Today is Christmas Day! We started off the day properly by sleeping in after a great Christmas Eve. As it was Christmas Day, nothing was open and so little was seen. After breakfast we attended a Christmas mass at Jean-Pierre’s nearby church. The service was great, but the temperature in the church was so low we were grateful to leave (not enough layers). After the service, we headed back to flat to enjoy a 2-hour lunch and warm back up a bit.

To finish out the afternoon, we headed up to Sacre Coeur Cathedral just before sunset. Unfortunately, we were unable to photograph the interior of the cathedral, which was amazing! But the outdoor and neighborhood shots were nearly perfect with the sunset that we were given. You can see more of the photos here (please login first). After the cathedral, we headed into the nearby town of Montmartre, which is kind of the “west hills” of Paris. Within the square, are dozens of artists, all eager to draw your portrait in about every style available.

To help warm back up and being fairly tired of just sitting, we opted to walk over half the way back to the flat. This again was enjoyable as we got to see more of Paris that is not frequented by tourists. Once the walk got the best of our feet we hopped on the nearest subway and headed back to relax the rest of the night.

Today was our first full day in Paris and it was Christmas Eve! It was tough to fall to asleep during the night, you felt tired going to bed, but actually falling asleep was a challenge. That was until about 3:00a, then you were out cold. We slept in until about 10:30a, which still felt like waking about in the middle of the night. But guilt and the smell of breakfast forced us out.

After a great breakfast, we set out with Jean-Pierre to head to the Christmas Market near La Grande Arche de la Défense. The Christmas markets were nothing special, except for the food that was being offered, but it was a our first chance to see the Grande Arche and try some hot spiced wine. Which was much needed since it was so warm out.

After enjoying and photographing the market, we headed back on the subway to Notre Dame Cathedral. The cathedral was absolutely incredible, and provided a nice break from the cold wind. The inside was immaculate, but very dark and difficult to photograph. We spent at least an hour inside the church photographing the interior. After feeling warm enough, we headed back outside to photograph the main entrance, including a picture of St. Denis. Finally we decided to walk around the church admiring it’s elaborate structure. But, the wind continued to get the best of us, so we called it a day and headed to find the nearest restaurant to warm back up. Nothing like a Quiche Lorriane and hot chocolate to do the trick.

Ah, there is nothing better when starting a vacation then a 6:00am flight! Yes, in order to make this whole trip work we had to leave from Chicago at 6:00am to catch a flight to Frankfurt, then only to arrive in Paris in mid-afternoon the next day. That’s the one thing I hate about flying to Europe is that you must kiss off a day. Our flight to Chicago was delayed an hour due to snow in the Chicago area, as a result they were slowing down the incoming flights. I was a bit nervous because we were not given more than 90 minutes to make the connection and I was under the impression that we were going to have to change terminals to catch the Frankfurt flight. Over an hour later we were leaving PDX on our way to Portland. Upon arrival in Chicago we were offered a great reward by the travel gods that our departing flight for Frankfurt was the gate across the hall, doesn’t get any easier than that. After grabbing some quick food and attempting to bribe the attendant to giving us business-class seats, we left ORD for FRA. The flight over was uneventful and 8 1/2 hours long. All attempts to catch some sleep failed, and the movies they offered were lame. God bless the PSP!

After landing in FRA around 6:00am the next day, we tried to figure out where our Paris flight was. The problem with FRA is that unless you are flying on Lufthansa, FRA will not assign a gate number until about 30 minutes before your flight. Normally not a problem, however many of the concourses have split levels with different gates above and below, security control is at the start of the level. So if you gate is on a different level than you are on, you must exit security and go back through on the next level. Natalie and I were getting quite tired by this point, so we decided to guess where the flight was going to be and camped out near the monitors until the gate was posted.  After enduring security, we headed for the gate, and Paris.

Once we got on the flight, I was beat and decided to nap a bit. Natalie called Jean-Pierre (Natalie’s uncle) to inform him that we were on-time and all was good. I awoke about an hour later expecting to be preparing to land, only to find that we have not left yet. Apparently there was a different excuse for why we did not leave every time they provided an update on the PA. Again, over an hour later we finally left for Paris. This is the beginning of my stance that Air France sucks.

Jean-Pierre met us at the airport and drove us to his flat near the Bastille in downtown Paris. We took a much needed nap for a few hours and woke up in time for an aperitif and dinner. Finally, the end of a very long trip to Paris, can’t wait to see some sights tomorrow.