life along the med: The Starbucks Tour of Paris

You know it's vacation time when the Kindles, iPads, and e-books come out!

One of the awesome aspects of life during this season is the opportunity to travel (usually out of necessity) to some really amazing places. The only down side is that 2 nights is never enough to explore one of the world's most famous cities. However we packed in as many sights and as much Starbucks as was possible.

After some not so surprising delays at the airport and having to switch hotels, we were finally off to see the city and eat lunch at about 4 pm. Oh and it was nice and chilly...very chilly.

Our first stop: Arc de Triomphe

Arc de Triomphe

After searching the streets of Paris for a decently priced meal in this major shopping district, thunderclouds were rolling in. We found a great table at the Pizza Pino situated along the sidewalk on Champs - Elyssess just as it started raining heavily.

Enjoying delicious French cuisine!

After lunch/dinner, we began our search for the illustrious Starbucks with full bellies. A few hours, several poor direction givers, more rain showers, and three pair of wet socks later, we found the fanciest looking Starbuck ever!

Isn't she a beaut!

The next we had a schedule full of sightseeing!

Notre Dame!

The Lock Bridge and Notre Dame

Once we'd explored the Notre Dame cathedral, we found a nearby American based bookstore called, "Shakespeare and Company." It was a quaint, old bookstore that was home to many expat writers like William Faulkner and Scott Fitzgerald. After another Starbucks run, we enjoyed some rock and roll music over our Hard Rock Cafe American food!

Next Stop: Tour Eiffel

For dinner, Beth treated us to an appetizer of escargot and I got to eat my words. You see, Beth's made escargot here before and after watching the snails crawl around in flour for a few days, I had absolutely no appetite for them. So I said, "If I'm gonna eat snails, it'd have to be escargot in Paris or something!" So, it happened!