Anyway, we sure are going to miss Pete, but more on that in a later post. I wanted to knock out a quick recap of this Paris trip and then come back later with the bulk of the pics, once I have a chance to tune them and load them into a web album.
Anyway, this was my FOURTH trip to the city of lights, and the place never gets old. I love how it's only three to four hours away by car. We drove this time, figuring that with two people it's about a 50/50 decision to take the train versus driving a car, but the convenience of the train wins out. With three, however, the car is the way to go to save a little money. Talk about tolls though - for a roughly 260 mile drive to Paris, there are 26 Euros in tolls one way! (It's moves like that by the French that had Pete and I looking for some serious mime ass to kick as retribution. Mission accomplished.)
(As a side note, totally unrelated, I hate how the phrase "Mission Accomplished" is now forever ruined because of George Bush in a flight suit. Dumb.)
We arrived Friday night, parked on the outskirts of the city, took the metro into town, found our hotel, and had a few drinks. By the way, driving toward Paris is no big deal. Driving in Paris, however, is a different story. After our GPS went nuts and after several "Big Ben Parliament Kids" type experiences in under-construction roundabouts, I think we all recommend taking the train.
On Saturday we got up and headed to one of the Parisian museums (apparently they have a few). We went to the D'orsay museum first to look at some impressionist art (lots of Van Gogh, Monet, Stuparich, etc) and also some impressive sculpture, our tour of which included an impressive piece of Hercules in which he showed off his prowess with a bow and arrow and also his taint. Even Pete was impressed. Pics to follow in a future post.
Anyway good museum. Afterward we strolled around town, having a drink here, a crepe there, taking in the sights. Paris really does rock. We had dinner on the Montre Marte, a neighborhood north of the Seine up on a hill overlooking the city.
On Sunday Pete hired a walking guide right out of the Ric Steve's guide book which turned out to be a good move. The guy, named Arnauld, met us at 9 am and took us around for about four hours, explaining all sorts of stuff about the city, including the history of Paris and France. We went to an old chapel which used to store the thorny crown of Christ apparently, and had beautiful stained glass windows. Then we walked through various neighborhoods, seeing off the beaten path sites with full narration courtesy of our guide. After the tour we had lunch with this guy, who was a neat dude. He was thin and gesticulated a lot, and was clearly French, but seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. He speaks six languages. We talked about Franco-American relations, their hatred of our president, our hatred of their surrender mentality, etc. Even more fun was watching the guy wince in horror when Pete or I tried to pronounce any French word and ended up absolutely butchering it. That said, we had a good conversation, and the guy had a good sense of humor. Sometimes it seems like a lot of work to hire guides, but it always seems to pay off. Mental note for future trips.
After departing our guide, we made off toward the Eiffel Tower. By then it was starting to rain, but we snapped a few pics, like the one below, and then headed out.
3 comments:
Wow. You got your post up before Wendy. What happened to my nice orderly little world?
Stup, George and I have been waiting for the "We'll Miss Pete" blog. We'll stay tuned... Great to hear that you were able to have a last hurrah in Paris. Where's "the pose" in front of the Eiffel Tower?
Don't you worry Trish (and George), the Pete post, and "The Pose", is coming - more than you know...
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