Viva la Paris!

Daniel and I prefer trips to presents, so for this Christmas we took ourselves to Paris for New Years. As hinted, it was amazing! We took very few pictures and did very few touristy things but instead, opted to live our 11 days there as if we were at home. We rented the cutest apartment ever in the center of the city (vrbo.com rocks!)

It was a classic Parisian studio with 300 year old beams and a beautiful view.

Most days consisted of wandering the city and seeing the sights. Of course we did the usual. Notre Dame

Daniel was particularly enamored with the crypts and relics. 

Eww finger bones...

 The Louvre was fantastic

On our one sunny day

 Our one mission this trip was to find a particular picture in the Louvre that I saw while I was with my mother back in 2001. Mission accomplished.

Yes that is me looking slightly travel worn pointing to a Capybara. They are the ROUSes of the real world.

I always love the view from the tops of monuments.

The Eiffel Tower was impressive.

 But the best thing about our trip was the evenings. Every afternoon we wandered back towards home and stopped by "our street".

 Nothing particularly special about it from the outside, but as you wandered down it was full of anything and everything. Pastries, bread, wine, cheese.

How can you not want to just bite there little heads off?

It was just the perfect street. So that was our ritual. Sight-see and then pretend we lived there for the evening. So there it is, my perfect Parisian adventure.

My advice to you if you are planning a trip to Paris any time soon:

1. Rent an apartment. Vbro.com is great but there are a lot of options out there. It is wonderful to have a kitchen (and it keeps the cost down) and we made sure to have a washer and dryer which meant packing for 4 days instead of 11. 
2. Give yourself time. It would have been a lot less fun if we were trying to do this trip in a week or less. I figure 10 days is a minimum (but if you have less, it is still worth it!)
3. Buy a museum pass. This was such a life saver. You have access to basically all of the major museums and monuments for free. It costs a bit up front (around 100$ for a 6 day pass) but in most cases you get to jump the line which can save you hours of waiting around to see things. As long as you are up for at least one museum or monument a day it pays for itself.   
4. Fly non-stop. This was the best. Surprisingly it didn't cost any more (Delta flies direct from Seattle) and I would probably be willing to pay a bit more even if it did. You are just a happier person if you get even the opportunity to sleep. 

Anyone else have good travel tips? We are pretty good travelers but I still learn something new every trip.

Cheers!