The Grand Finale!

After 3 truly amazing days on the French Riviera we made our way to the City of Lights; the city I've been holding my breath for the duration of this entire trip!

Our flight departed Nice at 8:05 am on Thursday which meant we needed to be at the airport no later than 6:30 am (I learned my lesson last time ;0) ) which also meant we had to finagle our way to the airport via a few different methods of transportation. The city buses did not run that early in the morning nor did the shuttle from our hostel into town (about a 15 min walk.) We debated getting a taxi to come pick us up at our hostel but the cost would have been over 50 euro. For that price we decided to make the 15 min hike from our hostel to the city center, hop on the tram, hit the main terminal and grab a cab to the airport. Great plan but that meant we had to be up and at 'em at 4:30 am. Did we make it???

Yep, we sure did!

We were at the airport and checked in at 6:30 am, boarding at 7:30 am and on our way to Paris at 8:05 am. Woo hoo!!!

We landed in Paris at 9:35 am and began our journey to our hotel. Almost all of the hostels were booked in Paris when we were looking so we booked a hotel and figured it may actually be better than a hostel. Wrong idea! First off it took us nearly 45 minutes to find the correct bus stop at which to get off for our hotel. Once we found the correct bus stop (thanks to help from some very nice and very helpful Parisians on the bus) we were still lost as to where to go to get to our hotel. Thankfully we met a very nice Frenchman who we also discovered had a son living in Louisville! The world doesn't get much smaller than that, my friends. He had a GPS and delivered us to the front door of our hotel. What a kind gesture (and I was afraid the French were going to be rude!)

Our hotel was more than a little disappointing. Nowhere near the city center, old, smelly and with a child's sailboat motif! It was actually so bad that we didn't take any pictures because it never occurred to us to do so. But, no time to spare we were off to see the city!

Our first night we had reservations for the world famous Moulin Rouge! We emerged from the metro (over an hour's ride from our hotel) in the Montmartre district of Paris to this stunning view:

The bright exterior of the Moulin Rouge

The metro sign in Montmartre. This area of Paris is a bit bohemian; think SoHo in NYC

The show was amazing and for those that have not heard of the Moulin Rouge think Vegas show with lots of feathers, sequins and dance routines. And, of course, the French Can-Can!!! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside (boo!) so here is a very similar shot I got from the web:

After the show, around 1:00 am, the metro was unfortunately closed. We hailed a cab and it took us nearly 15 minutes to explain the vicinity of our hotel. The poor cab driver had no idea and his GPS system was not locating the address at all. As it turns out, the dang hotel wasn't even in the Paris city limits! It was in the suburb of Acruiel! Geez! The cabbie then proceeds to tell us how expensive it is going to be for us to stay this far out of the city and encourages us to switch hotels. Our thoughts exactly!

Cut to the next morning after waking to the depressing thought of the night before's $60 cab fare we begin the process of switching hotels. We find a little hostel/renovated old apartment building only 10 mins from downtown Paris and decide to make the move. Great decision!! We checked in and fell in love with our little nest: