Bon Soir! Today was a fun-filled, packed day full of things to do in Paris! We left around 4:45am this morning and took a brisk walk over to St. Pancras International Train Station to catch the Eurostar. I'm pretty sure both Briana and I passed out for the full 2 1/2 hour train ride. Before we knew it, we were in Paris! Our first challenge...getting out of the train station. It took us about 45 minutes (and every French word I remember) to get the right tickets to get us over to the Arc de Triomphe. Turns out I remember more direction than I would have thought! I was yet again in awe of the pure size of the Arc, as well as the detail. Though we did not climb it, we did view it from angle and took lots of pictures. Then it was off to the Champs D'Elysees, or what I like to call the 5th Avenue of Paris. We did some shopping until we got hungry. I even found the chocolatier, Jeff de Bruges, that we had gone to two years ago and bought a sampling of some chocolate. I can't wait to eat them! I visited one of my favorite French cafes for lunch, Paul, where I got a chicken baguette sandwich and a chocolate macaroon. YUM! We spent some time indoors eating to warm up. We did a little bit more shopping and then decided to move on.

We walked from the Arc to the Eiffel Tower. I even found the old hotel that my family stayed at the last time! It brought back lots of old fun memories! I took Briana to my family's favorite viewing spot of the Eiffel Tower, the Trocadero. After getting some fabulous views, we decided to get a closer look. My breath was still taken away by how majestic it looked. After many more pictures, we decided to move on to the next part of our day, which required us to navigate the metro yet again! We asked for help and got some and the next thing we knew, we were at Notre Dame! I was struck by how similar the west end of Westminster Abbey and Notre Dame look. We of course went inside to not only get a little warm, but to view the gorgeous stained glass windows. We did a little souvenir shopping in the Latin Quarter and then pulled out our handy dandy map for our last major attraction, the Louvre. Though we did not go inside, we still took the magnitude of the palace itself, as well as the lovely glass triangle sculptures outside. Fully frozen through, we decided to make our way back to the Eiffel Tower to try to catch it at sunset, which we completed successfully! We figured that was a good stopping place for dinner.

We ate dinner at a little cafe right near the Eiffel Tower. I got a glass of wine and Briana and I both got the best steaks of our lives! It was delicious! I also got a Nutella crepe for dessert! I told Briana I had to fit in all of the food I would eat in a week in France into one day. Dinner was not only delicious but it was a great way to warm up since it was about 30 degrees all day today. Very chilly! Our last stop was back one more time at the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night! We even got to see it twinkle! I got a little emotional watching it and thinking that this will be a moment I will remember for the rest of my life. We slowly teared ourselves away from the tower and decided to take a taxi back to the train station instead of trying to figure out the metro again. We arrived in plenty of time for our train, successfully made it through customs, and did a little shopping to spend the rest of the euros we had taken out, since they will do us no good here in London. There were some delays on our train, but we did finally make it back to London around 11pm. It was a very long and busy day, but an amazing one that I will never forget! Good night!