Trips to other places always end up having a unique story, so at the risk of sounding like a spoiled brat I’m going to tell you all about my trip to Paris three Christmas’s ago with my Mother and sister. I feel like this trip was jinxed from the beginning, but it turned out to be a memorable one. The trip consisted of a boat ride that went along the River Seine stopping at all the major spots to see in Paris. When I tell people this they are all shocked that I don’t start with a more positive retelling of our trip. However, the best part of this whole trip happened when we decide to leave the tour and go off on our own adventure through the beautiful city of love.
I guess I should start from the beginning…
We landed and made our way to the boat. Now some of you may know this about me, but I am horrible with directions whether it is around my home town that I have lived in for thirteen years or overseas! Still I took it upon myself as older sister to guide us to the boat. We gave ourselves a good two hours to find our dock where the boat was waiting for us. That was NOT enough time…we made it just in time no thanks to the horrible city traffic and well the language barrier… hint: one semester of French is not enough! Luckily we made it to the boat, yet I was fired from map guide and the role given to my sister Laura.
Once we arrived we took in the sight of this magnificent mini cruise ship that would be our floating hotel for the next 5 days. We got settled into our rooms and made our way to dinner where we were surrounded by groups of Italian, Spanish and German families. Our little trio was the only American group on the ship for this trip. Still I thought it was kind of neat to be around all these people and not have a clue to what was being said. The tour guide came over to our table and explained the next day’s activities of exploring the city. Needless to say we went to bed that night excited to discover Paris!
The next day my little group headed to the bus full of excitement but on our trip to The Arc de Triumph quickly realized that our guide refused to speak English since we “were such a small group” obviously we were upset because all these sights were going to be explained in a language none of us really understood! So the next day we skipped out on the guided tour and explored the city just the three of us and it was the best time! We climbed the Eiffel Tower and had dinner in an all glass restaurant! We walked to Notre Dame and went to mass. It was such an amazing experience. On our last day we walked around the city and went shopping picking up presents and delicious desserts.
Stepping out on our own was definitely the smart choice and we really got to enjoy Paris and have a great mother daughter trip that I will always remember and cherish.
