Well Bonjour, yes you heard right! Its Friday October 20th and Lyndsey and I are on the ICE train on our way to Paris for an impromptu Girls weekend trip! Sweet Matt was “happy” (or just understanding enough that I needed a break) to keep the kids himself all weekend. We walked to the train station in Herrenberg and jumped on a train that went 30 mins to Stuttgart then 45 mins to Manheim and then 3.5 hours to Paris. The train to Paris was like something from the movies. We felt very classy sitting in our comfy seats with the free wifi, sipping our coke zeroes and eating peanut m&m’s from the dining cart. Too bad there wasn’t some murder mystery to solve! After missing one connection because of a late train but making up for it for having a late arrving connection, we made it to Paris by dinner time. We caught an Uber from the train depot and headed to our cute little boutique Hotel Malte. It was the sweetest little hotel, very chic and classy. They had sister hotels all over Paris where we could hop in to use a FREE clean bathroom, grab a bottle water, umbrella or a snack from the 24 hour snack bar. The lift was very European and barely fit us both with our luggage and felt like we were walking into a time machine. Our room had a stocked mini firdge of drinks and robes to wear. I could get used to this! We freshened up and headed to dinner on this little side pedestrian street. It was called Artizans. We chose to sit outside under their awnings because it was a nice night. Now Paris is definetly known for fashion, amazing food and drinks and second hand smoking! Everyone and their mom smokes! But the amazing food and people watching made up for it. We decided to go all out and try escargot. We got an appetizer of 6 to split among us. When the tray came, it looked like a communion tray. The snails were still in their shells and the shells were piping hot. The snails were covered in basil, garlic and olive oil. The waitress gave us each what looked like something in between of a nut cracker and a speculum and then a tiny fork. I thought maybe it was to crack the shells like the Maryland crabs I was raised on but they snail shell kept slipping out. I almost looked it up on youtube when Lyndsey figured out the weird contraption held the shell still while you used the little fork to dig the snail out of the shell. We each got one out and looked at each other and just quickly put them in our mouths. And oh my goodness…they were AMAZING! They tasted like oysters a little bit with lots of basil and garlic. We quickly finished them and wished we got a dozen! The rest of the dinner was amazing and dessert was even better! A great first night ol Paris.

Saturday October 21st, we ventured out after a great hotel breakfast spread. Let me just tell you the coffee in Europe is to die for! I must have had 3 cappucinos and was ready to seize the city. We walked 10 minutes to the Louvre that laid adjacent to the Seine River. It was a windy day but we were prepared! We took lots of pictures in front of the famous pyramids ad walked along the Seine to our Hop On Bus tour. This was an amazing and affordable way to see the city! You download their app and it shows all the bus stops, where the buses are, and what sites are around each bus stop. You get a set of headphones to plug into the bus seats to hear the tour in whatever language you needed. We rode for a few stops and took lots of pictures along the way. We got out around the Eiffel Tower where we had tickets to go up to the top deck (there are 3 decks) Thank goodness for reservations because we didn’t have to wait in line really much at all! Like I mentioned before, it was super windy so the top observation deck was closed. We splitted a baguette turkey sandwich and 2 glasses of champagne and went up in the lift to the 2nd deck. There was just no describing the view! I had no idea Paris was so massive. I loved the architecture and the mixture with old and modern that bathed the city skyline. The tour guide had said that during WWII, the workers cut the cables to the lift in the Eiffel Tower and prevented Hitler from putting the NAZI flag on top of the tower. It was an incredible experience. Even using the fancy Eiffel Tower bathrooms was an experience lol. We finished the day with lots of shopping, seeing the Opera House, the Arc de Triumph and eating some yummy crepes. 

Sunday October 22nd

    Well we made the mistake of not booking return tickets when we booked our arrival tickets and ended up almost not getting home to Herrenberg because little did we know Paris was hosting the 2023 Rugby World Cup (yes this is a thing and no I still don’t understand rugby lol) and all the trains were booked. Only by the grace of God did Matt get us tickets home on the 7pm ICE train. So, that meant we could explore some more! We decided the night before to book a skip the line guided tour of the Palace of Versailles (once again a must do attraction and a great way to skip the line!) In Paris we got to see where Marie Antoinette was beheaded and now we were going to get to see where her and Louis XVI lived. I just love this time in history and I can hear the Les Miserables soundtrack playing in my head. We got in and got to see the chapel and a few rooms before we were abruptly interrupted with an announcement of a bomb threat. So we had to evacuate…..what a bummer! But watching a french evacuation was quite comical. Apparently, this had happened a few times before that week so not sure who was behind it. They called in bomb sniffing dogs and it would take 2 hours for the dogs to sniff the whole house. The touring company graciously refunded us and we headed back to Paris. We had an amazing pizza lunch and did some more shopping before heading to the train station. Now a quick word of advice, always check which train station your train is leaving from because there were multiple stations in Paris. After we realized we were at the wrong train station we looked on the map to find the Train Depot East and thankfully it was a 12 minute walk. This 12 minutes were probably the only 12 minutes I really felt afraid to be in the city alone as 2 women. We took a shortcut to the right station but had to go behind the first train station and surprisingly this was a popular hangout for gangs, assumed traffickers and drug deals. We felt us being followed so we picked up the speed and zig-zagged our route and sought out other women walking (safety in numbers) . I was ready to whack him with my 15 euro umbrella from the Eiffel tower when we dashed inside and lost him. Ok, I am ready to go home to my quaint little village of Herrenberg. Even walking back in Herrenberg  from the train station at 2 am (because of a late train..something I will have to get used to) I didn’t feel unsafe. I am thankful the train station is only a 10 minute walk to our house, Spitalgasse 19!