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Published: April 29th 2008
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Been a long time once again, but the update you all have been waiting for, Bill and Louise in Paris.
We met in the airport on a Thursday morning. Being in the European Union, I didn't have to go through customs and my passport never got stamped. Besides being disappointed about that, I was afraid I was in the country illegally because of the uptight security I am used to from the United States, but apparently it works a lot differently over here. Once I got over that, I was of course excited to see the parents! Mr. Hery was very sick and seemed to have caught an awful cold/pneumonia type sickness 24 hours before the trip, poor guy. We made it to our hotel and Dad decided to rest up while Mom and I went out to explore!
Our hotel was in the Opera District, right behind the Ritz Carleton, the exact one that Princess Diana stayed at before the accident. You know the famous picture with her exiting the hotel through a revolving door? Right there! Mom and I have reenacted the photo as you can see from my added pictures.
The first day we
laid kind of low, the jet lag eventually caught up to my mom, and I was afraid of missing my flight the night before, so I barely slept. Mom and I got some room service in the room and caught up on the last month or two, family life, spain life, and life in general in the United States. Dad got to rest some more, and we hoped he would feel better the next day, but no such luck!!
We convinced Dad to stay in on Friday to rest up for the rest of the weekend, while Mom and I went to the Arc de Triumph and the Eiffel Tower first. Both amazing. Before that however, we ate breakfast at the Ritz Carleton, and I will not even write here how over priced it was. Lets put it this way, I had Special-K and when I saw the price, I wondered at what point I missed the gold in the bowl.... Anyway, that day we learned just how big Paris was and how old the city is. You really do not realize how young the USA is until you come to europe. The architecture of the bridges, homes, gardens,
museums, buildings and the entire city in general was breath taking. Everything was so ornate and complex, each detail so perfect. We really were in culture shock over how beautiful it was and tried to appreciate every moment not only together, but in the amazing city as well. But of course, we couldn't stop but think about poor Dad back in the hotel. When we headed back, Bill did what he does best, planned the evenings events: dinner in the hotel and a stroll around at night. The dinner in the hotel was somewhat disappointing, but for me, anything was better then the pasta and instant soup i cook in my little embassy apartment in Spain. It was really just great to hang out with Mom and Dad, we really missed Katie though and kept hoping she would find a job soon, which she did, go kate!
Day three consisted of a lot more sightseeing, I am sorry to report that since I waited so long to write this, I forget exactly where we went. I believe it was to the Notre Dame and to the Palace of Versailles. Dad came out with us this day and was feeling
a lot better. The Notre Dame was gigantic, and great to see as well, unfortunately for me (well don't feel toooo bad), after the 20th cathedral in Europe, they all seem the same, but this by far was the best I've seen yet. We took a long taxi ride to the Palace of Versailles, with this witty and clever french taxi driver who duped Dad into getting him to take us everywhere from here on out on our trip. Or at least I thought, until I realized how much the Hotel was scamming us on the Taxi's they had called for us. But Versailles was my favorite part of the trip, the gardens were amazing and it was too bad we did not have enough time to see the whole thing, as well as the crumby weather we had that day! We took a tour inside the palace to see the King's private apartments and the cathedral. Really cool and elaborate decor, its too bad our tour guide was a "word I wont insert here" the whole time. She definitely spent too much time with books and too less of time with friends and or a social life. But besides
her, the place was my favorite of the trip. Check the pictures.
On Sunday and Monday we did some museum hopping, Dorse and the Louvre. I personally enjoyed the Dorse more because it was incredibly smaller and we had the opportunity of getting to see more things. The Louvre, was so insane with people that my Mom and I got separated. I felt like I was at Disney World and we didn't pick a meeting place. If you ever go to Paris, Id even skip it: insane. But we did get to see the Mona Lisa and a Vermeer. If i was more of an art person I would say that more enthusiastically, but I was too busy trying to get through there without a black-eye.
On Sunday night we went on a Boat chartered dinner cruise on the river through the city. It was a beautiful boat with live violin player and pretty good food. We had some wine, good conversation and laughed at the people around us of course. Towards the end we rounded the Eiffel Tower and saw it light up at 10 PM, hoping my archaic internet allows me, I have uploaded the video.
We also got to see the original statue of Liberty of which "ours" was constructed from. A really amazing night.
The last night we went to Old Paris and walked around there for dinner, it was a great little town within the city on a hill where you're able to overlook the entire city. We had a great Italian dinner, of course, and tried to dodge the artists who tried to kidnap me. But it was a great way to end the trip.
Every day in Paris was perfect, it was so great to see my mom and dad and I appreciated them coming over. It was really a different type of vacation then we were used to but we really enjoyed ourselves. Enjoy the photos....
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