Bonjour Paris!

Monday
We got up, checked out of our hotel, and took the tube to St. Pancras Station. Check-in for the train was quick and easy, and after grabbing a few snacks from the Marks and Spencer in the station, we were on the Eurostar to Paris! (Oh, they had these cool slanted escalators to take you up to the train platform - no steps, just a rolling ramp.) It was a really fast journey and in less than 3 hours we were at Gare du Nord, right inside Paris! We took a taxi to our apartment (within walking distance if it weren't for our luggage) and waited outside for a few minutes to meet the representative from the rental company. She took us up to the apartment and showed us around.
Mom took a short nap while I explored the neighborhood a little bit. Our apartment is really close to three metro stations, and there's a grocery store just a few doors down. We decided to take the metro to check out the Rue Cler area for dinner, and we ate at a restaurant called Cafe Marche. It was pretty good, and the servers were very nice. Not amazing, but a good first French meal. :)

Tuesday
We made our way to the main Paris tourism office and got the lowdown on the hop-on hop-off bus and Paris Museum Pass. We got a 2-day bus pass and a 2-day museum pass and headed up to the Palais Garnier opera house to hop on for the first bus line. The first route we took went to all the major sites - the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral. The running commentary over the headsets wasn't amazing, but it did give a good overview as we traveled around on the top deck of the bus. We got off at the Esplanade des Invalides to get some lunch, looking for a cafe recommended in our trusty Rick Steves guide. We didn't find the cafe, so we ended up getting sandwiches at a bakery on a side street and having a picnic back at the Esplanade. After lunch, we got on another bus route for some more rooftop sightseeing. The only famous site I remember from this route was the Place de la Bastille and Bastille Opera House.

More to come!