Chintz & Swagger: Adventures Across the Pond- The City of Light :)

The Eurostar train ride was amazing- beautiful scenery of the English & French countrysides, lunch service with delicious cheese, bread & wine & in 2.5 hours it's, "Bonjour Paris!"

All we had to do was hop on the metro to get to our hotel & we'd be ready to conquer the City of Light...or so we thought...

Let me start with a little back story that will make sense in a minute...I'm petite with a petite stomach & therefore can't drink a lot at a time. Hence, in London, I had a penchant for ordering half-pints of beer- the perfect size for me & it's not warm by the time I reach the bottom. Well my sister & her fiance got a kick out of this & took to calling me "half-pint"...

So back to our arrival in Paris...

We put our metro tickets in the slots & proceed through the entrance doors...my sister walks through, her fiance walks through, I walk through, pulling my wheelie suitcase behind me, but then get stopped to a screeching halt as the automatic entrance doors shut on my suitcase.

I start yanking as hard as I can on my suitcase but the doors won't release it. As I'm staring horrified at the situation my sister comes barreling up behind me yelling, "Out of the way half-pint!" She grabs the retractable handle on my suitcase, yanks as hard as she can, the handle snaps in half on one side & then comes completely out of my suitcase & she goes flying backward with said retractable (broken) handle in her hand.

I scream & can't stop laughing & in the meantime my suitcase is still stuck in the death grip. Finally my sister's fiance & another guy had to pry it out, breaking the doors in the process.

I don't know Paris, I know you're super chic & maybe you didn't want to let my wardrobe in but homegirl had to live out of a carry on for a week, cut me some slack!

After starting off with uncontrollable laughter, the trip continued to be some of the most fun & magic I've ever experienced...

strolling through the Luxembourg Gardens on a warm & sunny fall day...

it was truly heaven on earth & I could have stayed there all day...

necessary pilgrimage to the Motherland...

I'm on my way Karl!!...

Maje everywhere (which I LOVE)...

I'm old school- no nook or kindle or whatever- I love reading real books- seeing the design, font, turning the pages, underlining, dog-earing. Only in Paris would you find a book store as precious as this...