We’ve been in Barcelona for a good long while now, but here are some musings, which I conveniently wrote from the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Paris, the city of love, yada yada. I was happy as a clam to be single in the city of love, but my goodness did I want to be happily engaged by the end of the trip. Let’s talk about the men (sorry, Dad). I swear they make them nicer looking here. I don’t know what exactly happens in the whole European baby factory, but it’s not a Build-a-Bear, it’s more like a Rolls Royce. I swear I turned 15 again and every man was a potential ex-boyfriend. Because you don’t settle down with a 10, you settle down with an 8.5 and a stable income.
All joking aside, Paris was a beautiful city, made even more beautiful by the people. You know how some say the French are snooty? That wasn’t my experience. And the food? I ate more carbs in a 72 hour period than I probably do in a typical week, but I’m certain I burned them off with all the walking.
We started Paris with a 5-hour bike ride. Now, this may seem like a breeze, but it was far from such. After beginning our travels over 17 hours earlier, we landed in Paris at 8:00 AM after only 7 hours of total sleep within the last 48 hours. After struggling through calling our first Uber we arrived at our hotel with suitcases the size of small children in tow and dropped them in a not-so-secure room before running to Saint Michael Plaza to join up at 10:30 AM with a Blue Bike Tours guy named Tomas, which is essentially a more exotic translation of Thomas.
Food was dragging on low energy, having had only a croissant and coffee for breakfast, and by 11 AM she was laying in the grass in front of the Hotel de Invalides while our tour guide yakked about Napoleon and his big tomb and even bigger ego. I had to keep spirits up, but honestly, we were beyond tired. Altogether, this tour was so worthwhile (despite the exhaustion) because of the number of beautiful sites you see within a short period, but my suggestion? Go on more than 3 hours of sleep.
List of sites we saw (and photo opportunities missed due to my fingers not working because of exhaustion):
NotreDameCathedralPontNeufHoteldeInvalidesGrandePalaisPetitPalaisSeineEiffelTowerLouvrePyramidDeLouvreArcDeTriomphePlazadeConcordiaPlazadeBastilleLuxorObeliskTooManyBridgesToCountAndMore
And we saw it all about that fast.
Okay, back to Food and food. After napping, we hit up this cute little restaurant where literally no one was speaking English. Lots of gesturing and mangled Frenglish later and we ended up with duck confit, cassoulet, and some great Bordeaux.
During the next three days we visited the Musee D’Orsay for some fabulous impressionist paintings and sculptures, ate at countless tiny cafes and gourmet restaurants, and met both fellow travelers and a few very cute crepe-makers. We’ll post a few more of our Paris highlights and lowlights later, but for now we’re off to Barcelona!
Fernweh & Food 
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