Paris Deux

Our trip includes one day in Paris, It’s hard to choose what to see or do with only one day available, but the tour company offered a morning bus ride around town with a guide to see all the important sights, and then an afternoon to ourselves. There are two optional excursions offered at an extra charge during the week; one is a guided trip to the Louvre in the afternoon at 69 Euros/ a head. Tempting, but we decided that if we did that, we’d miss out on seeing anything else of Paris ourselves.

So we loaded the 140 guests into 4 buses and set out about town with a VERY French guide who knew her way around the city just fine, but her English was hilarious to listen to. To me, she sounded like Katherine Hepburn trying out a French accent while describing the sights of Paris: a very halting, breathy delivery, with lots of corrections and emphasis on all the wrong syllables for English speech. Despite the fact we never knew quite where she was directing our attention too, it was quite entertaining to listen too.

The route they took to show us the town wound it’s way back and forth through the streets of Paris, doubling back on itself time and time again. Luckily I had studied a map of Paris several times, so I generally kept track of where we were. We stopped once for pictures at the H’ospital les Invalides, which had a gorgeous golden dome, and another time at the Luxembourg Gardens where we had the chance to stroll the grounds, stretch our legs and experience our first French pay toilette.

At least in the cities and towns, the French operate public restroom facilities and charge you to use them. The fee is something like .40, and they even employ someone to sit there and take your money! The problem is its usually a two-holer that is for co-ed use, and each stall has just room enough for one person. Basically it takes forever for any group of people to use the toilet in this country. Half the sight-seeing time of our stops is wasted standing in line. Now if they served wine and cheese while you stood there, I could see it as a good mode of operation…

At the end of the tour we were left off in the center of town and left to fend for ourselves. Since we were hungry, we found a small bar/café and sat down outside to order lunch. This where encountered my first rude jerk of a French waiter. I ordered (directly off the menu) a mixed ham and cheese baguette. Told that to the waiter, and even pointed to it on the menu. He came back with a baguette with a couple of slices of ham on it. I pointed out I wanted cheese with it, and he took it back, came back 10 min later with a baguette with just cheese. I tried to explain I really wanted a ham and cheese and he said, “Non!” Either ham or cheese! I was pissed, but what are you gonna do? I checked the menu and it said exactly what I ordered, but I’m here for the experience, so I guess can check off the stupid rude French waiter off my list. At least it was a cheap sandwich.

After lunch, we headed for the Cathedral of Nortre Dame on foot. It’s not too far from our café by the Louvre, but it is a bit of a hike on a warm day, which today was. It was spectacular! Amazing architecture and beautiful stained glass windows. You truly wonder who imagined such things, and who had the money and skill to make them come true! My favorite thing is the flying buttresses. You just don’t see that construction anywhere but on buildings dating back the this period in time, It was fairly crowded; mostly with tourists from Italy, Germany and Japan, (The Euro must be way down against the Yen because everywhere we go, the Japanese are there already.)

We probably killed an hour in Notre Dame and when we emerged, we decided to split up. Kurt, Stew, Patti and Pat headed back to the boat via taxi, and Laura, Kara, Jill and I wanted to see a bit more, headed down the river to the Louvre, if not to go in, at least to see the outside and enjoy the awesome weather.

We found our way there via some beautiful, busy Parisian streets hustling and bustling with the mid-afternoon traffic. I love how the Paris drivers act like they will run you down, but if you cross on a green “walk” sign, they WILL yield and wait until everyone is across, no matter how much in a hurry they are in; you just have to beat them to the crosswalk.

The middle of the courtyard encompassing the Louvre entrance was breath-taking. The Large glass pyramid with it’s smaller twins bracketed a couple of fountains. The Plaza was packed with people, most just lingering to take pictures and people watch in the afternoon sun. We certainly did our share, getting a couple of souvenir shots for the scrapbooks. Then we found we could go into the Louvre itself, without having to pay to go into the museum. The museum was about ten or twelve Euros apiece, and we decided we really wanted to spend more than just an hour or so if we were going to spend that kind of money. But the gift shops were open! Three professional shoppers and their bag carrier thought that was a great idea, so off we went, to claim some trinkets and mementos.

By the time we were done and had visited the Paris Apple Store (where Kara had her picture taken), it was getting close to dinner, so we headed back to the boat via the Tuileries Statue Gardens. We eventually caught a cab back to the boat and arrived about 30 minutes prior to another excellent five-course dinner.

Just about the time dessert was served, the ship’s engines rumbled to life and we slowly headed out onto the river and north to Vernon. Tomorrow: Monet and his gardens.

Lafayette, we are here!

The long wait is over at last! We arrived in Paris this morning after a long seven-hour flight, a 45 min wait at the airport, and another 30 minute drive to the boat. As bad as that felt at the time, things actually went pretty smoothly all along the way, and we are now comfortably on board the “Viking Spirit.”

We got to airport with plenty of time to spare, eased through ticketing and security, even finding the time to sign up for frequent flier miles for everyone in the family!

The plane took off on time, and the flight was pretty smooth all the way across, however, just as I feared, the seats were pretty cramped, and the guy on the aisle just had to read all night, so his lamp shown down on us the entire night, making sleep pretty much impossible. On the plus side, each seat had it’s own entertainment screen with videos on demand, so time passed pretty quickly. I know Kurt was in heaven getting to watch a couple of movies there was no way I’d be renting at home. I watched “Date Night,” which I thought was really funny.

