Hopping On and Hopping Off in Paris

     The only thing that beats a bottle of good wine is sharing it with good friends.  I think I have read this on a dish towel or something.  If not, I should probably write greeting cards.  Anyway, we drank many bottles of good wine in Paris; thankfully, some of our friends joined us in our indulgence as well as French travels.  We met AJacks and KielMac at our next lodging, The Loft, located nearly next door to the Moulin Rouge but surprisingly quiet for the Montmartre neighborhood.  After getting comfortable, the four of us headed to pick up our Paris Pass (I highly recommend) and to grab a bite to eat.

The famous Moulin Rouge.

     Aside from the "City of Light," Paris is also known as the "City of Love."  I had a romance over lunch that day with my freshly squeezed orange juice (served with water to dilute and sugar to sweeten....none of which I needed) and my croque madame (a toasted ham and cheese sandwich topped with an egg).  Boy, do I love my food!  After satisfying our appetites, we hopped on the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus to become better acclimated to this new city.  With two jet-lagged friends, we never hopped off (until the end), so for us, the bus was ill-named.

Palais Garnier (the opera house in Paris) and where we hopped on (I bunny hopped and PDub attempted to frog hop).

Palais Garnier from the front depending on which way you look at it.

Vendome Column erected by Napolean I commemorating the Battle of Austerlitz.

On the Champs-Elysees (THE road in Paris) headed for the Arc de Trimphe.

Petit Palais houses fine art and was built for the Universal Exhibition in 1900.

Seine River with several bridges.

Up close and personal with the Eiffel Tower.  It was cold and rainy, so we sported some plastic bags called ponchos.

The Eiffel Tower and one cold JDub.

Some sculptures.

The Louvre, which we would visit later.

A jet-lagged man wasn't paying attention and lost his group.  Should have brought leashes.

     To end our day, I had another love affair with food feasting on my first crepe, a true French delight.  I devoured a Florentine Crepe (brie, spinach, and egg) and a Senegalaise Crepe (banana, nutella, and ice cream) at the Creperie Pen-ty.  We then attended a house-warming party in the Montparnasse neighborhood.  You are probably thinking, "How do they know someone who lives in Paris?"  We met a couple at the wedding in Finland who had just moved to Paris; lucky enough, they invited us over for drinks and hor'dourves, which we greatly enjoyed!

This was the view from their apartment.  Jealous?