Paris: Day 1

It was 12 hours door to door from Budapest to Paris. My Mom had flown across an ocean. It was no surprise that we had a little trouble dragging ourselves out of bed on our first day in Paris.

Our apartment, I discovered in the day light, was located in an adorable part of the 7th arrondisement. We went downstairs to buy some groceries, had breakfast in the room, and set off to begin our Mother-Daughter Parisian Adventure.

We took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed the 284 stairs to the top for a breathtaking view of the city of Paris.





We walked down the Champs-Elysees ...



.. and ate a panini at a cute cafe.

We stumbled upon a Christmas Fair, where I was able to get Max a snow globe I promised him without having to spend 10 euros on a piece of plastic.



We took a detour to see the Grand and Petit Palais ...



... and made our way through the rest of the Christmas fair (with a brief stop for vin chaud i.e. hot mulled wine).

The Champs-Elysees brought us to the place de la Concorde, where we saw the Egyptian Obelisk, given by the Egyptian government in the 19th century.



Also at the place de la Concorde, was the Wheel of Excellence and beautiful fountains which I had a certain affinity for.



We walked through the (rather barren) Jardin de Tuileries ... and then on to the Louvre!



On Friday evenings, people under 26 get into the Louvre for free which made the whole thing even better. Walking up to the Louvre felt a little like a dream. The museum is absolutely incredible, but seriously overwhelming. We saw the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory, the Venus de Milo, and hundreds of other amazing works of art.

My Mom and I also carried out "research" for our hypothetical book entitled "Butts of the Louvre."