The best way to begin your adventure of a lifetime is to have issues checking in for your flight, give your carry-on luggage to the baggage attendant when he thought it was checked then forget to pick it up when disembarking because you had to sprint across the entire airport to get to your connecting flight (which ended up being delayed), be told your luggage was found and would be put on the plane and then land sans change of clothes and toothbrush. Well, that's what we thought, apparently. 

But, there's always a silver lining and ours came in literal form as we were treated to a gorgeous astronomical show while flying thousands of feet above open water. Truly, it was one of the most breathtaking sites I have ever seen, and I found myself repeatedly sticking my face right up against the window to see better so that when we flew into the sunrise, the vibrant-hued rays illuminated my nose smudges.  A very low quality image of a seriously high quality sunrise.

Discarding our travel stress of the past 24 hours, we headed straight for our best cure: baguette, a glass of wine, and macaroons. One bite of the pistachio macaroon made all of our difficulties worth it. 

Each exhausted, we decided to take short naps, but while I had an excess of caffeine coursing through my veins allowing me to sleep for no more than a few minutes, Erin slept like she'd missed an entire night's sleep, so I headed out to do a little photographic exploring. One of my greatest loves of Paris is it's architecture, so I quickly found myself following a meandering path of buildings I liked; admiring a wrought-iron railing here, exclaiming over a relief-carved facade there, and capturing photos of passers by in between. 

The view from our hostel room. Atalier de Paris Stoplight Exchange Ever the sports photographer

Upon my return (chocolate croissant in hand), Erin woke up and we decided to go into full-on tourist mode, blunderingly navigating the metro system to eventually arrive at the Arc de Triomphe. Thought we'd only planned to see the structure from across the street, the setting sun and colorful sky lured us to the top and we were treated to a most beautiful sunset, ending the day in the same colorful bliss with which it began. 

Thank goodness there's an under-road tunnel.

To put the icing on the gateau, we ate at a little brasserie near our hotel indulging in beef tartare, lots of bread with my favorite hot mustard and a delectably rich chocolate mousse. 

I like my beef still mooing.

A quick sleep in the clothes that we have now been wearing for something like 32 hours, and we'll be off to our next little adventure!

*All photos briefly touched up and condensed on my laptop. High quality images and composites will be in a gallery on my website upon my return.