Our top 15 things we found surprising or interesting about Paris...
1. People walk around with baguettes. It's seriously just like the movies! Baguettes in shopping bags, baguette sandwiches, or people simply just gnawing on a baguette walking down the street. And yes, the bread was delicious!!! We particularly enjoyed the simple Parisian sandwich: ham & cheese on a buttered baguette.
2. Paris is dirty! Definitely different from Japan, that's for sure. Such a beautiful city, so it's very unfortunate that there is gum, graffiti, cigarettes, and dog poop everywhere. The subways even reeked of urine sometimes.
3. Dogs at restaurants. Actually, dogs everywhere - in purses, on leashes, without leashes, in shops, and at restaurants. We even saw a dog sitting in a chair at a table inside a restaurant.
4. It's expensive! I knew Paris would be expensive, especially since it's one of the top travel destinations in the world. But since we're coming from Japan - the most expensive country in the world, I thought things would seem cheap. But I have to say, I think Paris is more expensive than Japan. Of course, you can find some cheaper items - mainly bread and cheese ;)
5. People are friendly. Parisians get a bad rep for being so rude. But everyone we encountered was friendly and overall helpful and nice. We found that people are nicer than they're made out to be. Maybe this was because we had a "French translator" with us and never had to deal with the language barrier...?
6. Music on the subway. We encountered several people playing music on the streets of Paris, including underground on the subway, and even on the actual train. This cute little man was kind enough to play at the opposite end of the train since Elodie was sleeping, and he even posed for a picture.
7. The Eiffel Tower is brown. Who would have known? Seems like every picture I've ever seen shows it as a metal silverish tower. But it is indeed, brown.
8. Everyone smokes! No joke, everyone smokes! Men, women, young, old, you name it - they're smoking.
9. The staple of Paris: Nutella. It's everywhere, and ohhhh sooooo good! We really loved the nutella and banana crepes. And lucky for us there were crepe stands all over the city!
10. No fast food restaurants. Occasionally you would see a McDonalds, Subway, or Starbucks - but the city was not littered with fast food chains like the U.S and several other cities throughout the world. I was impressed with this, and loved all the local cafes.
11. Cafes everywhere. So cute, so unique, and so yummy! And I was surprised to see people sitting outside at cafes everyday, all day long. People sit and smoke, drink wine, drink coffee, and relax. Even if it's freezing cold out, they're still enjoying their cafes.
12. Such a diverse city. People were from all over the world, from several nationalities. We were actually surprised to see quite a few Japanese people there. Love the diversity - that's one of Japan's major downfalls for us.
13. NOT baby-friendly whatsoever. I've decided that people in Paris either don't have babies, or never leave their homes. I never saw a single changing table in any bathroom anywhere. So poor Elodie was changed on the streets and park benches sometimes, and unfortunately on the nasty bathroom floors sometimes too. There was also no place to nurse her... and since nursing isn't very popular in France anyway, it wasn't ideal or easy to do. So I'd usually just try to find a park bench, or hide away in a strip mall or anywhere indoors... since it was so cold outside!! Not an easy task. And the entire city was not stroller friendly - cobblestone isn't so easy to push a stroller on. Plus, strollers don't fit through the entrances or exits of any subway, and there aren't any elevators either! I wouldn't recommend taking a baby to Paris to anyone.
14. The Mona Lisa painting is surprisingly small! And her real name is La Gioconda or La Joconde, which is the actual name of the painting. Here you can see it behind Joe & Elodie in bullet proof glass.
15. I don't really have anything to say for this one, other than... we loved Paris!!! Everything from the food, cute cafes and shops, historic buildings, to the overall atmosphere. It really is the city of love
♥
The outside - so much detail on the building, it was truly incredible. It's hard to get a picture of it's huge size, but you can kind of see how the building extends quite a ways in the back.
We climbed the 387 steps of the winding staircase to the top of the towers for a gorgeous panoramic view over all of Paris. With a baby strapped to my chest, it was an exhausting journey! But well worth it to see the view, and famous gargoyles up close.
A gargoyle on the top of Notre Dame looking out over Paris. There were hundreds of these mysterious stone creatures throughout the top of the cathedral.
Another view from the top, looking down over the back of the cathedral. Of course we took several other stunning photos from the top, you'll have to check out our shutterfly pics to see them all.
The lower chapel, for the palace staff.
The upper sanctuary, reserved for the king and his family.
Another view of the upper chapel.
