Jour 6 Paris: Pompidou, Notre Dame, Louvre

We arrived at our hotel right around lunchtime so as soon as we unloaded our stuff and we enjoyed our little snack, we headed straight out into the city to grab some food. I was hoping we could have some raclette but the place we found on Yelp was only open for dinner. Luckily, we were in one of my favorite neighborhoods where we could grab delicious street paninis and crepes and see a bunch of Paris's well-known landmarks at the same time!

We were right in the neighborhood of Centre Pompidou - that's where the good street food is - so we took a gander at that weird looking building, got our grub, and walked around a bit.

E and S shared a sausage and cheese sandwich while baby sis and I opted for a jambon de pays, tomato, and cheese sandwich - yeah yeah, jambon again, we're so predictable, right?

These paninis are pressed so thinly and the bread ends up so nice and crisp. It's delicious.

We saw this pigeon man multiple times that day but right in front of Centre Pompidou is where 90% of the pigeons in the world live and they're all ravenous.

With our sandwiches in hand, we crossed the river to get to Île de la Cité, where the lovely Notre Dame Cathedral lives.

Isn't she gorgeous? The first time I met her was in February 2009. She looked just as beautiful as she did back then.

Esmerelda face on the left. Quasimodo face on the right.

We made sure to tap our toes on Point Zéro. Kilometre Zero is a milemarker for a city from which distances are measured or something like that. But this particular one is magical. "They" say that tourists who stand on this point will one day return to Paris. I stood on this bad boy back in 2010 (the last time I was in Paris) and look! It came true!

After that, we went on a search for a good street crepe. We passed by several overpriced stands near Notre Dame and decided to head back to Centre Pompidou where the good street food is. We stopped by Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) on our way.

We ended up right back at the same panini stand to get our crepes.

Nutella and banana is the way to go. I love street crepes so much. The big griddle and the little squeegee looking thing that they use to spread the batter is the best thing ever. The crepes are thicker than a traditional made-in-a-pan crepe (because of the squeegee spreader) and the result is a lovely chewy dough that's perfectly golden with crisp edges. Friggin' delicious, I tell you.

Despite a bit of early morning drizzle, the ground had dried up enough for us to plop ourselves down to enjoy our desserts.

Our dinner spot was near the Louvre so we headed there next.

The Louvre is a gorgeous structure.

We didn't actually go inside - too many people in these touristy places - we just sat outside and relaxed. The rushing sounds of the fountains was lovely and soothing. But you know what wasn't lovely and soothing? We saw a bunch of super awkward engagement photoshoots. They looked so stupid, which sounds mean, but I'm just being honest. There was one couple where the man was wearing a red sweater and the girl was wearing a pink dress and they looked like Valentine's Day threw up all over them. The photographer told them to walk a bit farther down from him and then a swarm of tourists came by so he couldn't even get a decent shot.

I spy baby sister sticking her head up out of the fountain. Do you see her too?

We spent maybe two minutes in Jardin de Tuileries before the skies opened up and started crying.

When it started raining, we took cover under the arch.

This was S and E's only day in Paris but I think we managed to make it a good and fun one. E had never been to Paris before so I think it was great that we got to see a lot of those famous landmarks.

So that's it for our first day in Paris. I've got three more fun days full of stuff to share so come back when you get a chance!

xoxo.