Paris in Spring - Arrival Day

I think my 33rd birthday is going to be one that I always remember - something tells me that traveling to a foreign country to celebrate isn't going to be a yearly occurrence.  When Jacob found out he had a conference in Paris, I told him I would love to go and since it was during mine and Sage's birthday, I knew that family would be coming out.  Jacob's parents were so gracious to agree and come for over a week so I could enjoy this vacation!  They are such a blessing!  I will do a post for each day because I cannot put that many pictures at a time so check back for more.

We left Memphis in the afternoon on April 14 and arrived in Paris in the afternoon of April 15 (7 hours time difference).  After a long flight and not much sleep we checked in our hotel and took a little siesta.  After our nap we were ready to see what was closest to our hotel and get some dinner.

 First stop was the Arc de Triomphe because it was less than 10 minutes from our hotel.  We just did the outside tour of it (I went back later in the week to go to the top).  This thing is a lot bigger than I realized!

 I took a lot of pictures of buildings that I thought had interesting architecture.  They aren't necessarily famous or ones that I could name.  Most of them probably serve as apartments or offices.

 Macarons might be the prettiest desserts out there.

Eglise Saint-Augustin.  There were some obvious churches for us to check out (Notre Dame, St. Chapelle, Sacre Coeur, etc) but I love that you can just walk around Paris and stumble upon extravagant churches.  I tried to catch as many as possible.

 This is the rotunda at the entrance to Parc Monceau.

 We enjoyed walking through Parc Monceau to get back to our hotel.  There were a lot of people out enjoying the perfect weather.  Paris has so many parks that it is very easy to make your journey to wherever you are going feel like you are distant from a big city.

 This tree was ridiculously old.

 The architect in me had to capture interesting details as I saw them.  I especially love canopies.

 A lot of the restaurants in Paris provide a 3 course meal (appetizer, main course & dessert).  For my first dining experience I picked this lentil salad as my appetizer and well, it was the most interesting thing I ate while there.  I love lentils but this was a cold gelatinous sculpture (with a poached egg in the middle) that I couldn't quite enjoy.  Although the  mixed greens on top and the bacon were quite yum, I was a little nervous about what my next course might turn out like.

Thankfully my main course of tuna was amazing (as were Jacob's scallops).  Seared tuna is probably one of my favorite foods.

After we ate, we headed back to the hotel for an attempt at a good night's rest.  I woke up about 3 am unable to go back to sleep but that was the only day I struggled with time change.  Check back tomorrow for my first full day of adventure.