Paris ::: day 3

Our third day in Paris, was a Sunday, a day where most of Paris closes down.

Sunday was a beautiful morning - so we decided to soak it up for a long breakfast in St. Germain. There was a great little cafe, just off of the main streets called Le Hibou that served a great breakfast. 

We split the fluffiest of all omelets, and Joel tried their cafe au chocolat - which, is literally one of the best things that I've ever tasted. Straight up warm, melted chocolate goodness.

We decided to walk to Le Marais from St. Germain, which was just under 2 miles - and was the perfect way to start the day. We spent our days eating and drinking, but because we were walking 10-15 miles a day, we did so without guilt. 

When we got to Le Marias, the Catholic church in town was starting service, so we made the split second decision to just sneak in and watch them begin service.

It was a really cool experience, and to see all of the nuns in their habits and deacons in their robes, you instantly felt like you were in a church from hundreds of years ago. 

From there we made our way to Place de Vosges, the main square in Le Marais. Laura put it the best and said, the square is just perfectly Paris - and it really was. 

We walked the square, and creeped hard on the cute Parisian kids in their darling little jackets and ballet flats, and just watched the morning start from the best seat in town. And - in all honestly, I probably could have watched the cute French kids play for like two hours. 

You can't read about Le Marais without hearing some mention of the amazing fallafel shop that is L'as Du Fallafel. 

We were told to expect a long, long line but we're assured that it would be well worth it. However, we got there early - around 12:30pm, and there were maybe 5 or 6 people ahead of us. We laughed at the clear over exaggeration of the blog reviews before us, ordered the standard fallafel and basically had our minds blown. 

You guys. 

This fallafel was not only the best I've ever tasted in my entire life - and probably ever will - and it was one of the best things we had our entire time in Paris. It is SO freaking outstanding. 

You eat it like street food, and it's pretty messy, so try to remember to grab extra napkins. It also fills you up like a brick, so go early enough so you have enough time to walk it off.

We had decided the day before to snag tickets to the French Open for Sunday. It was not in our original plan - because all of the opening day tickets were sold out when we had tried months earlier - but the tournament opens grounds passes for $15 euro the day before, and so with the weather not looking good for our original tickets (Monday), we decided to go for it. 

We took the metro from Le Marais to Roland Garros - and Joel was just about as giddy as a kid on Christmas.

Also side note- on our walk to the metro (about 2:30), the line for L'as Du Fallafel. was easily 3 city blocks long. The blogs were right - so our take away - go early, or expect a really, really long line...but like they said, it will still be worth it. 

When we arrived at Roland Garros, the afternoon games hadn't started up yet. We watched a few practice matches and decided to grab a beer in Roland Garros' one and only beer tent. 

The grounds passes that we bought did allow access to the the top 3 courts, but it didn't matter because the one guy we really wanted to see - Sam Quarry, our favorite California player, was played on a court we had access to.

It was so much fun to root for Sam as Americans - and some of the only few Americans that were there - and we like to think that we helped him pull in a victory - even though Joel kept telling me I was getting in his head. 

This American can't contain my inner Texas football coach at sporting events. 

Sam was our only full match, and we left Roland Garros around 7pm to head to our last activity of the day - happy hour at the Eiffel Tower.

Joel and I have been to two Grand Slams now (US and French) and we're really hoping to get a few more on our list, with Wimbledon being our next plan of attack next summer. 

We took the metro to the Eiffel Tower - and as soon as the tower was in my full view - it just took my breath away. 

I couldn't keep my eyes off of it, and just wanted to capture every angle I could. It really is such a beautiful monument, and after dreaming of Paris for so long, to have it in the background was just mind blowing.

We picked up a mini-bottle of champagne and some plastic glasses, found a piece of grass in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower, and jsut fell over in its beauty. 

  

I had wanted to see the tower light up - but since we were there in summer, it wasn't getting dark until 9:30/10ish, and by that point we were starving.

On Sunday, after are seriously full day, we decided to indulge in Paris pizza - to the recommendation of the Oyster shop owner from Saturday - and we were not disappointed.

Anytime our restaurant was full of Parisians - we took it as a good sign. By day 3, we didn't want to go to places were tourists had taken over, and this pizza spot in St. Germain hit the mark. 

By some stroke of bliss and adrenaline, we just didn't want the day to end. It was one of those days that I wish I could repeat every single week. Everything worked, Joel and I felt thankful and humble and just excited to be alive, and I think Sunday was the day we both truly fell in love with Paris.

To cap off our perfect day - we stumbled into a cafe that served creme brulee - we ordered a bottle of wine, played more cards, and then after 1am - closed down the cafe and slept like freaking babies.

Just another really, really amazing day in Paris.