Paris - First 2 Days

Our trip to Paris was a rather short one, but we enjoyed ourselves.  We left Albany, NY around noon on Tuesday and arrived in Paris at 8am the following morning (Wednesday).  Of course, neither of us slept on the plane, so we were pretty exhausted when we arrived in Paris.  There was a young child on the plane a few seats ahead of us that was quiet while all the lights were on and they were serving dinner, but then when they turned the lights off to allow folks to sleep, the child decided it was time to get up.  Go figure!

Below is a quick map of Paris.  The center of Paris is at the bottom and the word "Paris" is just about where Notre Dame is located as well as the Louvre.  The "A" bubble in the upper left hand... that's where we had to stay the first two days for my husband's conference.

It wasn't a particularly great section of Paris and to get there from the airport was interesting.  The taxi driver ended up taking us through some of the "slum" sections of Paris, which we weren't really expecting.  Either way, we arrived at the hotel and didn't really do much that day because we were both very tired and my husband had to give a presentation the following day.

Thursday was spent working while in the hotel, but after my husband got done with his meetings, we checked out of the hotel and headed to our hotel that was directly in the center of Paris.

The "A" in the map above is where we actually stayed.  The hotel was less than a mile from Notre Dame and about 1.5 miles from the Louvre.  We were located in the Latin Quarter and near Sorbonne university.  The area was very nice with a lot of folks able to speak English, which was a bonus for us.

The hotel we stayed at was called Hotel Design De La Sorbonne (http://www.hotelsorbonne.com/).  It was a great place to stay.  There were a lot of places to eat that were VERY close to the hotel and the hotel was very clean and modern.  Here's what our room looked like:


In the corner, they had a MAC computer that worked as both the TV as well as computer for the room.  They also had free Wi-Fi, which was really nice.  The little door in the picture below is the bathroom.


If you've never traveled to Europe, the biggest shocker is the size of the hotel rooms and bathrooms.  Thankfully we are both small people, so we didn't really have any issues with the bathroom.  However, a larger person (180+) would probably have some issues with the bathrooms.

The nicest part about the hotel was that the staff was very friendly and helpful.  They all spoke English and they even had a few folks who spoke German, Russian and Italian.  They gave us directions and suggestions of places nearby to eat, which was great.

Since we didn't get into the center of Paris until 7:45 in the evening on Thursday, all we did was eat and then go to bed.  The next day (Friday) was when we started our tour of Paris, which involved:

   - the Louvre
   - musee d'Orsay
   - Notre Dame
   - musee l'orangie
   -  Pantheon
   - Eiffel Tower

We ended up walking somewhere between 15 and 20 miles in 2 days, so we were pretty beat by the time we were ready to leave.

Tomorrow I'll start to share some of the photos taken at the Louvre.  Some of the museums wouldn't allow photographs, but the Louvre was fine as long as you didn't use the flash on your camera.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations