As is almost always the case, we hit the ground running! The last 72 hours in Paris have been a whirlwind and I didn't get a chance to start updating until now... We are waiting for our flight to Rome. In the past 72 hours we have walked more than 30 miles and taken the Metro (Subway) all over Paris... we are experts in finding our way around! Apologies in advance for my (lack of) writing skills below... I don't have the time to properly edit. (I shudder thinking of my co-worker Allie reading this.)
Paris Day 1. Feb. 26.
Our flight arrived just before 8am Paris time. It didn't take any time at all to clear customs and retrieve our bags. (Though, deplaning a giant plane on the stairs via stairs and having to take a long bus ride to the terminal was annoying... But I wasn't as annoyed as an old gay that had too much to drink on the plane and kept yelling on the bus, "Worst airport in THE WORLD!")
We had a WILD hour long cab ride to our hotel. There was a ton of traffic and our cab driver was darting all over the place, and we were going from not moving to 90 miles an hour (literally) to not moving. We were super crammed in a tiny cab with our luggage... but that's okay... we didn't care, WE JUST ARRIVED PARIS!!!
We got checked into our hotel, the Crowne Plaza Republique (free with IHG points), and met back up to get lunch. We found a little bread and sweet shop around the corner from our hotel and had sandwiches. We were trying valiantly to stay awake til a normal Paris bedtime to get on this schedule as quick as possible. We headed to the Picasso Museum since it was the closest thing to do from our hotel... about a 20 minute walk away. It was very interesting to follow Picasso's life and all the different phases of his art... but there wasn't any of his most famous art here. It was a ton of interesting art, don't get me wrong, it just wasn't anything that is really all that known.
View from our room into the courtyard
View from Penny's room into the Republique plaza and monument.
Picasso Museum in an old nobleman's estate.
Picasso Sculpture . . . he did all kinds of crazy art
After a couple hours at the Picasso museum we were EXHAUSTED... we couldn't stay awake anymore. We went and took a doze for an hour before our scheduled 6pm tour of Le Marais neighborhood, which is very close to our hotel. I booked this tour and our seven hour Paris day tour tomorrow with David on the Tours By Locals website. I was very excited for the evening Le Marais tour because I'd seen it on House Hunters International so many times and read that it is the hip gay neighborhood of Paris now. It was an interesting hour and a half tour, but honestly, there are like six gay bars and a handful of restaurants, so it was slightly disappointing. Also, the bars are TINY and everyone basically goes in and gets their drink and then stands crammed in on the sidewalk outside... not my idea of a good time.
BUT, David did recommend lots of places and after we parted ways with him for the night we circled back to one of the gay owned restaurants and had dinner. It was delicious, we ordered the chef's plate of the day as he recommended. It was a happening lively place, everyone was friendly, and about a half dozen Parisian drag queens also stopped by.
Hotel pics
Ending our first day in Paris at the hotel bar.
We went to bed at about midnight, and have a full day of Friday touring ahead of us.
