Day 1: Sights Within Walking Distance

The tour would meet up in mid-afternoon, so we decided to use the morning to sightsee on our own. We crossed the river to the Arc de Triomphe, where we learned about the axe historique, an amazing urban plan that perfectly aligned the Grande Arche in La Défense, the Arc de Triomphe and the front of the Louvre. Standing by the Arc de Triomphe, you could look in either direction and clearly see those two other landmarks!

Walking a little further down the Champs Elysées, we ended up at the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, two ornate buildings that were constructed for an expo around the turn of the twentieth century. Our French teacher back home had recommended the Petit Palais, which was a beautiful museum with sculptures and paintings inside. It surrounds a central courtyard with a gorgeous garden, and was one of our favorite museums in Paris.

Next, we walked the length of the Champs Elysées before heading to the botanical garden on the metro.

Transportation

This day, we took the Paris Metro station for the first time. We had a rough idea of how to get to our destination, the Jardin des Plantes, from the maps app on our phone, but we still had a little trouble buying individual tickets. We asked the station agent, who was very patient and helpful - he even printed out the list of stops we'd be taking. We thanked him and headed out.

Trying Out Our French Skills

We got out at our Metro stop, and coincidentally walked right into a huge Sunday flea market! Most of the vendors spoke only French - this was the first time on our trip that we couldn't count on being able to speak English at all, but it was fine! We did our first haggling in a foreign language, and negotiated to buy a five-euro postcard for a (still pretty steep!) two euros. We were just excited to communicate!

Picnic at Jardin des Plantes

Next, we were headed to Jardin des Plantes, a giant botanical garden that used to be the king's medicinal garden hundreds of years ago. On our way to the garden, we were getting hungry, so we took the Rick Steves approach and decided to have a picnic for lunch. We went into a café and bought two ham-and-butter sandwiches, a Paris-Brest pastry to split, and some drinks. We took them to-go and got back on our route to the garden, where we enjoyed our picnic and the gorgeous setting. Having a picnic saved time - and was affordable, too!

Meeting the Group and Our Tour Guide

In the afternoon we met our tour guide, Marie, and the other guests in the hotel lobby. We got set up with our weekly metro passes (these were so much easier than buying individual tickets!), met our group buddies, and Marie gave us an overview of what we were going to do on the trip.

Next, we all took a quick tour of the neighborhood. Marie pointed out notable bakeries, a grocery store, the metro stops, how to get to the Eiffel Tower, Rue Cler, and a couple of good restaurant options for our free nights. Then she took us all to a group dinner at the restaurant La Terrasse. We had a private room on the second floor and a great view of the École Miltaire, France's officer's training school. We had a great time chatting with everyone and even learned that one of the tour group members is a customer of the software company we started. It was fun to have a personal connection like that!

Evening Bus Tour

After dinner, we met our bus driver, Vincent, who took us on an evening bus tour of Paris. We saw so many sights for the very first time: Notre Dame on the Île de la Cité (literally, "City Island"), the military memorial Les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre exterior at night, and finally the Paris Opera.

Vincent brought us back to the hotel for the night. We couldn't believe all the things we'd done in only a day and a half in Paris!