Paris.

[I'm still planning on posting a summary of each place we visited on our recent vacation, but I'm moving kind of slow lately, so it may take me all summer to post the entire trip.]

The third stop on our world tour was Paris.  We left London at 5:25am on a high speed train.  The train ride only took about two and a half hours, most of which was spent in a tunnel, the "Chunnel" to be exact.

I took French in High School, but when we stepped off the train in France not much came to me as I scanned the signs.  After about an hour and a half of wandering from booth to booth asking questions and not getting many answers, we had stored our bags and found 3 day passes for the metro.

Stereotype number one: French people smell bad.  This is not true of all French people, but our first ride on the metro proved that it's not exactly a false stereotype either...

Our first stop was Sainte Chapelle.  The chapel's 1,134 stained glass windows were flooded with sunlight.  We stood in awe and took it all in before deciding we were hungry for brunch.

Stereotype number two: the French are rude.  We thought this may ring true after our experience trying to get brunch a mere 2.5 hours after arriving in France.

We walked in a cafe near Notre Dame and were told to find a seat.  After sitting down our waiter came and took our drink orders.  He promptly returned with our drinks and the check.  We tried to explain to him that we wanted food as well.  He then rudely replied that his shift was over, and he was leaving, so we needed to pay now.  I asked if another server would return to take our order and he said they would.  So, I opened my wallet and gave him my credit card, to which he again, with attitude, responded he could not accept.  As I opened my wallet to get cash he saw the Pounds I had left from London and yelled "not pounds, Euros!"  Flustered I began to dig for the envelope of Euros in my purse while he stormed off impatient, returning with a credit card machine!  We paid, he left, and we waited... and waited... no second server.  Frustrated, we left hungry and headed for Notre Dame, fearing that France would be a place we regretted visiting.

However, the worst was past us.  The French were actually very kind people, you just can't allow a few bad apples to ruin the whole bunch.

Notre Dame was beautiful.  We admired the detail of the exterior, walked though the inside of the cathedral, and climbed the bell tower for a spectacular view of Paris and our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower!   Following our tour of Notre Dame we finally got some food at another cafe, where we sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather and much better service.

After lunch, we enjoyed the Musee d'Orsay art museum.  We saw many famous paintings, including Whistler's Mother, Monet's Blue Waterlilies, and Van Gogh's self-portrait.  We were so worn out from getting up so early and walking so much that we only saw the first level before deciding to get our luggage and find our hotel.

Our hotel was not in the usual tourist area, but an area where many Parisians lived.  It was nice to get away from the busy tourist areas and see how the people really live.  Our hotel was very nice, and our room even had a Mona Lisa theme.

Speaking of Mona Lisa, day two began with a visit to the Louvre Museum.  Some of our favorites from the Denon wing included: the Winged Victory, Venus De Milo, and of course the Mona Lisa.

After we had our fill of art, we grabbed our first crepe at a nearby cafe. YUM! I want to learn to make them and have them every morning for breakfast!

Our next stop was the Arc de Triomphe and the Champ-Elyesee, where we mostly window shopped, saving our energy and money for our evening plans; dinner in the Eiffel Tower.

Seeing the Eiffel Tower in person was the highlight of Paris for me.  We saw it by day, then took the elevator up to the first level, where we had a window seat at Restaurant 58.  The food was the best we had in all of Europe.  I had veal, and Gary had fish.  Once we were stuffed, we walked off some of the calories, climbing the stairs to the second level, where we watched the sun set over Paris.  Finally, we took one last elevator ride to the tippy top for a view of Paris by night, "The City of Lights!"  We made it to the bottom just in time to watch the tower flash for the last time that evening.  What a night!

Our last day in Paris was spent at the Palace of Versailles.  I had no idea how huge this place really was! We started in the gardens.  They kept going and going, filled with every kind of flower you can imagine and a large canal built by the king to resemble Venice.  Once we gave up on seeing every inch of the gardens, we headed to Marie Antoinette's estate, where we saw her small mansion and her hamlet- a small village of houses and a farm built so she could feel like she was living a simple, common life.

By the time we finished her estate, we didn't even have time to run through the castle.  We had to take the hour trip back to Paris on the RER to catch our overnight train to Italy.  But, we weren't too upset.  It was a warm day and we were both sunburned and tired, and ready to sit down for a while.  We made it to the train station in time to say goodbye to Paris and settle in to our cabin on the train... Italy bound!