Europe Adventure Part 1: Paris

Published on by Amanda C

After we landed in Brussels we took a train to Paris, checked into our hotel, and immediately set off sightseeing (sleep is overrated).

The view from my hotel room balcony

We didn’t get into Paris until around 2:30, so we mainly just walked around and got a feel for things, enjoying the city and making our plans for the next day. We ate (croque monsieur that I’m pretty sure had at least 2lbs of delicious cheese on it), we drank, we lost our way a couple times, and we got rained on, but it was still pretty amazing. Nothing exists in Paris that isn’t beautiful.

Notre Dame

 

view from one of the bridges

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Sunset at the Louvre, with the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

By the time we got back in the general area of our hotel we almost passed out on our feet in the market (30ish hours with no sleep maybe?) so we wisely decided to pack it in. I don’t think I’ve ever slept as well in my life as I did that first night. Exhaustion is awesome. On Day 2, which was our only full day in Paris, we had a definitive plan. We got up, had breakfast (the french breakfast is pretty much tailor made for me – a croissant, orange juice, and hot chocolate), and set off to the Eiffel Tower. Turns out that SOB is a lot farther away than it looks, it took us forever to get there. Almost 4 miles to be exact. Hindsight  – take the metro. But then we would have missed out on seeing all the cool stuff along the way so I guess it was worth it.

Then we walked a little ways further past the Eiffel Tower to a tack shop called Padd. It was pretty neat to see this big store full of horse stuff in the middle of Paris right across from the military school. I’m not sure if it’s sad or a blessing in disguise that I only bought one thing… could also be a testament to the fact that I have too much crap already. But either way, it was pretty fun to paw through all their stuff and see what they had. Lots of color, a good dose of sparkle, Samshields and Delrange galore.

your eyes do not deceive you, those are camo breeches

 

Build your own breastplate – you could pick whatever elastic color you wanted and it snapped onto the girth strap. Pretty cool.

Oh ya know, just a 4,000Euro Bruno Delgrange hanging out on the rack with the Wintecs…

 

After escaping the tack shop with minimal damage we walked back toward the Louvre area, had some lunch, then hoofed it over to the Catacombs. For a history nerd like me this was pretty awesome, even if the experience was made slightly less enjoyable by the intense pain in my feet and calves from having walked so far already. Getting to see “old Paris” sitting right there under current day Paris… mind-blowing.

By this point we’d been out walking for 8 hours and all of us were dead on our feet, so we started the long trek back to the hotel, stopping of course for some sustenance along the way. And by sustenance I mean macarons. Then boeuf bourguignon.

By the end of the day I think we walked at least 10 miles total, and god did it ever feel like it. We were wrecked by the time we finally fell into bed. It was tough getting up the next morning, all of my muscles were protesting, but we managed to pull ourselves together and crawl on the train to head back to Brussels for one day of sightseeing there before the pony time began!

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Au revoir, Paris!

 

32 thoughts on “Europe Adventure Part 1: Paris”

  4. So pretty! And all the colors in that tack store! I’m already scoping out what tack stores I can visit during my Eurotrip later this year. And moar pictures of food prease! nom nom nom….

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  6. I’ve been anxiously awaiting your Europe posts! These pictures are great, and you’re right: EVERYTHING in Paris is beautiful. Glad you had some tack shop time and ate all the food, can’t wait for part II 🙂

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  15. OH my god that was the longest freaking week. I had no idea how much i have come to rely on my 900facebookpony blog fix. Anyhoo….cant wait for the rest and glad you made it there okay and enjoyed it!

    how was the flight?? was your stuff waiting for you when you got back (the stuff you were waiting for before you left). And most important of all how did Henry do without you.

    Welcome back! You were missed!

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    1. It pretty much rained the whole time I was gone so I missed absolutely nothing. The flights there weren’t so bad (3hrs to DC, 6.5hrs to Brussels) but it takes a lot longer coming back so yesterday was literally 21 total hours of travel time including layovers and stuff. I was so ready to be home. And of course now I pretty much think we should just all move to Belgium.

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  17. OMG that tack store!! Not only are those breeches camo, they are ATTACKING that wall!! Jeez that is a little scary.

    MACARONS. Oh macarons. I could eat you until I died. Also beef. Mmmm beef.

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  21. great pics – looks like you stayed in a great part of town too!! imo, if you only have a day in paris it’s best spent above ground (ie no metro) – the pain in your feet and calves is well worth it. sounds like an amazing time – can’t wait to read the rest!!

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