Gay(tley) Paris!

Springtime in Paris....

Believe the hype; Paris IS that good.

Wow.

Like, really, really nice.

Seriously.

We've been here for 3 days now and for two of the days the weather has been ideal springtime weather....upper 60's, sunny, light breeze....the trees are just beginning to bloom green and pink and white and yellow...the second day we were here it rained, so we spent all day in the Louvre.

Our first day here we slept in a bit and then headed into town, bought a couple perfect baguette sandwiches and ate them under the Arc de Triomphe which was more impressive in size and detail than I ever imagined....then strolled to the Eifel Tower and Notre Dame....again, these very famous places did not dissapoint....they are famous for a reason....but maybe the best thing about that first day was just walking through the streets in between each landmark. The whole city is incredible; every building looks, well, French, but in a great way...it's like the French Quarter in New Orleans times 10,000, or the clean parts of Phnom Pehn, or the area around The Pirates of the Carribean in Disneyland...except it's the original stuff here....great!

It seems like in a recent blog I mentioned how French tourists were really annoying...I stand by that, but French in people in Paris have been really friendly and polite....not sure where the rude stereotype came from. It's also been kinda fun since I took French in high school and still remember a little bit, so this is the first time, like, ever, we've been in a country where Alicen had to rely on me to communicate while she stood there not understanding...of course, the communications are very brief, but it's been better than not knowing anything at all.

The Louvre, again, was just incredible and blew away all expectations....of course when I say we 'saw' the Louvre, we saw probably 20% of the place but what we saw was awe inspiring.

Today we walked form our hotel to Pere Lachaise Cemetary and saw Jim Morrison's grave, walked to the other side of our hotel and visited the really incredible Pablo Picasso Museum, then hopped on the Metro to the Museum of Modern Art then off to Sacre Couer in Monmartre which was beatiful but really crowded and touristy (yes, I know we ARE tourists, but if you've travelled much you know the difference between being a tourist and being in a 'touristy' place...you know, lots of trinkets stores, expensive yet bland food, touts everywhere angling for your money, etc)....our feet are sore for sure but we're feeling great.

Oh, the food is just mind blowingly perfect....everything we've eaten has been (insert your favorite adjective here).

Tomorrow we're starting our Eurail passes and heading to Stuttgart Germany and meeting up with Alicen's mom's former exchange student, Diana, and her family for Easter weekend before zipping off to Amsterdam and then Geneva next week.

I'm looking forward to seeing hte Spring blooming in all these countries as we go along and hope the weather back in the US has stopped the evil winter it seems to have been throwing at you all.

I'll try to get pictures posted this weekend from Diana's place.

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