The following are some of our thoughts that we wrote while in france. Please don’t hold us accountable for the spelling as neither of us speak french. The pictures will come as soon as we get over the jet lag and spend the time going through the hundreds of pics we took……
a very sleepy eazflo
Well we have made it to Paris, it is Thursday. BTW, has anyone heard anything about this Yale law bombing? We think it was a disgruntled student or someone who wanted to be a student and was rejected. Sure glad I know where I am going wink wink.
Anyhow, I am remembering how scared I was the first time in London and feeling quite the same. We “chunneled” here from London this morning and were greeted at the train station with the realization that we had been peddling since this Paris plan came up—NONE OF US SPEAK FRENCH!! This showed up when we all looked for a toilet and finally found one… but it was a pay toilet and we had no change only bills which were unacceptable… we attempted to get change but the guy at the little store threw up his hand and began waving around—clearing meaning NO!
Then we got into two cabs…. I tried to speak French to the driver… “Bonjour, par le vous angle?”…. My fear was realized when he replied… No…. and smiled
So we worked it out with a lot of pointing and explaining but we got to the hotel a good 15 mins before the cab with e’s parents who left first… hum… another fear confirmed… when they finally showed up, the price for their cab was more than 5 euros more than ours… we knew they would get scammed… they were moving targets.
Next we tried to navigate the metro which by the way is signaled “P” here not M as might be expected. Well e and I thought p was for park, ie car park… and we only had an hour to get to the bus tour we had already purchased!! Needless to say, running throughout the city with e’s mom who can’t move fast and her dad who moves very fast was no fun…
Back and forth back and forth across the Champs-Elysees asking people who don’t want to or can’t help us for help… finally we make it to the metro but buying tickets is another story (remember we still only have an hour and by now it is more like 35 mins!). e’s dad was probably charged 4 times for 6 tickets by the time we were done sticking the credit card after credit card into the machine with no avail. Finally, he just went to the box office… it’ll be interesting when the cc bill arrives.
E’s mom screaming (making it obvious that she was NOT local) and him panicking and running through the metro station leaving her far behind…. The irony is that when we yell at him to keep track of her and wait, SHE is the idiot who stands up for him!! I don’t understand this 50’s relationship at all!
We took the bus tour (which was pretty good and was in 3 languages!) and decided what to do tomorrow (Versailles). Then at ten when the sun finally went down and the bus tour and the river cruse were over, we ate…
As we added up the cost of the drinks (5 euros basically 5 dollars for each of us even for water) in addition to food which was not cheap for just sandwiches, etc. looked like we were in for it… apparently e’s dad didn’t add it up as he went because when the bill came and it was over 100 euros he was a little shocked but surprisingly ok with it… we weren’t given that a piece of chicken and fries with water was about 25 dollars!! It was eatable but certainly not that good…
Did you know that the keyboards here are different… not just he symbols but also where the keys are… it is very weird and HARD to type…
We are not sure that this paris is so great. But we are willing to give it a chance…
Today is Sunday (2am). We have just returned from the Moulin Rouge!! We ate at the top of the Eiffel tower at altitude 95 and then were taken to the show. More on Saturday’s activities later…
Friday we did Versailles! We split up the 4 of us and the two of them. We spent an hour or so inside and then strolled through gardens, lounged by the grand canal, took a nap and ate crepes… they spent all day on a guided tour of the main palace. This sums up or traveling difference…
Versailles’s gardens are truly magnificent. While we will always love London best, paris has an extravagance all it’s own. Everything is grand and very phenomenal, just look at the pictures… we have also mastered the metro (2 days not to bad!) which is NOT as good as London but still pretty good. Paris is pretty nice, me thinks
Ok back to today or yesterday (Saturday) e and I took off on our own which was good, we had pan au chocolat and a apricot custard brioche for breakfast (petite dejunier.. btw my French is getting fantasmo!). this gave us confidence in our abilities, let us move at our own pace and choose our own things to do. We began at the catacombs which began as a quarry and then became a MASS grave (we think during the plague—Yesinia pestis says e) we climbed down down down over 70 feet and more than 70 steps of a circular stairway. At first it was just a bunch of tunnels and was dark cold and scary. A german couple was in front of us and we walked fast to keep up with them. They stopped to when they heard our footsteps pause so I guess they were nervous too. Anyway… as you go it becomes a mass dumbing ground of bones. Millions!! I picked up a hip bone just right there in a big pile of femurs and skulls. It is really super cool down there and something off the beaten path of tourist traps. Next we went to a market. It was like cub, you had to pack your own stuff up and they didn’t even give you bags. Most of the ladies had their own or these rolling baskets called “rollios”. We got cookies which were more like candy and some kinder bon bons (schoko bons)… and some yoghurt. Ah not so fast… apparently we picked up the dessert items because it was more like an incredible custard and vanilla was really crème brulee flavor… whoo hooo we like that shit. Next we hit the Notre Dame and lit a candle for dada. That place is another fantastic truly impressive sight. No, there is noting like that in London and it did amaze me. we tried to go to the Picasso museum but they were on strike, then we tried to go to the museum of Judaism but as we thought, they were closed on sat. we did visit the bon marche. They do not have a “bon marche world” like harrods but that just confirms what we think: paris is not as tourist friendly as some other places…. At least they do not go out of their way to be.
Saw dogs everywhere
F’s fav new shop is Minnelli
Think that is it for now, must go ni ni… au roivour
Today is Sunday and on top of that it is “strike time”. This means almost everything is closed, but very unpredictably. We have encountered 3 (Picasso, airport and big strike) strikes already here which we don’t really understand but everyone is yelling about. Today we attempted to go to the Musee d’Orsay but alas it too is on strike! So we went to the Louvre. I am a bit embarrassed to say that about all we did is look at the venus de milo, the mona lisa, and a few other sculptures. It was all to much for us and we decided it was better to do nothing than a shotty job. We got through about half of the paintings but many we not very “recognizable” to us. The Orsay might have been a better reflection of our interests as it is the more of the impressionists but, cest lavie. After the louvre, we just sat in the jardin de tuileries. There were not to many tuileries but we laid together like all the other couples in the sun.
We also purchased a small canvas. We both stopped at it and looked and we decided that was enough to justify the purchase. Perhaps “janet” will be famous one day. After all this is the way monet and such began, selling on the seine.
tonight we had a plan to go out but after a very WEIRD dinner experience, we realized we have slowed significantly and we just came home and collapsed and took a wonderful bath. It stayed warm for a good 45 min! way to insulate the bathtubs frenchies.
All right, so tomorrow we attempt the pantheon, montmarte, the night museum and pigalle at night. I think that is it and we will see how far we actually get.
All right peeps, we are back in the US...
Remember that strike?? well the day we were supposed to leave, it came to the airport. we were late taking off and were abused quite substantially (as was the tradition on this trip) by the customs agents. it was not fun nor nice. we might not be returning to paris anytime... but that is fine because we have a whole list of other places to visit! the important thing is that after 12 hours of flying, we are in MN in a clean and nice bed with predictable, food, and tv. Suddenly feeling very patriotic (at least in some ways...)
