Day 1- Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Élysées

Fortunately, their family isn't that "get up early and conquer the day" kind of people when it comes to vacations. In fact, we left at noon. :-) We got pretty lucky with the parking spot and we headed to lunch first.

Lebanese food?? Oh yeah! We went to this place called Nourra. It was all purple-y! And it was packed so that's always a good sign. I had never had Lebanese food like this before and I surprisingly absolutely loved it! My sister-in-law said she can make it and I'm totally making her when I get back. I took pictures of the food...

Okay so... I don't exactly know what everything is but I'll tell you what I know. The far left is aubergine/eggplant. It sounds disgusting but it is absolutely amazing! I had never had eggplant before I came to France! My mom hates it so she never made it for us so I never got the opportunity to test if it was good or not. The bottom left is hummus which if you don't know is just smashed up chick peas/ garbanzo beans and olive oil I think. The top is just these little crumpet things. I don't really know how to describe um but so good! To the right is something amazing! Taboulé! It is like this salad of herbs like cilantro and also tomatoes I think...

Here is some meat... I think this was the chicken but the beef was my favorite. The meat had such good flavor like this tangy zest and it had just enough spice. It was juicy and tender! Aww so amazing! Also with lots of Taboulé! I absolutely love that stuff!

 And of course Lebanese bread! I really like it. It's fun to rip... :-) It's kinda like pita bread... but thinner

There were these giant things of roasting meat that we just had to get pictures of.... I have no idea why I'm making this face but it makes me laugh!

Then one together! My camera got a little fuzzy here...

Okay for realsies! 

Yeah but I'm sure my brothers could eat all that! They are pretty dang beast! 

So after being filled with Lebanese food we headed off to our destination. Mailys insisted that we go to the Eiffel Tower first. She absolutely adores it! Who doesn't??? It was so amazing just seeing it! It's iconic to France and for just being a bunch of metal it is absolutely gorgeous! So we were taking pictures at this one spot but unfortunately, that is when my camera runs out of space after 2 pics. I had to delete a ton as we were walking towards the tower so I wasn't snapping away like I usually am! I did get this picture of the Seine river though...

And then I deleted enough so I could get some of the Tower! 

LA TOUR EIFFEL!!! So this was so legit! I was just in awe! It is so huge and it's a lot different seeing it in pictures and actually being there! :-) It would equal about an 80 story building!

I finished the rest of the pictures in the giant line to go on the elevator up it but it wasn't so bad cuz we got hot chocolate. We got to skip a lot of people too :) The Eiffel Tower is the most visited monument in the world so yeah... Kinda a long line... The view up...

The elevator which looks like there is sparks coming out of it...

Waiting for the elevator! We went up the elevator being very careful of pick-pocketers! They even had signs for that! We were talking about the hecka expensive restaurant up on the 2nd floor! Gotta make reservations way in advance! I would like to eat there someday... Haha that ain't happening!

We got up there and my jaw instantly hit the ground! The view was amazing!!! Half the city was covered in clouds and the other half was all sunny...

So they started pointing out all these places and teling me the names of them but I wouldn't be able to tell you what everything is...  But that doesn't make it any less pretty!

I love how you can see the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in this one!



This is the newer more skyscraperish Paris...

This is where we were taking pictures when my camera ran out of space unfortunately! :-( We came back later to the same spot to see the flashing lights of the Tower...

We only went up to the 2nd floor cuz there was a ginormous line to go to the top. It was no big deal... Still just as gorgeous! You can see up to the top...

The Eiffel Tower is just so symbolic! Like really how many times have we seen it in movies, talked about, and seen pictures of it! I even have a necklace of it!

It was built by Gustave Eiffel as an entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair. Ironically enough, it was widely protested at the beginning!

There was even a petition against it! "We, the writers, painters, sculptors, architects and lovers of the beauty of Paris, do protest with all our vigour and all our indignation, in the name of French taste and endangered French art and history, against the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower."

 And this one guy, Guy de Maupassant, (Haha "This guy, Guy"), he ate lunch on it everyday. Why? Because that was the only place he said he didn't have to look at it constantly!!! It almost got torn down too!

