Paris Trip 2011 - Day 1

Most of you probably know by now that Justin and I are beginning a 8 day vacation in Paris this weekend. I figure since I am here and tons of people have asked me to make recommendations to them when I get back, that I would just blog about my whole trip so I can remember the places we liked and the places we might have not liked so much. So....here is my recap of Day 1 in Paris. We actually left yesterday (Friday). Flew to Atlanta and took a connecting flight to Paris. We flew Delta which I would recommend - they feed you really well! We didn't think we would be fed much at all so we got McDonald's before we boarded our flight. About 30 min into the flight we found out we were going to be eating quite a bit for the 7 hour flight! They started with drinks and peanuts like a normal flight. Then they came around with dinner (we had pasta) which came with complimentary wine! The wine was actually really good too. Then they came around with more drinks and topped the flight off with breakfast of a croissant w/egg and cheese and a banana. The movie choices were really good but when it came time to try to sleep, that was a struggle. Justin didn't sleep at all and every time I got comfortable sleeping, my legs would fall asleep because my feet didn't touch the ground. One thing I would definitely recommend is booking a first class seat for a flight to Paris. It looks much cushier! And thinking back on it, I don't know why I didn't book this is in the first place. Ok, on to our arrival, we actually arrived early and our hotel had helped arrange a car to pick us up and the driver was waiting for us when we came out of the airport. We had a nice drive through the city and arrived at our hotel, Hotel du Cadran, with no problem. We were early for check-in though so we had to stow our baggage and went out to eat. Our hotel is right on Rue Cler (a cobble-stone road with a ton of open air markets) so we stayed to this area and ended up eating at Cafe de Rousillion. I expected to have to order in French and translate the menu to Justin but they somehow knew we weren't French when we walked in the door (probably b/c we looked lost) and gave us an English menu. The waiter was really nice and I had a fantastic warm goat cheese salad. We walked around some more, went in some shops and then went back to the hotel to try to check in. Our hotel is really cute! I picked it for the location and the great recommendations it gets on Trip Advisor but it turned out to be really modern and clean which is a huge plus for me. The downside is that the room is SUPER tiny - and I booked the larger room they offer - and the bathroom is even tinier and there really isn't any room for our suitcases. But it's still really nice and the staff has been really really nice and helpful so far. I will post pictures of the room tomorrow. There is a chocolate bar in the hotel. My only wish would be that they had a restaurant/bar as well but there are so many bistros near by it doesn't matter too much. After a nap, we ventured out again for dinner and settled on a quaint little coffee bar - Le Seven's Coffee - on Rue St Dominique. We picked it because their menu looked good and fairly priced and they were playing the soccer game. I had the grilled salmon with rice and green beans and Justin had the steak frites. Both were really good. I also had a glass of their house white wine which was really good. We had cheese cake and chocolate cake for dessert and finished it off with espresso which was fantastic! As we were walking down the road to find a place for dinner, we noticed the Eiffel Tower was right in front of us! So after dinner, we walked the few blocks to the Eiffel Tower and took some pictures. Then we walked back to the hotel and are turning in for the night and planning our day tomorrow! Bon soir mes amis!