I am coming to the end of our wonderful Europe trip, our last day and a half was spent in Paris . It took a little convincing to get my husband to add this stop to our trip – but in my head we were going to celebrate our anniversary and Paris seemed like a must on a romantic get-away to Europe.

After we arrived, checked in and such we headed out. We had already been in the city for several hours, first on train, then on foot, and as we walked we were both feeling a little disappointed. In my head, when I got to Paris, I was supposed to see something that told me I was in Paris. The Eiffel Tower, The Lourve, The Basilica, Notre Dame, something! But as far as we could see – there was a river, and a lot of beautiful buildings – but nothing screamed YOU’RE IN PARIS to me.

Those of you familiar with Paris, might be laughing at me. Immediately to the right in this picture is one of the most famous landmarks in Paris – but not the part of it I was looking for. Those beautiful buildings we walked past? They were the Lourve! We were about 1/2 a block from the iconic pyramid – but the whole time I was feeling ‘not in Paris’ we were right on top of the Lourve – which makes me laugh and feel like a total tourist! We didn’t discover this mistake until the next day when we were on a tour, and were supposed to meet just outside the Lourve. We laughed at ourselves.

So, we hopped on the metro and headed to see the Basilica and Montmartre. When we got off the metro it was pouring. So far, Paris was not impressing me. Soaking wet and looking awesome in our plastic ponchos, we headed towards a landmark, and finally started to feel like we were in Paris!

This portion of our time in Paris had been recommended to us by several people, we were told it was one of the best parts of their trip – and rain wasn’t going to stop us! So we headed up-up-up the steps to the Sacre-Coeur to see the view – to see Paris! (Side note: As gorgeous as all of these old buildings in Europe are, the tiny stairways and sheer number of steps that need to be climbed to see all the things is ridiculous! 7 months later, my legs are still tired from all the climbing) And oh! It was worth it!

Hey! We finally got to see the Eiffel Tower!

The rain cleared up on our way down, and so we headed to wander around Montmartre- we saw street artists and little shops and it was truly everything I pictured when I thought of the streets of Paris. I had 3 things on my Paris ‘to-do’ list: Drink wine at an outdoor cafe, enjoy a crepe (and baguettes) and have my first ever Macaroon cookie – we took care of 2 of them immediately! A delicious hot, fresh Nutella filled crepe as we wandered, followed by a glass of wine (inside, but in front of an open window, it was raining again….)! (Don’t worry, I found my Macaroon the next day, and when the baker found out I had waited to have my first one in Paris, he kept ‘breaking’ them and let me try 8 or 9 different flavors before I decided which ones would fill my box to come home).

The last part of this day was date night. Don’t laugh – this whole trip was a date, but we wanted to get a little dressed up, walk hand in hand and enjoy a romantic dinner to celebrate. So we did. The food was wonderful, the wine was delicious and my company was perfect. We sat, in Paris, and took it all in.