Summertime in Paris

I want to start this off by wishing Nate a happy birthday! We're back to being the same age again - cause for us both to celebrate!
Now - on to August! The very weekend after we returned from London, we set out again for Paris, taking advantage of a three-day Bank Holiday weekend. Once again, the trip was much too quick to be able to appreciate the city the way we wanted to, but we packed our schedule and tried our best to partake in the joie de vivre that the French are so renowned for. We even decided to cash in on some hotel points and stay in a fancy hotel on the Champs Elysees. Tres chic!



Although both of us had been to Paris before, I had never been able to climb the Arc de Triomphe - and as it's one of my favorite monuments, I felt it was necessary, so that was the first project on our visit. As we are now at an age when we can appreciate the Louvre, we took the time to give its famous works a proper study, as Nate demonstrates in the photograph below. (We did eventually find the real Mona Lisa, but it took a while!)
Our first evening was spent enjoying dinner at an outdoor cafe, followed by an evening ascent up the Eiffel Tower - I don't know when the sparkly lights were installed, but they look awesome, and I'm so glad the picture above shows them!


Our second day entailed a loooooooong wait to climb the steps of Notre Dame. My mom had told me we could walk amongst the gargoyles, so my curiousity was piqued. Plus I wanted to continue my ongoing quest to challenge my fear of heights. The heights were not as difficult as we thought they'd be, and the views from the top of the church were amazing.




During our final afternoon, we trekked out to the Sacre Coeur Basilica - a place neither of us had been. It was beautiful, and we're glad we did it, but we were exhausted by the end of the journey, so probably didn't appreciate it as much as we could have. We capped off the evening with another leisurely outdoor dinner and a walk down the Champs Elysees.
The weather was perfect for such a busy weekend, and we returned back to Dublin exhausted but happy with our trip. Even though this was my third "quick trip" to Paris (the two previous ones were back in high school), there were many experiences, like climbing Notre Dame, that I'd always wanted to try, but never had enough time for. We now feel as though we've done the sightseer's side of Paris properly - so if we make it back again, we're ready to explore a deeper side of the city.