Just the two of us in Paris

L'Arc de Triomphe

Matthieu, Talia, Katie, Ryan

Pere Lachaise cemetery. Menier family buried here. Think Chocolate!

Hot Chocolate with a view of the Eiffel Tower. Thanks Megan for the idea because we stayed long enough to see the Eiffel Tower light up!

The Eiffel Tower with blinking lights!

We traveled to Paris while my parents took care of Parker for the day. We first headed to l'Arc de Triomphe and then headed down the Champs Elysee. It's always remarkable when you step out of the metro and look for the monument you are looking for. You walk up the stairs from the underground subway and do a 360 to see where you are and then... you see what you came for. You see all these pictures of these monuments but to stand right next to them you realize how enormous they are. We strolled down the Champs Elysee and then headed across Paris to go have lunch with a friend of mine. Matthieu and Talia just got married last summer near Portland (Katie and I attended the wedding). They have a cute little apartment and had crepes for lunch. We then took a little walk with them to the Pere Lachaise cemetery. This is the largest cemetery in Paris ( 120 acres). It is so large there are street names within the grounds. There are so many famous people and families buried here. Entire families are buried there and huge edifices are built (almost like small churches). Here is more info on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A8re_Lachaise_Cemetery

Katie and I then headed down to Notre Dame and then made our way back to the Eiffel Tower. We sat down and enjoyed a hot chocolate with a splendid view of the Eiffel Tower lighting up. We then decided to try to stumble upon a restaurant for dinner. We found two locations: One was empty and the other was packed with locals. We opted for the packed restaurant and had a typical steak frites meal with not one tourist around us! After a full meal and enjoyable conversation we headed back to my parents with one last shot of the Champs Elysee at night!