Poor Gustave Eiffel must have felt like a failure... Its funny to think of how much they hated it to how loved it is nowadays!

Mailys is too cute in her big jacket! :)

The Eiffel Tower is one of my most favorite things about Paris! It is just pretty! :)

This doesn't really work because the sun was right there but it looked really pretty with the river!

The cute little Parisien buildings...

The Seine again

A church that I can't remember the name of...

I would always be taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower as we walked... Haha I would usually be behind the group so this is when Mailys had to take me by the hand so I wouldn't get lost :)

After we headed back to Nourra and got some great desserts! I had such a hard time picking because it was so unfamiliar to me but I finally chose! This is Nicolas's... Some cake-ish thing with cheese and sugar syrup... Sounds gross but it was amazing!

So the waiter dropped some of the other dessert so he brought this for free. Lebanese bread with cheese on it... It was so good!!!!

Okay... My dessert finally came and I inhaled it so I only got a picture of the empty plate. They were these mini pancake-ish things with white cream in um dusted with crushed pistacio and this thick syrup. So great

Then we just headed down the street a little ways to the Arc de Triomphe.

I would love to live in a cute little Parisien apartment!

So if you ever plan on moving to Paris this is how it's done!

The little ladder lift takes the stuff to and from the window.

I'm sure everyone will recognize the Arc de Triomphe! Another symbol of Paris! You can't watch a movie set in Paris without seeing it.

12 streets meet there to form a giant roundabout!

When we were waiting to cross the street, I was taking a picture of the Champs Élysées...

...and this lady was standing right there and she thought I was taking pictures of her. I wasn't gonna but I noticed she was wearing a beret so I did.

 

To get there, you have to walk under the street in this little tunnel because it would be ridiculously dangerous to just cross the street!

The Arc de Triomphe!

There was some cermony going on while we were there! I found out later it's to relight the flame on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and commerate the dead of the two world wars. Pretty cool. Huh?

So we decided to go up to the top! No elevator so it was quite a lot of stairs! To be exact...

We had fun taking pictures of all the stairs! Going up...

 

This times a lot! Haha

I hate spiral stairs! That were making me dizzy! And you had to keep going because there were more people behind you! But I never stopped well we did but it was for Mailys! I'm not that out of shape :)

A little replica of the Arc.

The view at the top was absolutely amazing!!! You could see the Eiffel Tower just a little ways off!

The Champs Élysées!

You could see the star that the Arc makes with all the streets leading up to it.

 

We got a little annoyed with the gating because it made the pictures difficult. They told me they had to be big because people jump off it. Oh wow!

But we just stepped up on it and got some better pictures!

The Eiffel Tower was just starting to be lit up! So beautiful!

Going down was just a tad bit more easy :)

When we got down, the ceremony was over so we could go down under the arc. This is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier! For November 11th, they have a big ceremony there witht the president and the whole shabang.

The detailing in the Arc was amazing!

I backed up as far as I could to get some bigger pics and there was this spot where the stone was lifted just a little bit and I almost fell. I just started laughing! They must think I'm crazy because I just start going into these lauging fits! :)

My camera was almost dead when we starte heading over to the Champs Élysées so I didn't get a whole lot of pictures! Plus you can't really get pictures. It is not like one main monument. It is just one stinking high-class street! Major expensive! The rent for apartments there is ridiculously crazy! It is so fun just to walk around though.

The boys totally had to go into the Mercedes store. So my camera was almost dead but I had to take a picture of this car!!! It was that important...

It looked like they started putting up the Christmas lights! I wish they were on! They just get going here! We don't usually go full speed Christmas mode until after Thanksgiving at least I don't.

You can kinda see the Arc in this one!

Then we drove over to the Eiffel Tower to see the flashing lights! Every hour on the hour! It was spectacular! I couldn't really get any good pictures of it. They all fuzzy and flashy... You just have to go and see it for yourself someday!

Mailys got this little flying light up thing that you shoot in the air with a rubber band. We had a lot of fun playing with it :) I tried and it snapped back and just hurt my hand a lot. I'm just skilled like that!

And then we headed back to the house, ate some leftovers, and I was out like a light!