Paris – Day Two

PARIS, France - (Moment of silence for Paris – Day One) Talk about an act to follow.

As if the day wasn’t already extraordinary and one for the books, Juston pushed the envelope once more and surprised me (again) with a nights stay at a French Chateau right outside of town. A French chat-what? My thoughts exactly. Upon arrival to our destination, Juston dropped some knowledge on me related to the matter. Apparently, French chateaus are large castles or fortresses that have been converted for overnight guests. Predominately in France, these castle hotels bring guests a taste of the good life in an old-fashioned luxurious oasis. 

They weren’t kidding. We felt like royalty. It was one of those moments where people try to act like the ritzy lifestyle is one they are accustomed to living in front of other guest, but when the door closes behind them to their suite, they go jumping on the bed within seconds and take goofy pictures with the cloth robes on in excitement. Oh wait, that was us….

The next morning we woke up to the birds chirping and a slight peek-a-boo of the sun. “Good morning, fiancé,” we exchanged with a slight giggle. Being one another’s fiancé in a French chateau was too much of a coincidence not to laugh at. Antics concluded, we packed our stuff, curtsied the King and Queen for nights stay, and were on our way back to the city for our final day of sightseeing.

After pounding the pavement the day before and seeing the majority of the attractions we wanted to see, we took our last day fairly slow. We had a long breakfast, stopped for an extra coffee (since we only got shots of them at the first place), and then made our way to see the Opéra National de Paris/ Opéra Garnier.

Next was the world-famous Moulin Rouge cabaret, located in “Pigalle” or what one would consider the red light district of Paris. Because of the neighborhood's raunchy reputation, WWII Allied soldiers nicknamed the area "Pig Alley". Needless to say, we didn’t hang around there long.

Basilique du Sacré-Coeur, situated 129m above sea level and offering the best view of the entire city, was our next destination. It was also one of the more impressive cathedrals we were able to see on our trip. Notre Dame was big and has a toooon of history, but this cathedral was just slightly more aesthetically pleasing both interiorly and exteriorly.

 Last on the docket was to attach our love locket. Did you see what I did there? Anyway, along with the many other lovebirds, we purchased a lock in order to leave a lasting mark on Paris. Writing our names and our engagement date on the back, I attached the lock to the bridge and (has tradition goes) threw the keys in the river below. Done deal. We are there forever, or until pried off.

Wahoo! Successful trip! While these posts did not include the exhaustive list of everything we did and saw, they were some of our major highlights. Care to hear a lowlight? Our 13-hour drive home due to a snowstorm and having to pull over and sleep at a rest stop in the car might be considered as one. But, somehow even that was fun together. (We later agreed on after returning home, showered and warm).

Overall, one heck of a trip! Paris and a proposal in two days?  It CAN be done!