Since Sofie's favorite mode of transportation is NOT the car, we decided that our best bet to visit Paris was by Thalys train. We had a four day weekend so headed to Paris Friday morning, the train was fantastic, so fast and easy, we were there in a little over an hour. Dropped our luggage at the hotel, and found a Brasserie for lunch where I had the best croque madame of my life. We decided to head to the Eiffel Tower next because we missed it when we came in February when it was FREEZING and we had the best view of it from our hotel anyways, so why bother. So all I wanted was one little picture of the three of us where you could see our faces and the tower in the background. This took three different nice people on the street that we stopped, plus the time it took them to get out of earshot while I asked the next person. So...like 30 minutes :) But we got a good one! Next we did a little shopping on the Champs-Elysses, and visited our first "luxury bathroom" which cost 2 euros, but was in fact quite lovely. Cute idea, more like a bathroom store which fun papers, silver toilet bowl scrubbers, and great smells! For an extra 50 cents we could have gone into the "spa" toilette, which we didn't but I REALLY wish we did just because I can't stop thinking about what that could possibly mean. A massage seat? Heated hand towels? What, what?
Another fun store we visited was the Lavinia wine shop with a huge selection of different wines, mostly French, and a little card that you buy for tasting them! You basically put money on the card, then stick it into this machine that holds the bottles, put your glass underneath and get a little 3 oz taste. Genius!
The next day we walked over to the Seine, through the Jardin Tuilleries, and went to the Musee D'Orsay. As we walked up we got a little turned off by the massive line wrapping around in front of the building until a lovely man who worked there called us over through the line, and told us "our" entrance (aka stroller, wheelchair entrance) was over to the side...with NO line! We got right in and Sofie even permitted us to see everything we wanted (the whole Impressionist floor, some Van Gogh, Rodin and Gaugain) We walked around the city a little more, had some wine with lunch and took the train back to Brussels.
A great trip!
