PARIS Jour 1

Peter Pan statue

Yesterday Jeanine and I spent the day exploring Hyde park and it's wonderfulness (the only word to descibe Hyde Park).  We discovered the Rose Garden, Princess Diana's memorial fountain, and even the Peter Pan statues that the writer of Peter Pan created after the boys who inspired his stories. Then we made our way across town, on foot, to the Lyceum theatre to watch The Lion King ------- AMAZING! You pretty much spend the most part of the show just agast staring at the costumes.  Someone with a truly creative mind came up with these things. Were talking double stilts for giraffes,  2 person hippos, three person elephants, jumping gazelles, the hyeneas were by far the best! All just unreal!!  I hope that I get the chance to see several Broadway shows while I am over here because they are spectacular.

This morning we rose early and made our way to the Luton airport.  Of course transit was against us, as it always is in London, but we arrived nevertheless!  Our flight was about 55 mins and we were in PARIS!! My dream of spending my birthday at the Eiffel Tower is now just 2 short days away from coming true <3 

mini elevator, us+backpacks = JUST fit

The train ride to find our hostel was interesting, people cussing each other in French trying to push their way on and fight their way off the packed trains! But we got off the station just outside of Moulin Rouge and walked the 3 or so blocks to our hostel.  Not sure it we would have ever found it if I couldn't ask directions and help in French. But we got to our hostel and checked in. We jammed ourselves into the TINY!!! elevator that took us to our room on the 6th floor... yup 6! Hope that elevator does not break down of I may sleep in the lobby!
Now off to explore :) 

About a 5 min walk from hostel

Montmartre cemetery - HUGE, I'm talking acres!

So we walk out of the hostel and realize we are right at the beginning of one of the 'walking tours' that are mapped out in the Paris tour book I bought (yup, that's right).  We start our tour and are oggling over all of the beautiful things. Along the way an old French lady stops me and starts giving me the history of the Moulin Rouge and describing the view before other buildings were put up blocking it from sight. Luckily I could understand her then translate the sotry to Jeanine!

Sacre-Coeur

Then we turn a corner in the road and BAM we're at the back of Sacre-Coeur and it is unbelievable. A gigantic basilica dedicated to the 58,000 people who died in the Franco-Prussian war. Simply stunning! First of all, it is HUGE! It has big statues of horses and gargoyles and everything that makes a place amazing in France. To top it off it is at the top of a huge hill so has the most amazing views of the city.

view from Sacre-Coeur

We finally pried ourselves away from this sight and as we are walking down the road I start spasm-ing. Jeanine is wondering what is going on and follows my pointing finger. There, through the tress, she sees the reason for my excitement... the EIFFEL TOWER!!!! Un-freaking-real!!!!

first glimpse - soooo excited!!!

As we're snapping pictures it starts to rain, so we continue on our way. Then it starts to pour.. and I'm not talking little CR, jog through the Save-On parking lot it's raining, I'm talking jump into the nearest cafe the heavens have opened, there is thunder and lightening (not kidding). Then a tourist train pulls up, the same one we were mocking earlier, so we run over and jump on! Apparently, we stick out of the 50+ crowd because we are soon discovered and convince the guy to let us pay 3.50 for a narrated ride back to Moulin Rouge, close to our hostel.
On the way we stop into a little cafe for pizza and salad. The waiter is apparently excited that I speak French and English so he gives me his number and says if we come back tomorrow he will give us coffee and take us around the area too... We'll see!
Now time to warm up and recover from the excitement of the day.

a little rain won't hurt us...

All pics will follow when I get back to London.. sorry