European Adventure

Welcome back to my European Adventure!

Today we are leaving London on the Eurostar train and arriving in Paris.

We took the evening train so we could maximize our time in London and that worked well. We were served a light dinner on the train.

On the way we saw some beautiful countryside.

It was getting dark when we arrived (fun fact, the sun doesn’t set until after 10 pm in Paris in the summer!) and so the outside picture of our amazing hotel is from the next morning. We arrived at La Demeure Montaigne Hotel and it is truly a 5-star, white glove experience! An absolutely gorgeous hotel and it’s walking distance to the Seine, the Eiffel Tower, and more.

The rooms are so beautiful and roomy. The finishings are just gorgeous. We enjoyed breakfast at the hotel each morning and it was delicious.

We hit the ground running the next day! I explored just a bit in the morning around our hotel and then we were so excited to be headed to the Louvre.

The Louvre is quite an incredible place and we saw some really amazing art (yes, including the Mona Lisa!).

We spent almost the entire day there and only saw a fraction of it. If you are an art lover, I highly recommend multiple days at the Louvre.

We ate lunch at one of the museum’s little cafes and were able to eat outside with an amazing view of the courtyard.

Be aware that the museum can be pretty warm inside in the summer, so dress accordingly, and drink lots of water, and maybe even bring a little hand fan.

After our day at the Louvre, I just had to take a quick little walk down from our hotel to the river and catch a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.

Day 2 was quite a full day. We called this our “Museum Day”. We started the day at the National Museum of Natural History. This was something my niece wanted to do, and it was just absolutely beautiful. Think of a peaceful park that is surrounded by various Natural History Museums. We really enjoyed the huge trees and flowers and the quiet (a nice break from the busy city). We went in the Gallery of Paleontology, where they have a skeleton from just about any animal you can think of. It was quite fascinating, especially the dinosaur exhibit.

We then headed to lunch at a little eatery nearby. I had some yummy pasta and my daughter had a pizza that had potatoes on it! So unique!

Then we headed to an adorable cafe called Le Renard Cafe. This is a fun little cafe that is Studio Ghibli themed. We had some yummy treats and then headed over to Musee D’orsay!

Musee D’orsay was probably the highlight of Paris for me. I love Van Gogh and they have a lovely little Van Gogh exhibit. They also have a lot of beautiful impressionist art. This museum was not as crowded as the Louvre and was nice and cool and comfortable to explore.

They even had a mini Statue of Liberty.

There are beautiful clock windows because part of it used to be a train station. You can line up the clock with the skyline and see the Sacre Coeur framed in the clock.

Part of this museum was once Napoleon Bonaparte’s residence. They do have his apartment still there to visit, but unfortunately it was closed when we were there. I did get to see the beautiful ballroom, though.

We left the museum and went right across the street to the Cafe D’orsay for some delicious french onion soup. The waiter was so friendly and lovely and we really enjoyed our meal there.

After the yummy break, we headed to the Eiffel Tower! The weather wasn’t great but we still got to enjoy the scene. We saw some adorable ducks in the park. We weren’t able to fully experience the area because of the Olympics preparations, but it was still a really neat thing to see.