Day 3: Rue de Paris

10:30am train to Paris on the Eurostar. Check.

Ah, gay ol’ Parie. How I missed you! Nothing has really changed too much since the last time we were here, except that it’s freezing. We’re going to be here for about 4 nights, and it’ll be great because I love this city. The food, pastries, sights, nice people, activities, and just sheer beauty of the place. This time around, though, we won’t be going to 10 different museums a day so we get to really just chill-ax. Mona Lisa hasn’t changed, I’m pretty sure.

Mission 1: Laduree and Macaroons

The macaroons here are amazing. If you know what they are, this place has the best. For 2 Euros each, they had better be. Coffee, hazelnut, pistachio, chestnut, apple, chocolate. Unfortunately, they don’t wrap them in a Tiffany’s bag this time around. Cheapos. We’d like to bring some back, but I don’t know if they’ll survive for 2 weeks or the long flight home. Well, at least we tried!

Mission 2: Tartare au Boeuf

Yes, you knew it was coming. After a brief stop at the Louvre gardens, we head up the Champs Elysees toward the Arc de Triumphe. Tons of high-class shopping and tourists. We pass by a media event that looked like a movie star gala and a rap star entourage at the nearest luxury boutique. This avenue is sort of like Times Square and Rodeo Drive meshed together. Exciting.

But finally, we reach our destination. A café that serves steak tartare. Oh, doesn’t this look delish? I think by law, all French waiters must ask Americans if they know steak tartare is raw meat.

Mission 3: It’s all Sparkly

If you’ve ever been to Paris, the most purty thing here is seeing the Eiffel Tower at night. Every hour, on the hour, about 20k lights on the tower light up and give it a super-sparkly effect. It’s awesome. Pictures don’t do it justice, so you’ll need to see it on video or in-person. Even though it’s super cool for tourists like me, I’m sure it sucks for the folks to live next door…sort of like working at the Small World ride at Disneyland and listening to that tune all the live long day.