The whole point of our trip initially was to see the French Open. We applied for tickets late last year and when we were finally told we got them, we planned out the trip around the French Open.
We stayed only 3 nights in Paris and one of those days was at Roland Garros so our time in Paris was very limited. But as they say, it's quality, not quantity. We will never forget our first night in Paris.
Our first night was wet and cold but our hotel was very close to the Arc de Triomphe so we still went out to see some sites near the hotel.
The Champs Elysees
We climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. It doesn't look that tall, but there are some serious stairs. When we finally got to the top, we had no idea the view would be so amazing.
It was here that I proposed to Donna, and she said yes!
Look how happy we look right after we came back down.
So, from one memorable day right to the next: the French Open. This is what we came here for. We had tickets for the third and final day of the first round.
When we first got the tickets, we were hoping that we'd get to see just one of Roger Federer or Raphael Nadal. We knew they wouldn't both play on the same day so there was a 1 in 3 chance that we wouldn't get either of them. When we got to Europe, the weather was horrible. The forecast said rain pretty much everyday and we were really worried that our day would get rained out. But to make up for the cruddy weather we had all trip, the rain Gods decided to rain hard on the first two days of the Open so almost all the matches got canceled and then the weather cleared up completely on day 3. That meant that we got to see all 3 days worth of matches including both Federer and Nadal. A bunch of other top name players also got pushed out to the smaller outer courts so we got to see them up close.
Nicole Vaidisova
Mr. Federer
Lleyton Hewitt
Rafa
Us at Court Philippe Chatrier
I still can't believe how lucky we got with the matches being canceled before and then having perfect weather on the day we were there.
With just one full day left in Paris, we did the most abbreviated tour of the Louvre you can imagine. In just about 2 hours flat, we saw the top 5 highlights of the Louvre and got the heck out of there. Hey, we were short on time.
Goofing off outside the Louvre later that night.
The time we picked to go up the Eiffel tower also had the worst rain of the entire trip. It was a downpour and gave us very little opportunity to take pictures.
From the top, there were just brief periods when the rain would lighten up enough for us to take out our camera and get a little visibility.
There was so much more we want to see in Paris, we will have to do another trip back.
Click on the albums to see more pictures!
