Travel Inspiration #1: Paris

Inspiration. That's what travel is to me. In 2012 we took a trip to France and I always meant to post pictures. Never got around to it. 
So now I think I'll pepper my blog posts with pictures of that trip. And since I seem to gravitate to other people's pictures of France, I'll include some of those, too. (Note: Some of these pics will come from Pinterest. Whenever possible I'll get back to the source to credit, but I'm finding that difficult to impossible sometimes.) Anything not credited came from my old Motorola phone camera...
So, in no particular order except that I hope these inspire or entertain, here goes.

This was our first bleary view of the Eiffel Tower. After the all-night plane ride and actually negotiating the train and Metro (thank you Rick Steves) into Paris to get to our flat, we couldn't contact our host. We had no working cell phone. 
But we made it. We got the keys, deposited baggage, and decided the best thing to do was get on a bus and head for the Number One Tourist Attraction in Paris. 
Boarded the bus and promptly fell asleep. Neither of us could keep our eyes open. 
We learned two things.  1. A sleep deprived body will not be denied once the pressure is off.  2. Take the Metro, not the bus. Underground there's no traffic.

There are 700+ stairs to the lower observation deck. You can also take the elevator, but the wait was longer and the ticket costs more. The stairs were a blast!  Lots of people climbing and resting, climbing and resting... Climbing woke us up. Here's the view from the stairs. 

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Here we are on the Eiffel Tower observation platform after climbing all those stairs. Seine in the background. Joli, n'est-ce pas?

And I couldn't resist these. source source