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Leaving Venice always makes me a little sad. It is such a beautiful and unique city that I love so much. Here is our last view of Venice out the back window of the water taxi as we zipped along the lagoon leaving Venice behind us. Goodbye sweet Venice!

The worst thing about the private water taxi is the price! Because our flight was so early, we had no other choice but to take a water taxi. We would have much rather done the Alilaguna public Vaporetto airport shuttle. That runs around 12-15 Euros each person. The private water taxi was 100 Euros total for a 20 minute airport ride. OUCH! I know it pained the Wayneman to fork over that much money to the taxi driver! 

I couldn’t stay sad about leaving Venice for too long. I had our next destination ahead of us - Paris. You can’t be sad when you are on your way to Paris!


When we arrived at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport, we headed to the city center by train to Gare de Nord and then took the Metro to our hotel area.  This was such a chore! The last time we were here, it took us a half hour to figure out how to get out of the train station and get to the Metro. This time it took us about an hour and a half! We bought a 5-day ticket to use for all the trains in Paris during our stay. When we went to exit Gare de Nord, the Wayneman went through the gates just fine. When I tried to go through the gates (with a backpack, a duffle bag and my suitcase), the gates wouldn’t open. My ticket had gotten demagnetized.


So, the Wayneman waited for me outside the gates while I hauled all my stuff all over Gare de Nord train station looking for a station agent to help me. I never did find anyone. At one point, I almost gave up and sat down and cried. I had no idea what to do! I thought I was going to have to just make Gare de Nord my new home and start my life over in the station like Tom Hanks in The Terminal. Finally, the Wayneman found an agent, and they got me a new ticket and life was good again!


It was really tough hauling our bags around the Paris Metro. So many stairs! The stairs are not too bad when you are just walking up and down them without anything, but they are pretty rough when you are hauling all your luggage. From the Metro, we had a good walk from the Courcelles Metro stop to our hotel. Not a fun time when you have a 30 pound backpack on your back and everything else we were lugging.


Once we arrived at our hotel, we took a little rest because we had been up since very early in the morning to catch our flight from Venice to Paris.


That evening, we headed out to do a bit of exploring down Paris’ most famous boulevard, the Champs-Elysees!

This is where we got our first view of the Arc de Triomphe looking ever so lovely as the sun was going down.

Soon, it was dinner time. When you are in France, it is all about the food right? French cooking is known the world over. So, for us, there was only one choice for dinner - McDonald’s on the Champs-Elysees!

This place was packed too!  We definitely weren’t the only ones in there! I love to check out all the different things they have at the McDonalds’ in other countries. I had their Chicken Mythic sandwich. It was basically a bigger McChicken Sandwich with Big Mac sauce on it.

The Wayneman had his old standby - a Big Mac. However, in Paris you could choose a whole wheat bun for your Big Mac. The Wayneman said it tasted exactly the same. Too bad they don’t offer that in America!

At this point, we still hadn’t seen the Eiffel Tower yet, so we made our way that direction.  Nothing thrills me more than getting my first glimpse of the the beautiful Eiffel!  I love it so!

The Eiffel is so beautiful, especially at night!

Near the Eiffel, you can catch a boat (like the one shown above) and take an hour-long river cruise along the Seine.  This is a wonderful thing to do after dark in Paris.  Paris is the City of Lights after all, and it is just magical at night.


We chose Bateaux Parisien for our cruise.  We did that one the last time we were here and enjoyed it very much.  This time around did not disappoint!

They have listening devices in each seat to explain what you are looking at along the Seine.  It is so peaceful to quietly cruise along the river looking at Paris’ beauty.  You go under bridge after bridge after bridge...  Each one prettier than the last.  Here’s a video I shot of us passing my very favorite bridge in Paris - the Pont Alexander III.

This one is the oldest bridge in Paris. Those are faces all over it. So many of them and each one is different!

The view of the Eiffel is great as the boat pulls out of the dock at the beginning of the cruise.  Here’s a little video I shot as we were heading out on our Seine river cruise of the nightly light show that the Eiffel displays.

You also get a great view of Notre Dame while cruising along the Seine.

It was midnight when our cruise was over and we were beat! We headed back to our hotel to get a few hours sleep before our next museum-filled day in Paris.