Honeymoon Part 1: Paris, France

Now that the holidays are over perhaps it is time to get back into the blogging world a bit more and to catch you all up on what has been going around in these parts.  I posted a blog about my wedding oh over a month ago, so I am thinking that maybe now would be the time to start talking about my honeymoon.

For those of you who don't know... I had absolutely NOTHING to do with planning my honeymoon.  This was the one part of the wedding planning that I left completely up to MD.  I knew deep down that I could not plan a wedding and a honeymoon vacation all on my own, and I figured that my attention to detail would be better served in planning our wedding... so it was up to MD to plan this vacation.  After he did such a good job planning our anniversary (and engagement) trip to Williamsburg last year I knew that he was up for the task and that he would do a fantastic job.  And let me tell you... he did not disappoint.

So the honeymoon was supposed to be a surprise for me... but my future mother-in-law accidentally spilled the beans about part one of the honeymoon when the 3 of us were in the car together and she turned to MD and said "Did you get a lock to put on the bridge when you go to Paris?" and then proceeded to get a look of pure horror on her face as MD glared at her from the other side of the car.  Of course in the back seat I was ecstatic because well I LOVED Paris when I went there during my time abroad and I was so excited to be able to go back when I had money and could actually do some of the things I wanted to do the last time I was there.

As it turns out MD did get us a lock for when we go to Paris. And not only did he get us a lock...he got us a personalized lock!!

Our personalized lock for Paris!

So... first stop on the honeymoon... Paris, France!  We left from JFK the Wednesday after our wedding and it was an uneventful flight.  I think we both slept for the majority of it, so before we knew it we were in France!  We took the most expensive taxi ride ever from the airport to the hotel but it was worth it because although we had slept on the plane I was in no mood to try to figure out public transportation.  We got to the hotel... showered... and we were off to explore Paris.

Day 1 in Paris was just spent walking around a bit and trying to familiarize ourselves with where things were located in relationship to our hotel.  We walked along the river and eventually decided to check out the museum of natural history.  While there we saw lots of bones (MD seemed to enjoy this more than I did) and then we walked through the gardens before deciding to head towards Notre Dame.

Mural outside of what we later discovered was an art museum

Museum of Natural History

Giraffe!!

Lots and lots of bones...

Pretty flowers in the gardens

We found a duck!

The line to get in Notre Dame was INSANE so we decided that was something better left for the next morning, but that didn't stop us from taking a bunch of pictures of the outside because the sun had come out and it really just looked too gorgeous to NOT take any pictures. After taking some pictures we decided to walk around the city while heading back to our hotel to call it an early night.

Outside of Notre Dame

Chilling outside Notre Dame

Typical Paris building

Day 2 in Paris we woke up fairly late (didn't set an alarm but thought since we went to bed so early we would get up early... WRONG!) and headed back towards Notre Dame so that we could tour the inside.

Cool street lights while waiting to get inside Notre Dame

Rose Window from the inside... have like 30 pics of this!

Obsessed with the stained glass!

After checking out the inside of Notre Dame we headed over to the bridge so that we could attach our lock and throw the key in the river signifying our unbreakable love!  Let me tell you, it was not easy finding a spot for our lock, but we eventually did and of course I forced the hubby to take some pictures with it!

Our lock!  Notice it is NOT the personalized one... well that is cause this girl managed to forget the personalized on at home... whoops!

Us with our lock!

Next we headed to the BatoBus station to buy a 2 day pass so that we could take the water bus around Paris.  As much as we enjoyed walking, my ankle wasn't enjoying it too much so this way we were able to do some sightseeing from the comforts of a water bus.  The next stop was the Louvre! Unfortunately it was super crowded and since MD doesn't really enjoy art all that much we just walked around the outside taking pictures of the buildings and pyramids before heading towards the Arc. Thankfully I got to see the inside of the Louvre the last time I was in France, so I wasn't as disappointed that I couldn't go in this time.  Plus it gives me an excuse to go back so that I can drag the hubby all around. 

Waiting for the BatoBus with Notre Dame in the background

Hubby taking pictures outside the Louvre... doesn't he look like a pro!

Pyramid outside the Louvre

BatoBus!

We walked from the Lourve to the Arc as there were some neat buildings all around and the hubby wanted to take pictures of them. Can we just say he is a picture taking fiend!  The man took like 900 pictures almost every day of our honeymoon... ok well maybe not 900 every day, but I think the least amount of pictures he took for one day was like 400 maybe. 

Once we got to the Arc we decided that we were going to climb to the top.  Let me tell you... 284 stairs is A LOT of stairs.  We made it to the top though and the view was absolutely breathtaking!  I wish the weather had been better for us, but hey, the view was still pretty!

View from the top of the Arc

Eiffel Tower from the top of the Arc

After climbing to the top of the Arc we were beat and decided that it was time to head back to the hotel and to dinner.  We wanted to call it an early night again because well we still had to make it to the Eiffel Tower and we knew that we wanted to get there early the next morning.  We actually did manage to wake up early on Day 3 so that we could get to the Eiffel Tower at a reasonable time.  Before heading to the Eiffel Tower we took a nice walk to the Hotel DeVille.  This was something I hadn't seen the last time I was in Paris, so I was curious to see what all the hype was about.  It didn't disappoint.  I so enjoyed looking at all the statutes carved out along the outside of the building and took a million pictures to prove it!

I LOVED this carousel

Next stop... Eiffel Tower!  So we get to the Eiffel Tower and it is all roped off, there are army people with guns and police every where... needless to say we were confused.  I of course hop on the internet on my cell phone to find out that some Greenpeace people are having a demonstration to protest the "Arctic 30" because the French Prime Minister was about to take a trip to Russia.  We didn't know how long the demonstration was going to last, but we were not leaving Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower so we decided to hang out and see what the morning brought.  Eventually they got the demonstrators down and we were able to go up.  This time we went all the way to the top and even had a champagne toast up there! (Most EXPENSIVE champagne toast EVER btw) After taking a bunch of pictures from all the different levels we headed to the park for a mini picnic lunch.  After lunch we walked around a bit more to just explore and kill some time before we went to our wine tasting

Champagne Toast!

The last thing we had to do on our Paris adventure was a wine tasting!  This was one of the things I was most excited about on our trip.  I LOVE my wine and I was super excited that the hubby had managed to schedule a wine tasting for us while we were there.  The tasting was super informative and of course we tried a bunch of new wines... and found the the hubby might actually like some of them!

Paris was an amazing first stop to our honeymoon!! We had such a great time and we know we definitely want to go back at some point because although we saw so much there was still so much more to see!  

Stay turned for Honeymoon Part 2 to find out where we went for the 2nd half of our honeymoon and to discover how the hubby told me what we were doing!  

Continuing the tradition... something I am thankful for...  Thinking about traveling makes me think about my time abroad.  I am so thankful for my parents and Professora Guerrero for encouraging my to study abroad during my junior year at Bucknell.  Through that experience I grew so much as a person... gained so much confidence in myself... and discovered my love of traveling.  I would not be the person I am today without having had this experience and I am thankful every day that they "forced" me to go!