Christmas in Paris

Hello,
Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas.
We had a really lovely time in Paris for Christmas. We spent 4 nights at a nice little hotel in the centre of Paris next to the Louvre Museum. We arrived in the afternoon on the 23rd and after checking in we went for a walk towards Notre Dame Cathedral to see if there were any Christmas carols on. We walked along the Siene river for a while to get there. Below are some pics taken along the Siene. It was really beautiful, had nice bridges and a pretty sunset.


The Notre Dame Cathedral is on a big island in the middle of the river. Unfortunately there were no carols playing at the time we visited but they had a great big Christmas tree out the front of the building as you can see behind Sam in the picture below.






Our second day in Paris was Christmas Eve. We spent the morning visiting the Louvre Museum. It was huge and we had a great time wandering around inside. We were sure not to miss the Mona Lisa!

After the Louvre we walked through the gardens for a while which lead down to 'Place de la Concorde'. The park was full of lovely sculptures. And there was a fountain in a large pond which was frozen!

On our way back to the hotel we stumbled across some really beautiful streets and squares which were all decorated for Christmas. There were so many designer shops and fancy restaurants as well. It's a city full of all things luxurious! The photo below was taken in a nice square just off the street we were staying in.

We went back to our hotel to get all spruced up for dinner and to visit the Moulin Rouge on Christmas Eve. It was a really great, fun night. Out seats weren't the best but we still really enjoyed the show. It was lots of fun and definitely worth a visit. The costumes were sensational and Sam enjoyed the many boobs on display :)



We made a slow start on Christmas morning. After sleeping in then checking for snow (no luck) we made all of our phone calls to friends and family at home in Brisbane & Sydney. We opened a few little pressies that we took with us to open on Christmas morning. Then we got all dolled up again and went to a fancy French restaurant for Christmas lunch. It turned out to be lucky choice as it was a place i had booked over the internet! We had a great time sampling some fine french food and sipping wine! It was a bit strange with just the 2 of us on Christmas day. We had a wonderful time though cause it's something different and spending Christmas in Paris is something that we would only do once in a lifetime. But will look forward to being home with everyone next year. This is us at our special lunch on Christmas day...

After lunch we were sooooo full but walked to the Eiffel Tower.

We had saved this for Christmas day cause everything else was shut. It was amazing to actually see. We waited in line for ages, freezing, to go to the top and didn't stay there too long cause it was sooo cold! When we got down from the top we crossed the bridge to get a different view. It was dark by this time so we got to see it all lit up. Every hour for about 10mins the tower sparkles with extra lights. It really glitters and is so pretty.

The photo above is the tower when lit up normally. Then below is a photo taken with the sparkle lights on...

On Boxing day we went to a big famous shopping centre in the centre of Paris called 'La Fayette'. It was beautifully decorated for Christmas and was huge. It had every designer brand you could think of but we were just window shopping! These pics were taken inside the shopping centre...

From here we walked up towards the 'Arc de Triomphe'

The 'Arc de Triomphe' is in the middle of the worlds largest roundabout. It is absolute chaos watching the cars try to get in and out of the roundabout which had no lanes! Crazy French!

We went to the top of the 'Arc de Triomphe' which gives a great view down the famous Avenue des Champs-Elysees (below)...

Then we walked down des Champs-Elysees. It is a very long, wide boulevard famously symbolising the style of Paris.
On our last day in Paris before our flight we grabbed a baguette :) and went back to the Eiffel Tower to see it from a different direction. This time the tip was in the clouds.

Sam's brother Toby arrives tomorrow so we're looking forward to that and have some fun things planned. So next blogg will be about some of the stuff we've done with him...

Au revoir! xoxoxox