Paris con mi padre :)

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to get to spend a long weekend in Paris, but what made it even better was getting to spend it with my father. Yes, he flew all the way to Paris to spend the weekend with me :) I know I have the world's best father!

I have definitely been homesick since being here and getting to see a familiar face was amazing! We spent the weekend doing as much as we could and seeing as much as we could, but I learned quickly that Paris is a big city and there is no way you can see everything in four days, but we did our best and I think we covered quite a bit of territory!

Once we had both arrived in Paris on Thursday and checked into our hotel, our first destination was the Eiffel Tower. Now I have obviously seen multiple pictures of the Eiffel Tower, but those couldn't even begin to show the beauty of this structure. For one it is absolutely HUGE and just breathtaking! I couldn't believe I was standing under the actual Eiffel Tower in Paris when I was there and every time we passed by it I felt the same way.

Me and my daddy in front of the Eiffel Tower :)

After seeing the Eiffel Tower we headed to the river to take a boat tour, which gave us a glimpse of the major sights to see and a view of the different bridges that connect the two sides of Paris, all of which have a story behind them. After the boat tour we headed back to the hotel to rest a little because my dad had had an extremely long flight and I had been up since 3 that morning so we were both just a tad tired. That evening we headed out to dinner and then walked down to see the Eiffel Tower again, but all lit up and it was of course incredible! We decided to call it an early night, so we walked around for a bit more than headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we decided to go see the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Louvre, so we headed out (an extremely long walk from our hotel). On the way we found a very cute cafe/pastry/restaurant where I was able to get a cup of coffee since I've found that I don't function well without it these days haha, and from there we walked through the gardens of the Louvre and then up to the Louvre itself.

Enjoying a cup of coffee in a cute mug!

Now the Louvre used to be the royal palace and it is HUGE! It's hard to believe that people actually lived in a building that could easily house most students at my university in Texas, but the most interesting part about the Louvre is that the majority of it is underground. There are shops and even a Starbucks under ground, which is insane to me. When my dad and I got to the main entrance of the Louvre the line was ridiculously long so we decided to come back in the morning so that we would be some of the first people in and wouldn't have to wait, so we took some pictures of the outside and then headed to Notre Dame, which was on my list of things to see in Paris.

My dad and I in front of the Louvre

Notre Dame is another beautiful structure in Paris with it's big, colorful stained glass windows and gothic style architecture. You always hear about the gargoyles, but it's really neat to see them up and close. We were going to take a tour of the towers, but once again the lines were ridiculously long and we decided that if we had time before our trip was over we would try to get up there, but that for now we wanted to continue walking around and seeing the city. For the rest of the day we walked around and visited the American Church with it's Tiffany stained glass windows, the Eiffel Tower once again and some beautiful gardens.

The back of the Notre Dame

The Tiffany stained glass windows in the American Church

That evening my dad and I walked down to the Arc de Triomphe at the entrance of the famous Champs Elysees. The Arc was beautiful and walking down the Champs Elysees at night is so pretty with all the lights and the buzz of all the restaurants and people. We ended up eating at a small pizzeria near our hotel that night though because everything was extremely expensive along the Champs Elysees, but it was delicious and very filling :)

A cool building along the Champs Elysees

The next morning we woke up early, grabbed a Starbucks' coffee (yes of course I found a Starbucks in Paris haha), and headed back to the Louvre. When we arrived there wasn't a line so we were able to walk right in and because I'm a student I got free admission which is always a good thing! I think we spent over three hours in the Louvre and even with that much time we didn't see everything by any means, but we were definitely museumed out by that time. It was an amazing museum though and seeing the REAL Mona Lisa was incredible. I had to laugh though when I saw it because it is a lot smaller than you expect it to be and it's behind a lot of glass so taking pictures of it is difficult haha, but I'm glad I can say "yes i've seen the actually Mona Lisa" :) We also saw many other paintings, sculptures and artifacts from all over the world.

After the Louvre, we headed out once again to explore and came upon a bridge with locks all over the gates of the bridge and I thought it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen. There were so many locks, each one different and each one saying something, whether it be names, a message or just a picture and I knew I had to add to that. I happened to have a small lock that I had used to lock my suitcase that I had checked onto the plane, so I decided to write a little something on it and add it to the thousands of others on the bridge.

A heart shaped lock on the bridge

Me holding our addition to the locks :)

A, B, C and D for my family :)

That night we ate at a really cute little pasta restaurant where the owner was one of the nicest people we had met since being in Paris and had a nice time talking with him and eating delicious pasta. After dinner we headed to the Eiffel Tower once again to take a trip up to the top and see the city of Paris. When we got to the very top of the tower I couldn't believe how high we were, but the view was breathtaking! Unfortunately it was a little rainy so the pictures we took didn't turn out very well, but you'll just have to take it from me that it was amazing :)

My daddy and I at the top of the Eiffel Tower :)

On our last day in Paris, we decided to take it easy, so we walked down the side of the river and went to see the small Statue of Liberty that is on an island in the middle of the river. I thought it was interesting how it is facing in the direction of where the real Statue of Liberty is in New York. We took quite a few photos and walked around the city a little bit more before heading back to the hotel for lunch. After stopping at a few chocolate stores to get gifts for my mom and sister we headed to dinner at a nice little restaurant where we enjoyed a glass of wine and a delicious salad. After dinner I took my dad to a gelato shop where they serve these amazing waffles with chocolate and powered sugar (an extremely delicious desert here in Europe) and he loved it, which I had no doubt he would haha :) We then headed back to the hotel to pack since we both had early flights home in the morning.

I was sad to say bye to my dad on Monday morning, but in just six weeks I will be arriving back in San Antonio and the rest of my time here is going to fly by! I had an amazing time this weekend and I couldn't have asked for a better person to spend it with! I do wish that my mom and sister could have come too, but at least I got to see a familiar face for a weekend! Thank you daddy for coming to see me and exploring Paris with me! I love you!

Love y'all!

xoxo