Paris, France |
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Paris, France |
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It was good to see Mike and Dasha in Paris. We planned to meet in Paris
since we'd be travelling in Europe at the same time that they were honeymooning.
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Paris was a nice break from the English weather. It was
sunny from the moment we arrived to the moment we left. We arrived before
Mike and Dasha and Tara's favorite pasttime was reading in the room in
front of the window where the sun came in. Seth would read also, but on
the bed, not in the sun. We were 'living it up' at the Hotel California
as we'd done the last time we came to Paris.
We also enjoyed a very lazy afternoon on a park bench before Mike and Dash arrived in town. The only thing we did before they arrived was find them a funky, Madonna-clothed bottle of champagne for their hotel room.  |
This was Dasha's first time in Paris, so from the time they arrived
we were typical tourists and visited the big tourist spots. It was fun
to see all the big sights of Paris with Mike and Dasha. Mainly we walked
everywhere we wanted to go.
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The weather was gorgeous and at times even too hot. Just like in 1996,
when Seth and Tara first visited Paris together, we cooled off by soaking
our feet in the fountain by the Lourve.
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The first day we had together we walked clear from the Champs de Lxxx to Notre Dame. It was a fun walk since we passed shops on the street, a lovely garden, a ferris wheel at the Oblisk, another lovely garden, the Louve pool and then arrived at Notre Dame. It was a very full day of sightseeing. Mike and Dasha decided to taxi back to their hotel, but Seth and Tara (always trying to save money) walked back along the river. It was a LONG walk! |  |
| We also enjoyed hours and hours together in the Lourve museum. We didn't even see the whole museum. Since we got 'museumed-out' well before we had made our way to all the exhibits. We did see two very famous pieces (the Mona Lisa and the Venus Demilo) plus countless other pieces of art. Tara liked the sculptures best (not only the naked men ones either!) and Seth liked the Venus Demilo best. The museum was crowded, but the only time that was a hassle was around the Mona Lisa. The photo of Tara in front of the Mona Lisa is so blurry since at least fifty people were jostling Seth's arm as he took the photo! |  |
| On another day, we followed a more round-about route that took us straight through the luxury shopping area of town. Dasha was very excited about a particular bag shop she found. Mike, from the look of things, was not as excited. Dasha couldn't decide between a pink or a green bag. In the end, she bought the pink. |   |
Further
down the road, we found a Japanese restaurant. This was the first Japanese
that Seth and Tara had stumbled across since leaving Tokyo, so they were
very excited. Seth had the katsu kurry and Tara enjoyed ramen noodles.
Yum. Yum. Figures that we'd find a Japanese restaurant though in the very,
very high end shopping district in town.
In addition to fun-filled, touristy days, we enjoyed many nice meals together. Because the weather was so good, we were able to eat outside most days. The best meal together was on our last night in Paris. We all agreed that the Italian restaurant we'd picked after discarding at least five other places was well worth the search.
We did have a problem with one dinner though. All four of us were getting onto a dinner cruise together when we discovered that Seth and Tara were not attired properly! Even though we couldn't enjoy dinner together, we had fun the whole rest of the trip by emulating heavy Southern accents and saying things like "well, I wore my best jeans and they wouldn't let me on" or "jacket? why would I need a jacket - it's not cold out" comments. The on-going joke was that we were Mike & Dasha's "country cousins" from Kentucky and we'd tried our best, but it still wasn't good enough for the high-fluting Europeans. So instead of a nice meal of pigeon on the romantic boat with Mike and Dasha, we enjoyed a Chicago Pizza Company Pizza. The joke about being "country cousins" from Kentucky is really ironic when you read on.
We had a bit of an adventure getting from downtown Paris to the Charles de Gaulle airport because trains were stopped due to a bomb threat. We did end up meeting a nice couple from Kentucky and sharing a taxi with them! Plus we got to see Mike and Dasha one last time. I'm sure we surprised them as we ran past them near the check-in counters yelling about how the subway wasn't running due to a bomb threat. To think that we could have shared their taxi and saved ourselves the fun of nearly missing our plane.
We've since heard that Mike and Dasha are saving the funky bottle of champagne we organized for their room upon arrival. Mike explains why to Seth: "We're saving that funky bottle of champagne for you two to come visit us again. It could be the only time you and I see Dasha and Tara jointly undress anything that's not a baby with a poopy diaper. :-)"
| Category | Rating | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Experience | 8 | |
| Ease of Journey | 8 | |
| Accommodation | 8 | |
| Activities | 8 | |
| Coolness | 8 |
