3 Days in Paris

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Sophie and I left Minneapolis on Sat afternoon at 3:30 and after having a flight delay due to someone throwing luggage into the cargo door and denting it, we were on our way. We had tail winds that helped us arriving on time in Paris at 7 am. Since we had a crying baby a few rows back from us neither one of us slept much on the plane. I had grand thoughts of taking the train into the city after we landed but by the time we both lugged around our 2 pcs of luggage and found the place to buy train tickets the thought of enduring anymore was too much for us. So I flagged down a taxi and away we went into Paris to the Aviatic hotel. Honestly, it was a lot further from the airport to our hotel than I thought it would have been and I think it would have taken us a while to find our hotel so I'm glad we bit the bullet and paid the $55 euro to get there safely. So after arriving at our hotel and being told there wasn't any room at the inn (or at least that there weren't any rooms clean yet) we hung out in the lobby for half an hour. Sophie fell asleep on the loveseat before we got a room by 9 am. The lift was so small that we could hardly fit all of our luggage and ourselves into it. We dropped our luggage and both dropped off to sleep. We woke up around 2 in the afternoon and decided to try and find a tour bus to get on so that we could see the sights and get our barings at first.

We asked for directions to get to the tour bus and stumbled upon a McDonald's which made Sophie really happy. I swear this kid is in a growth spurt because every time we turned around she was hungry. So after tasting the french version of chicken mcnuggets and fries we went back to trying to find a bus. We wandered around and asked directions a few times before giving up. About that time, Sophie looked up and saw the Eiffel tour so we took off on foot for it. We ended up catching the Open Bus by the Invalides Hospital (like the VA hospital) and away we went. Unfortunately because we didn't catch the bus until 6 we only saw a few things before the service ended for the evening. Now how to figure out how to get back to our hotel. We attempted the bus system but because it was Sunday not all of the buses run on Sunday. Well enough of that....Taxi! It was an early evening for us. The room was air conditioned, the beds were good and the shower was great. A great beginning to seeing Paris.

Monday we took the Open Bus to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo as well as King Ramses II along with lots of other stuff. However the place was packed, rather warm in places and we got lost a few times. (Do you see a pattern here? I've decided that even though I really want to be on the Amazing Race, it's not going to happen unless my partner is really good with naviation!) It was warm outside so we hung out by the fountain for a while and Sophie put her tired feet in the pool Of course now she's hungry and wants to know where the nearest McDonald's is! Back on the bus to Notre Dame. Luckily from across the way I saw a Subway and the day was saved once again and Sophie got fed. Onto a little souvenir shopping, but now she wants some ice cream! We ended up at Haagen Das to enjoy some ice cream and sit down for a while. We ended up meeting a history professor from California that was touring Paris on his own. We met up with him later for dinner and then went on an evening illumination tour of Paris. It was spectacular. The driver picked us up in an old VW bug with the top cut off so we could stand up and take pictures when we wanted. Sophie thought it was fantastic and stood up while we were driving so she could experience what it was like for Tobey when he hangs his head out of the car when we're driving. The highlight was seeing the Eiffel tower lit up in blue lights with 12 gold stars in honor of France taking over control of the EU for the next year. Then at midnight the whole tower sparkled. It was magical! But a late night for us.
On Tuesday we got up early because it was suppose to be very hot and we wanted to avoid the long lines at the Eiffel tower. I actually managed to get us there via the Metro. We waited about 45 min before going up. Unfortunately I had realized in the morning that I had left my camera in the car from the night before! Now the only pictures that we would have of the trip were from Brian's camera. I tried to buy a camera prior to going up to the second level of the Eiffel tower but I didn't have enough euros and their credit card machine wasn't working. Oh well, all of our memories will have to be in our heads. So after seeing all of Paris from the second level it was time for ice cream for Sophie! We were both so tired that we went back to the hotel and I took a nap while Sophie played video games for a couple of hours. Then we went back to Notre Dame to do more shopping. We tried getting back to our hotel via the Open Bus but because President Sarcozy (sp?) was giving a speech that night the Champs Lysee was closed. We ended up walking a looong way back to our hotel because we couldn't catch a taxi at that time. I was afraid Sophie was going to have heat stroke she was getting so hot but I eventually figured out a bus that would get us close to our hotel and then it was a cold shower or bath for each of us. After having one last French meal at McDonald's it was an early night for both of us since we had to get up at 5:30 to catch a taxi to the airport for our 9 am flight to Beirut.
Au revior!

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