Paris for Valentine's Day!

We just got back last night from spending Valentine's Weekend in Paris! We saw so much: the Eiffel Tower at night (when it sparkles!), the Catacombs, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, Saint Chappelle, the Gallerie Lafayette, l'Arc de Triomphe (which we went to the top of), the Musee d'Orsay, and even a little bit of Parisian night life (which is ridiculously expensive).

A great weekend, but definitely a tiring one. We rode on nearly every metro line in the city, and probably walked up and down about 5,000 stairs. Shopping in Paris is impressive, but also incredibly expensive, as are the clubs (with a cover of 20 euros and the cheapest drink costing about 15 euros? I don't think so).

I think my favorite thing might have been going to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. It's a completely different view of the city than from the Eiffel Tower, and even though it was sprinking, it was beautiful.

We also had dinner one night in Montmartre at a piano bar, and that was really cool. My mom and I had visited Paris this past summer, and somehow we didn't realize that you have to go behind the Sacre Coeur to get to the district with all the artists, so this was completely new to me and really exciting. I didn't buy a painting, but I figure there is plenty of time for that.

We bought all the appropriate tourist things, and got ripped off as you are supposed to (of course, nothing is easy here, I don't know why this continues to shock me even after a month and a half). But as far as travelling, we had no problems this time! We took the TGV to Paris and it took about 3 hours, but the trains are very efficient and always on time, so that was great. Plus the Paris metro system is awesome, so it was really easy to get around town all weekend. We didn't even have a problem with the hostel! Someone was there to check us in, like they said they would be, and prices didn't change, there weren't any ants, and generally no surprises!

Maybe Paris was trying to make up for our bad travelling luck from the last trip...