Paris

After our week in London, we took the train through the "chunnel" to Paris. It's a very easy ride and only takes about 3 hours. Along the way, you see some very nice French countyside.

We had (again) a very nice hotel in Paris and in a very nice (upscale) neighborhood, about 5 blocks north of the Louvre. Paris is very beautiful and very walkable. In fact, it's so beautiful that my favorite thing to do was often just to wander around. We took in the major sites and quite a few lesser ones as well. I could have stayed another week. Also, I kicked the rust off my college french and enjoyed speaking with anyone willing to speak a little more slowly than usual so that I could understand them. There were, however, plenty of people who spoke english so I don't think there was much of a language barrier.

Parisien life is decidedly later than London life. In London, the pubs are hopping every day from about 5 pm to 8 pm. The crowds always spilled out onto the sidewalk, where you are allowed to bring your drink. Anytime you saw a crowd on the street at that time, you knew you were passing a pub. In Paris, I didn't see much of a happy hour crew. But, from about 9 pm to 11 pm, the cafes were full. As they do during the rest of the day, people re-arrange the sidewalk chairs to all face the street so they can chat while watching the world go by. We enjoyed doing the same.

Paris also has incredibly good bread and chocolate! The boulangerie (bakery) near our hotel sold fresh baguettes every morning for 0.88 euros (about $1.25). I did notice, however, that in less trendy neighborhoods, a baguette was closer to 0.80 euros. We could make up sandwiches for the 4 of us with one baguette. So, we bought sandwich fixings and made ourselves lunches to eat in the park as we toured around. Eating in the park was fun as you get to soak in more of everyday goings-on (like the sand castle building contest we saw a kindergarten-age class do in the park directly adjacent to Notre Dame!)

We were in Paris over the Bastille Day holiday (their 4th of July) and caught the fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. We walked back to the hotel, down the Champs Elysee after midnite, and the place was hopping! It was a long walk, as traffic was snarled and no cabs were to be found anyway, but it was so pretty that no one cared.

So, although we had to leave a few museums and a few neighborhoods unexplored, we enjoyed the visit quite a bit. And, I am told, we missed quite a heat wave while we were away!