. Hip hip hooray!

Our new itinerary was made even more special because my mom joined us all the way from the Philippines. She met us here in Turkey and together we flew to Paris with my 2.5 year old Noah. This was my first time flying without my hubby so naturally I was feeling anxious about being a solo parent for a week. Thankfully travelling with Noah turned out to be a cinch, he adapted to the change in environment really quickly and with minimum fuss. Phew!

But I digress, back to Paris. My first visit to the city was a few years ago, in the heart of winter and it was so brutally cold I ended up getting sick at some point during the trip. Despite the illness, I fell in love with the city and have since wanted to re-visit.

Pic taken as we were driving past the Eiffel

In this last visit my love for Paris was rekindled. I adore everything about the city - the immaculately preserved historic monuments tucked in every corner, effortlessly chic Parissiene ladies walking down cobblestone sidewalks (and kudos to French men who are not afraid to wear bright colors), the mouth-watering pastries (who new a plain croissant could taste so darn good), or little details like the perfectly trimmed trees that line the streets. All these little things give the city so much charisma, its impossible not to fall in love with Paris.

The first thing we did was dump our luggage in our hotel room and walked over to the Louvre.

Even though we were exhausted and disheveled we couldnt resist taking pictures.

We were enjoying the area so much we almost forgot to eat! We opted for a light dinner around the corner at Le Ruc Cafe.

Before we knew it, it was well past Noah's bedtime but the adults weren't ready to go down. So we took a short stroll to L'Opera de Paris.

Stayed long enough to take our pictures and then headed back to the hotel to attend to some much needed beauty sleep.

Day 2, beauty rest accomplished, ready to take on the city. After devouring some croissants from a nearby boulangerie, we returned to the Louvre with the intention of visiting the museum only to find out it was closed for the day.

We stayed a little and soaked in the ambiance.

My mom having a little fun with the pyramids.

And Noah having his share of fun dipping his feet in the water

The Louvre was followed by a visit to Champs Elysees.

Champs Elysees perfectly trimmed trees made my heart smile.

One of many human statues along the avenue but this one gets extra ~~points~~ coins for originality.

A big grin from a happy shopper.

L'arc de Triomphe

Miniscule standing next to the massive columns of the Madeleine.

The next day our first stop was Notre Dame.

See the lengthy line behind us? Wasn't in the mood to wait in that line so I opted to linger outside with Noah while my mom went in.

Being goofy while waiting for grandma.

Trying to get my little man to nap in his stroller before heading off to our next destination.

Next stop, the Eiffel Tower. I thought the line to see the Notre Dame was bad, well it didn't compare to the 2 hour wait to get to the top of Eiffel. We debated about leaving our place in line and moving on to other sites but at that point we had already invested an hour of our time waiting so we stayed and waited another hour. On the plus side we did get to chat with some interesting travellers who were in line with us and of course, the views from the top of the Eiffel were a pay off.