18th Wedding Anniversary in Paris | Artist European Travel Vlog + Louvre Museum

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Hey everyone! Welcome back to my blog or welcome if you are new here. I’m Carla the artist behind Arie Debren Art. Thanks for checking out my travel blog series where I am taking you along with me and my husband on our European vacation. We travelled to a few countries in Europe to celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary. And in this episode, we are visiting France. Now I must say that France was the country I was most excited about visiting. I studied French in middle school and high school and started trying to brush up on my French before our big trip. I was looking forward to trying to use the little bit of French that I knew but I was also nervous about the possibility of having to try to communicate in a different language. But as it turns out, most of the people we interacted with in Paris spoke English, so I really had nothing to be nervous about.

If you read my last blog, you know that we were meeting up with a tour group in England for this trip. We met our tour group at like 6 in the morning in the hotel lobby and we were on the road by 630, headed to France. But first we had to cross the English Channel.

Waiting on the ferry to take us from Dover, England to Calais, France.

To board the ferry to cross the Channel, we had to get off the tour bus and go into the Border Patrol office and show our passport. It felt kind of exciting handing the border patrol agent my passport and having him greet me with a very pleasant, “Bonjour!” and “Merci!”  Like I’m legit in France, OMG! Well, I wasn’t there yet but you know what I mean lol.

Anyway, the ferry ride was about 90 minutes long. While on the ferry we grabbed a little breakfast. Sidenote, this is when we started to realize that they don’t cook their bacon well done in Europe. The whole week in a half we were in Europe, each hotel that we stayed in served breakfast, and it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack looking for a crispy piece of bacon. Is that just how they cook bacon over there? If anyone can give me some insight on that, I’d love to hear it. Please drop it in the comments and educate me because I’m genuinely curious.

The view from the ferry was really relaxing. We found a table right next to a window and enjoyed our breakfast while watching the waves of the English Channel roll by and the seagulls glide alongside the ship.

Once we arrived in Paris, one of the first things we did after checking into our hotel and having dinner was go see the Eiffel Tower. Have you ever gone to something expecting to be underwhelmed? Like this thing has always been hyped up but because you are a jaded millennial, you expect to be disappointed or not as impressed by the thing? This was what I was expecting my reaction to the Eiffel Tower to be, but to my surprise it was the complete opposite. Like I was fully impressed and stunned by how grand she is. It literally took my break away. I hear Parisians historically don’t think it’s a very attractive structure, but I disagree. I thought it was really cool and then when the sun went down and it was all lit up – magical!

Day 2 in Paris, Dwaynmon and I decided to separate from the tour group and go exploring on our own. We visited the Arc de Triomph first. The Arc de Triomph is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France.  It’s a monumental symbol of French national identity and military victories, particularly those of the Napoleonic era. Again, the jaded millennial in me was expected to be underwhelmed but the jaded millennial in me was proven wrong once again. I was totally impressed when I saw the Arc in person. Maybe it being in the middle of a huge round about helps with its grand presence but it was truly a work of art to me – just a beautiful piece of architecture. Apparently, this was not the original Arc. As the story goes, Napoleon had the original built to celebrate a French war victory. He thought it would be cool for the military to walk through the arch in celebration. But the original arc, which is located outside the Louvre Museum, was too small for Napoleon’s liking so he had this one built afterward. Unfortunately, he passed away before he could see it finished. Him having it rebuild was a good call I must say. This one was way grander than the original.

After being fully impressed with the Arc, we decided to head to the Louvre Museum. To get there we had to walk down Champs-Élysées, a world-famous avenue in Paris with lots of high-end stores. Louise Vuitton was doing some construction, and their scaffolding cover was a giant-sized Louise case. Like this was so extra but cool at the same time. Of course we had to take some pics in front of it.

As we made our way down the Champs-Elysees, we found a macaron boutique and decided to go inside and check it out. It was so pretty and everything looked delicious! We bought a few macarons to snack on later.

On our way to the Louvre, we went through the square where Cleopatra’s Needle is located and where King Louis XVI and his wife were beheaded during the French Revolution. We also walked through this really pretty park filled with trees and ponds. This was the moment that I realized I wanted to come back to Paris. With us being on the tour we only had a limited time in each city, so we didn’t get to see everything. For example, I only got to see Notre Dame from far away on a boat. I would love to go back to see that and just explore more. I really enjoyed the vibe of Paris.

So, the Viator app came in clutch again with getting us a tour guide for the Louvre Museum. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable of the exhibits. The Louvre is huge. They have so many pieces of art that there’s literally no way for anyone to see everything in one visit, or I think even a lifetime if I’m not mistaken. Half of the items they have aren’t even on public display. That’s how much stolen….I mean, borrowed art they have. Dwaynmon wanted to visit the Palace of Versailles during our visit to Paris but unfortunately it just didn’t fit into our schedule for this trip. But since the Louvre was originally a palace, it was a good compromise. I mean check out this ornate ceiling!

We couldn’t visit the Louvre without seeing Venus de Milo or Mona Lisa. The crowd to see the Mona Lisa was crazy as expected. I didn’t have enough audacity at first to shove my way to the front of the crowd to get my picture of her, but fortunately Dwaynmon did, and he convinced me to just get in there and go.

That evening we rejoined that tour group for dinner and a cabaret show. Unfortunately, I was not able to take pictures for obvious reasons, but I did steal some short videos of a few things we ate that night.

Dwaynmon and I both agreed that we really would love to come back to Paris again and spend some more time here. We just loved the feel of the city, and it seems like there is so much to see and do. Hopefully one day we’ll get the opportunity to return and have the full Parisian experience. Thank you so much for reading. Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog so you can be notified when I post the Switzerland vlog, which is the next country we visit on the tour. If you enjoyed this blog, please hit that like button and if you’ve made it this far please comment “macarons” below to let me know. Ok guys, see you next time. Bye!