We were met immediately by Viking personnel upon exit from the baggage area, and had a pleasant bus ride to the boat, arriving around 9:30 in the morning. We were so early that most of the passengers from the previous voyage were still waiting for their taxis.

Our boat is parked just down the road from the Eiffel tower, right along the Left Bank of the Seine - in fact you can see it from the deck of the boat. Our rooms weren’t available until 3 pm, so we stored our luggage with the crew, and took the kids for a walk-about to fight-off the creeping exhaustion and give us all something to do for a couple of hours. The weather was amazing: sunny, but not hot, with a tiny bit of breeze to keep us cool as we walked. Our trek took us about half an hour, but with the blue skies and interesting sites, we didn’t even notice the time.

The base of the tower is open and had lines formed at each of the four legs, people qued up waiting to get their turn to either ride the elevator or climb the stairs to the top of the tower. The typical souvenir vendors were spread out all around the monument hawking their wares: mostly various sized replicas of the Eiffel Tower which could be had for 1 to 3 Euros. We took a bunch of pictures and headed back to the boat, as lunch and the other part of our group, Patti, Stew, and Pat, were due in soon.

After lunch one of the event staff from the boat led a short walking tour of the local area near the boat. We visited a small bakery (one of thousands in the city), saw the local supermarket (Monoprix), and learned how the Paris subway system (Metro) works in case we want to use it during our stay.

Promptly at 3 p.m. our cruise director announced via the ship-wide PA that our room were ready. There are about 70 rooms on the boat arrayed on three decks. Each room holds two people, and obviously the higher you are, the better your room. Our rooms are on the first deck with our windows just above the water line. They are quite comfortable, but you do have to learn to move around in a coordinated fashion when both people are in the rooms. The beds fold up to provide some extra space during the day, though to be quite honest, I don’t think we’ll be spending much time in the rooms between breakfast and bedtime. There is a lounge/meeting area in the bow with large picture windows and a bar, and a large dining room which can seat all 140 people in the stern. The top of the boat has a large deck area with lawn chairs and beach umbrellas for lounging while we are in port or underway. All in all, very clean and comfortable accommodations with a very attentive staff.

After meeting up with the rest of the group and having a wonderful five-course dinner, Stew, Pat, Laura, and I walked over to a nearby island (reachable by a main road bridge right near our parking location), to watch the Eiffel Tower “sparkle” at 10:00. The sky had just darkened fully when at exactly 10 p.m, lights positioned all over the tower began to pulse and sparkle in a very impressive lightshow, which lasted a good 8 or 10 minutes. It wasn’t fireworks, but it was definitely the next best thing. It was a great cap to a long, but very exciting day for us.

Tomorrow: Touring the City of Lights!

Countdown to Paris!

The hours are counting down. Only 48 more to go until we're airborne, heading to France! It's been a pretty hectic week, and I'm sure it will just get busier as we get closer to our departure.

Things have been crazy all summer, but they really reached a fevered pitch Saturday afternoon when Laura drove her parents, Patti and April out to the airport. They are spending this week on another Viking River Cruise touring the Rhone River and enjoying the sights, tastes and fragrances of Provence. I think we are all jealous of their experiences, but excited for our own upcoming adventure, starting when we join the group Sunday morning for our cruise down the Seine.

Kara and Laura have been hard at work all summer. Laura ran two one-week summer camps up at Allegheny College, the last one ending only a week or so ago, so she's barely had any down time to do much more than wash clothes and pack a suitcase. Kara hasn't quite finished her first year at her job, so her days off are still pretty limited. She assures us she hasn't minded a bit saving up her vacation days in anticipation for the trip.

On Tuesday I started back to work after my 4 month deployment and subsequent 2 months of leave. Counting back I don't think I've had that much time off in one chunk since the summer after my Junior year in High School! It was almost too long when you have a job to go back to... you start to feel like the world is moving on without you and you are going to be REALLY far behind when you finally start back. It did feel a bit like that, but there are so many of us in the same boat, that I found am only a little behind... It was a bit surreal walking around the office trying to get into things, especially since I knew I would be leaving soon for another two weeks... eventually I just gave up!

Kurt has been at the Boy Scouts 100th Anniversary National Jamboree down at Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia for the past 10 days. He got back late last night after an all day bus ride, dead tired, with no voice and a huge grin on his face. You spend months getting ready for these events and wonder if the cost, hassles and all the preparation are worth the effort. Then you see that ear-to-ear grin when they get off the bus, and you know it was. He's been talking non-stop, sharing stories of his activities, patch-trading, the "awesome!" Switchfoot concert at the Arena, and the guys he hung out with.

Jill has been down in Washington D.C. all summer working a summer intern program with the American Forestry Foundation. She's headed out with us to Paris, so in the midst of all the normal chaos, we needed to get her back home in time to unpack and repack for the trip. We were thinking Jill wouldn't get done until Friday afternoon, but things worked out, and she was released after lunch today (Thursday), so Laura drove down to Washington last night to be ready to bring her and her gear back home. They rolled in about 9 tonight, road-tired but happy to be heading to their own beds.

So, for the first time since May, everyone is home at the same time. Unfortunately there's not much time to enjoy that togetherness just yet: It's time to wash clothes, make our lists, pack suitcases, brief the dog sitters, and practice our french! The excitement is building for the start of our big adventure, and we can't wait to get going! The e-mails and blog posts from Patti, April and Pat & Stew have really whetted our appetites for our aventure européenne. Let's get this party started!

Vive la France !