London-Paris: Day 5

Our last night in London, Phil said to me that it felt like our trip hadn't really started yet. And now that I just woke up in Paris, I have to agree with him. Maybe it's because London is so familiar, it didn't quite feel like we were on holiday yet. Getting off the train and we were now in Paris, that felt like the trip started. I've also taken tons more pictures here in half a day than I did in London, so look out for more pictures! 

We took the Eurostar from London to Paris, which was a little bit like boarding a plane with all the security and then passport control. Two and a half hours later we were in Paris! It's been thirteen years since I was last in Paris, which sounds so long ago. And for Phil it's been eight years, so we both want to do touristy things again. We are staying at an Airbnb again; this one is so adorable. You enter through a passageway, into a courtyard, and we are in the attic of the house in the courtyard. 

After dropping our things off and getting oriented with where we are in the city - the 9th arr. - we set out for a self-guided tour of Montmartre. It's up a big hill, which we paid to take the funicular up, because today was the hottest day we will see out of the whole trip. Up at the top is Sacre Coeur:

And turning around you get the best view of Paris:

Sacre Coeur is full of tourists, and we slowly wandered away from the main tourist area, and really then began to see Paris. 

Neither of us being soccer/football fans, we didn't realize when we were planning the trip that we were traveling during the World Cup Finals. Our first night in London was the England v. Croatia game, and unfortunately we were too tired to stay up and watch. And now our first night in Paris was the final game, France v. Croatia. We decided to try to get dinner while the game was on. It was a jubilant atmosphere as we wandered down the hill, with seemingly every cafe adding a TV to watch the game. 

It was also funny seeing the delayed reactions as we moved down past three different places - their TVs were all slightly behind each other! After the win, the streets were full of people singing songs and chanting. We popped out for an ice cream (had to still celebrate National Ice Cream Day!) and just watched and listened to the joy. Things died down for awhile and then of course celebrations picked up again around midnight, just when I had decided it was a good idea to go to sleep!