Amy gave me Paris for her birthday

Our friends Amy and Andrew were taking a last minute trip to Rome for Amy's birthday and their anniversary. They invited us along on buddy passes (Andrew works for United). But the first time we tried to catch the flight there wasn't room for all of us so we sent them along to Roma. The next day we headed to the airport to catch any flight going anywhere in Europe. With our suitcases packed for a potential forty degree swing in weather, we were ready when we hopped literally last second onto a plane to Paris!

Eiffel Tower at sunset the first night

We landed and after some quick research, booked a hotel and were off. After settling in, we made reservations for dinner. I am not the least ashamed to say that the first stop for the Fletchers was a patisserie on our way to dinner. I got a raspberry and pistachio tart, and Layne got a pistachio puff pastry and cream napoleon thing. Heaven on Earth! It was the best pastry shop we hit up in Paris.

We ate about fifty feet down the street. It was the Frenchest French restaurant we ate at, but you know you have to wait for my food post to salivate accordingly! Following dinner, we hopped back on the Subway to go to the Eiffel Tower. It's incredible!! 

You walk up to it, and you walk, and walk, and walk! You keep feeling like you're right there; it's so close! But finally you are there and it is just as magnificent and beautiful as you'd hope. There's a reason it is so iconic. We walked around the area for a couple hours, and then headed off to bed. 

Walking across the Seine

The next morning, we had meant to go to Versailles, but I may have hugely slept in -the time change is amazingly difficult to work around! So we changed our plans and headed over to the Louvre (stopping at a patisserie for a quick bite of breakfast). The Lourve was gorgeous! I could not even wrap my mind around how beautiful the buildings are in France, but the Louvre may be my favorite. It was just magnificent. We saw a few of the highlights inside the museum and just walked aimlessly for a bit. There is no way to see it all, but everything we saw was incredible.

Mr. Fletcher getting fresh with Venus de Milo

From there, we wandered down the Seine toward Note Dame so we could check out Saint Chapelle. Sadly, it was closed. But Notre Dame is right there and it was phenomenal. Completely awe-inspiring. So detailed and intricate, yet it reaches toward the skies from its perch on an island in the Seine with a solidity that assures you it has been and will be there forever. 

We grabbed dinner nearby, then headed back over to the Eiffel Tower for a sunset river cruise. This was my favorite part of the whole trip, so excuse the mass of pictures following (not that it varies greatly from the mass of pictures above)!

We'll pick back up tomorrow and I'll fill you on on what else we did. Sorry this post is so long and there are so many pictures!