Paris, Day I: Tuesday, May 19th

We’ve made it to the PARIS portion of our trip BABYYYY!!!

Okay, I’ve got to be honest though, the first day in Paris was my least favorite day of the whole trip lol. and specifically the DAY, that first night was actually one of my favorite moments of the whole trip. As I mentioned in my last post recapping our last day in London, we got back to our hotel after the Arsenal game at around 11:30 pm. Our train to Paris left London at 7 am and because you have to go through two border patrols (England & France), it’s recommended that you get to the train station approx. 2 hours prior to your departure time. That had us getting to London St Pancras International (where the Eurostar leaves from) at 5 am. After showering and just making sure everything was completely packed up, it was around 1 am when my husband and I got to sleep- of course the kiddos took baths and knocked out immediately. The turn around was INSANE and that 4 am alarm clock was KILLER.

We knew this would be tough and prepped for it, but can you really prep for it?!? I almost wondered if not going to sleep would have been better lol. So anyways- we took a taxi from our hotel to the station, got coffee and donuts at a Pret-A-Manger located in the station, and then boarded our train like clockwork. It really was a simple process but it does take time because there are SO many travelers traveling this way. I’d agree with the 2 hour lead time from your departure time for sure.

Since we had an early train, they did provide breakfast service on board which was nice. We bought 4 tickets so we had a nice little set up where we had two seats each facing each other with a table in between. Everyone, except me, fell asleep on the train over, the trip is a little over 2 hours total. I just have a hard time sleeping when everyone else is sleeping, I feel like one adult needs to be on alert.

We got to Paris around 10:30 am local time, Paris is one hour ahead of London. Because we were technically supposed to have been in Paris the day before, but had a change of plans due to the Arsenal game, our room was already ready and we were able to check in immediately and go to the room, which was nice.

After dropping our luggage off, we walked down the street to a grocery store to pick up some snacks and diapers and then went out to explore! We ended up walking from our hotel to a cafe along The Seine. This is where things get a little crazy. As I was eating in the cafe, the whole room started spinning and I felt like I was going to throw up. I told Joey I had to walk outside and I sat on the curb outside the cafe and just closed my eyes and did some deep breathing which made things a little better but I still could not stop things from looking like they were turning upside down!

It was so wild. I almost thought my food was drugged or something. It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I went back in and luckily everyone had finished eating, so we paid the bill and then continued on walking. We got across the street and the whole thing started happening again, my hands started to tingle and I felt like I was going to pass out. I immediately told Joey I couldn’t keep walking and that I needed to go back to the hotel.

We walked back to the hotel and I just went to bed. Apparently everyone needed the rest because we all ended up falling asleep and sleeping for 4 hours!

When we woke up, I was feeling so much better. We had a tour of the Eiffel Tower booked for 2 pm which we missed because we slept through it, oops. But we got up in time to go to dinner, which we walked too and then we had a night river cruise of the Seine booked at 10 pm.

We ate at Pizza Popolare and I cannot say enough good things about this place! We ended up eating here again another night because it was SO good!

After dinner, we walked to our cruise and Paris at night is just something spectacular. I remember walking around that night so vividly and just being in awe of the scenery and at how many people were out just walking around, people were also running and riding their bikes! It was so crazy to me.

In hindsight, I’m 100% sure that I was having a panic attack in that cafe. And what I think triggered it was a combination of a lot things- lack of sleep, feeling anxious about all the travel from the train, too much caffeine, not enough food, and then just the overwhelming reality that I was in fact in my dream city with my family. I think I was literally in a twilight zone and everything hit my body and my body had no idea how to respond.

I’ve dreamt about Paris my whole life. My childhood bedroom was Paris themed, and up until I was sitting in that cafe, like literally in a scene from Emily in Paris, Paris just always felt like something so far away and unattainable. Being there was definitely a shock to my system lol.

Anyway, after that, the rest of the trip was truly rainbows and butterflies!

Boarding our cruise of the seine was so magical! If you’re going to Paris, I definitely recommend doing a Seine River Cruise and doing it at night!!! Our cruise timed everything out perfectly so we ended up sitting directly in front of the Eiffel Tower right when it started to sparkle!

Watching that, with my daughter in my lap and my husband and son seated next to me, I couldn’t help but start to cry. It was so emotional and so beautiful and such a dream come true. My daughter was so cute, she asked mom why are you crying? And I just told her, these are happy tears because I’m just so happy and we’re so lucky to be here.

It was definitely the perfect way to end the first day and certainly turned the day around for me to say the least!

After getting off the boat and walked back to the hotel, it was about midnight when we actually got back. We all showered and ended the night watching Ratatouille before falling asleep!