Bonjour!

OK, here goes my post from yesterday. As many of you know, we were quite afraid when we arrived in Paris. By the way, let me start out by saying that a nine hour flight from the US to London, England has less cultural change, than a two hour train ride from London to Paris, France. It is amazing to me how so much changes in such a short jot across the pond. French is the first language and sortie(Exit) is the only word I know. Oh yeah, and bonjour. (hello) Anyways, there is a definite language barrier between the US and France. Maybe this is why we do not get along so well!?! Other than the language barrier, Paris is a nice place. The food is great and the scenery is very different from London.

Starting with yesterday. There is a local bakery right outside of our hotel room that is wonderful! They have any kind of pastry you could want. You can get a pastry with: jam, chocolate, almonds, caramel, raisins, powder sugar and on and on and on. They also have all sorts of candy to choose from too. But since we were there for breakfast, we chose one that had raisins, one with jam and one with powdered sugar. They were all so good that I could not choose a favorite.

From there we went to the Eiffel Tower to see what everyone rants about. People either love it or hate it. We happened to be indifferent towards the structure. The steel tower doesn't seem to belong where it is. Nonetheless, it's there, and its not too ugly. So, indifference it is.

After we were satisfied with the time we spent at the tower, we decided to take a bus tour of the city. Donc, nous avons vu à Paris en bus. (So, we saw Paris by bus) Ok, its not a good as what it sounds, but it was nice. There are definitely bright points all around this city. The Seine River is very pretty, but full of boats moving cargo through it. The Louvre, the largest museum in the world, is a pretty place. We went to see the Louvre, but did not go in. After that, we hopped back on the bus and went to the next sight, which is one we really enjoyed. The chapel of Notre Dame was beautiful. We were lucky enough to have entered the chapel right in the middle of thursday mass. I didn't even know they had mass on thursday, but it was something to see and hear. The choruses that were sung, echoed throughout the chapel as it did at St. Pauls Cathedral, but something was different about this church. I still can't figure out what it is that made this chapel so different. The lighting of the church came through stained glass windows with a certain ambiance that was silencing. All we could do was look around and absorb as much of what we saw as we could. If you are ever in Paris, this is a must visit.

From there we went to the Opera house de Paris. It is similar to the structures throughout Paris but still stands alone in terms of beauty. I don't know where the money that built this city came from, but they must still be paying for it. No not really. The rulers before our time obviously had an expensive taste. Most every large structure here is copper that is so old it has a marbleized green and brown swirl to it, or it is gold plated. By far the most gold I have ever seen.

This next part brings me to my favorite part of the city, the Champs Elysees. Champs Elysees is a very upscale part of town lined with shopping centers and dinning as far as the eye can see. We stopped for ice cream, because Lauren loves her ice cream! We split a strawberry banana something or other ice cream dessert that was amazing.

Shortly after that, we took the metro (which is a whole other mess within itself) back to our hotel to relax before the sun went down and Paris came alive.

I know this is getting rather long, so i will try and wrap this up without missing our favorite part. The Eiffel tower at night! You may be sitting here thinking to yourself, "didn't he say he was indifferent?" Yes I did, and now I take that all back. Across the street from the tower is a little carousel that goes round and round all day and night. Next to the carousel is a place that I would go round and round all night if it was possible. This crepe stand is amazing. Crepes are a very thin pancake folded in half and stuffed with an kind of goodness you can think of before its folded in half once more. My crepe was filled with strawberry jam that was to die for. By far the best dessert since I have been in Europe. Lauren had the Eiffel Tower which consisted of a chocolate filled crepe topped with whipped cream, making it look sort of like a scoop of ice cream perched atop a chocolate filled pancake. Boy these desserts are amazing! I can see Steve in dessert heaven right now.

So we ate "creep," as I like to call them and then sat in the middle of the park that faces the Eiffel Tower. At night everyone brings champagne, wine, beer, cheese and crackers or anything else they wish and enjoy as they watch the tower light up the night sky. The tower is beautiful at night. At the top of every hour starting at 10, the tower starts to sparkle. For five minutes flashes of light come from the tower, and it looks like a million camera flashes going off everywhere. So Lauren and I enjoyed our bottle of wine among several thousand people as we watched the tower sparkle. We loved it so much that we are going back here in about 30 minutes to catch it one last time. This is our last night in Paris so we hope to enjoy it and look forward to our trip to Rome in the morning!