Written June 2017

July 13-16: Paris, France

Sites: We visited the Eiffel Tower twice — once in the day time and once at night to find it lit up by a fireworks show because it happened to be the country’s Independence Day. We wandered through the Jardin du Luxembourg, got creeped out at Les Catacombes, sat outside the Pantheon, walked through and then climbed to the top of the Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris, saw Mona Lisa at the Musee du Louvre, attended a ritual honoring soldiers at the Arc de Triomphe, walked the grounds of the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur, walked through Paris’ oldest square, the Place des Vosges, ate the most delicious ham and cheese sandwich at the Canal St Marin, rummaged through several flea markets, and strolled across Love Lock Bridge.

Paris was much more romantic and captivating than I expected. I remember eating kabobs and crepes and thinking I could get used to this. Lance hated the public transportation. The metro was under construction and let us down on many occasions. Luckily the city adopted a bike sharing system that saved the day.

Lodging: In Paris we stayed at another AirBNB because almost everything else was booked! We lucked out in that this place was in a nice area, had lots of reviews (that became very important to us after Hotel Sonne) and was satisfying to our standards. This flat was in Latin Quarter on the third floor with no elevator. It was $497 for four nights. I remember the tiny winding staircase, the steps that were falling apart and the bright blue paint on the walls! Inside, there were several small rooms: A tiny kitchen with a door to an even tinier bathroom — getting inside and shutting the door was quite a feat.

Off the kitchen was a small bedroom with a single bed. There we kept our big bags and hung our laundry. To the right of the kitchen was the main room that had a table and chairs with a window above that looked over the building’s courtyard into the tenant’s garden. In this room was also a closet, TV, couch and the main attraction — a bright orange weighted Murphy bed. It was such a space saver, and comfortable enough if I remember right. The owner lived in a lower level apartment and waved at us from afar, which was the perfect amount of interaction for us 🙂 Lance remembers watching the (boring) World Cup match in bed while I blogged, slept or booked future reservations.