Anyone guilty of planning a vacation with the most genuine intentions of taking is easy and finding time to relax, yet somehow by lunch time on day one you're already sleep deprived with sore feet and on the verge of being hangry (where's a Snickers when you really need one)?
Yea, me too.
Our goal was to use our first full day in Paris to get acquainted with our neighborhood in the Latin Quarter and simply ease into vacation mode.
Well 35,233 steps, 56 floors, and 17.1 miles later, I'd say we over did it….just a little bit. Hello EXHAUSTION!
BOULEVARD ARAGO
Still a little cloudy from the time difference, I was surprisingly awake and ready to go for the day before 8am (look at me mom, I'm a morning person!). One thing I really wanted to see last time I was in Paris was the Catacombs, but all the reading I had done said that unless you get there early in the morning before the doors open at 10am that you are guaranteed to find an absurdly long line with a wait that can last an upwards of 4 hours (mainly because there is only a limited number of people who can be in the space at a time. Something like 200). Luckily, our Airbnb was only about a 15 minute walk away. So by 8:30 my sister and I were hurrying down Boulevard Arago anxious to see if the monstrous line had already started to form.
CATACOMBS
I'll be honest, we almost thought we had gone the wrong way. The entrance to the Catacombs isn't big or flashy. The area is surrounded by a few parks and if you didn't know it was there, you'd probably walk right past it without even realizing. We got to the area around 9am and there were only a handful of people standing in line.
So thankful that we didn't stumble upon a winding que of hundreds, we relaxed a bit and scoped out the surrounding area for food. Needing to eat a proper French breakfast, we popped into Café Paul for our "usual" order of pain au chocolate (basically a dreamy, uber delicious, chocolate filled croissant). We parked it on a bench and ate our breakfast with a view of The Lion of Belfort while also keeping an eye on the line at the Catacombs.
After demolishing our croissants, we jumped back in line and maybe had 20 people ahead of us; however, within minutes the line had quadrupled in size and was already snaking along Place Denfert-Rochereau. Like clockwork, the doors opened at 10am, and we were in by 10:18 (woot woot!)
If there is one takeaway I can give you about visiting the Catacombs, it is that the exit is not the same place you enter! Maybe we were just unprepared, but I had just assumed we would come back up and exit from the same area we had entered. Yep, definitely not the case. You come out on a very generic looking street (did some digging online, and it sounds like the exit is at 21 Bis Avenue Rene Coty.
Weren't exactly sure where we were, so we just casually perused the area, and sure enough, we ran across the MOST ADORABLE pet shop called the Dog Club. I honestly wasn't sure if Rachelle was going to be able to leave there without a puppy!
MONTPARNASSE
Once I was able to peel Shel away from the pet shop window, we meandered down a few streets, took a handful of random turns and ended up stumbling upon the most gigantic cemetery I have ever seen! With the slightly morbid start we had to our morning, it only seemed fitting to take a quick stroll among the gravestones.
It's strange that a place can be so haunting yet so beautiful at the same time. I felt like I had stepped into an episode of Ravenswood (this one's for all my fellow PLL fans). Only later did we find out that it was the Montparnasse Cemetery, which is known to be the resting place for many famous poets and artists. The cemetery itself has over 35,000 graves!
Once we realized we were in the Montparnasse area, we scooted along to Galeries Lafayette (a popular department store) in hopes of finding some chic Parisian goodies, and our timing couldn't have been more perfect. Just as we were nearing the steps of the department store, storm clouds started to roll in and there was no question that it would be raining soon. Unfortunately, the storm hadn't passed by the time we were done browsing, so we popped into a restaurant down the street for some French fries and croque-monsieurs (basically a grilled ham and cheese sandwich) at a funky little café called the Pink Elephant.
LUXEMBOURG GARDEN
Once the rain finally decided to let up, we meandered over to the Luxembourg Gardens. Dating back to the early 17th century, the Luxembourg Gardens were the undertaking of Mare de' Medici. Widowed by King Henry IV of France, she built the palace and surrounding gardens in homage of her childhood home in Florence, Italy. The lush gardens are sprinkled with intricate sculptures and fountains. While we didn't go inside the palace (which is now the home of the French Senate), we did enjoy exploring the gardens and taking in the sliver of sunshine that was beginning to peak though for the day.
By midafternoon we were in desperate need of some serious R&R, so we made our way back to our Airbnb for a nap. The *relief* of finally making it back to our home base dissolved as soon as we realized that we still had 5 flights of stairs to climb! Where's an elevator when you really need it?!
I'll be honest, I'm not even sure my full body had made it on the bed before I fell asleep.
Not long after, we were rudely woken up by another torrential rain storm (starting to notice a pattern here? Yea, welcome to springtime in Paris). Determined not to let a little rain deter our plans, we made some makeshift ponchos out of trash bags (very classy, I know) and embarked on our very wet and windy journey to the Louvre.
LOUVRE MUSEUM
Being the thrifty genius that I am, I had found out that the Lourve waives their admission fee on Friday's after 6pm for any visitor under 26. Obviously, "freebie" days like this usually attract a lot of travelers, so after some more digging, I came across a "secret" entrance that promised little to no line to enter the museum. If you're like me and hate waiting in line, look for the Le Carrousel entrance. You'll take two sets of escalators down to a shopping mall looking area. You'll know you're in the right spot once you hit the inverted, glass pyramid.
EIFFEL TOWER
I'll leave you with one last piece of advice. I would NOT suggest attempting to walk to the Eiffel Tower from the Lourve, especially at the end of a VERY LONG day. Yea, it might look close on Google maps, but it's def more than 2 miles away!
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