Okay so for me, hearts and frills of valentine’s day make me feel, unfortunately. It’s just not me; I don’t do fluffy teddies or heart-shaped anything. Sorry but the lovie dovie stuff just doesn’t float my boat. So valentine’s day in Paris, okay it’s borderline cliché but hey the boy planned it so, I must go along with it. Hehe okay so it kind of fit our schedule and central Paris is something neither of us had done before, so why not.
We started off well, kind of, okay okay so we sort of went to MacDonald’s. Yep, the place where they serve that kind of food. Hmm I know, I know is not a usual stop for me but I was hungry, it was early, and everything else seemed shut. There was one redeeming feature though, we ordered via the self-service stations, picking what we wanted via the touchscreen.
I do love a good novelty, I ordered pancakes and tea, and Lee got a burger and a hot chocolate. It was as expected but filled a gap.
Our first stop on our whistle-stop tour of central Paris was the Notre Dame Cathedral, we turned a corner and wow just wow, it was stunning. The Cathedral itself is such a striking building; you couldn’t help but stand there in ore for a few moments. I’m a big fan of the almost excessive amount of tiny details that make an exceptional building shine.
As you can see from the pictures, walking around the inside was almost humbling. It just so happens that it was a Sunday and Sunday mass was taking place as we walked around, yep you heard right there were people sitting through mass as we peered at the interior of this stunning cathedral, bit weird but no one else seemed to mind.
Our next infamous sight was the book and art sellers along the river Seine, they weren’t all over and sold their wares as it was Sunday, but it still was a lovely sight but don’t be thinking the antique collections are cheaply priced because they know their market well and price accordingly.
We took a slight detour and walked along to the Louvre; we sadly didn’t go in as we had been told it’s so big, you’re never doing it in a day let alone the few hours we had in Paris. It was so crowded with all these holidaymakers (tourists, sightseers) making funny gestures towards their partner’s cameras as though they were touching the top of the iconic glass pyramids. I look at Lee with his fancy camera, and although we were making fun of these people prancing about, I asked Lee to give me the camera so he could get a picture of him with the building too. I then said “go on then you know you want too” and gestured to him, to stand on these specially designated posts to stand to get that typical “oh I’m touching the top of the Louvre” shot. The more he refused, the more I insisted, so yep here it is, the very sustained grumpy look of a Mr Webber touching the top. Hehe. See we can be typical tourists too. Hehe
We then walked through the gardens with the various shaped bushes and sculptures of different sized women, we carried on walking until we got to the very posh Champs-Elysees but before we got there we had to stop and rest our tired legs and purchase a warmed crape with of course Nutella smeared all over it, oooh it was good, a little pricey at five Euros for that and a bottle of water but hey ho.
I have to say by the time we had walked the rather long walk to the Champs-Elysees I wasn’t much interested in peering into the enormous, expensive shops, even with the pouring rain I just wanted to power on to the Arc De Triomphe.
Okay so at this point it was pouring down, and my legs were killing, and I was hungry, save to say is I found a perch and rested while Lee took another billion pictures, I mean a stunning sequence of photographs encapsulating the essence of Arc De Triomphe. Hehe
He did get a lovely shot with no cars in it, so a win-win.
After our short stop, we made our way towards the main feature the Eiffel Tower, another long walk but you certainly can’t walk your way through central Paris and not see the big girl herself. She was, of course, a stunner and always a must see, it was great to see her but as the rain was pouring it was a shortstop, and we scoured for a relatively cheap place to eat. Read that review HERE.
It was an awesome day and one I wouldn’t change for anything; I might not be a girly girl but my valentine’s day in Paris was amazing.