One Month Later...

This blog was fun to do and we will probably do this again... but now that the trip is over. And if you didn't follow us through the trip, you will need to read this blog from the bottom up for it to make sense.

Epi-Blog
Well as any story goes, there is always - what happened then?

We went out for an early dinner - and wine in the Latin Quarter - again.














Then the nice long walk home across the Seine gave us one last chance to see Paris on a Friday night.







Here are some extra pictures from over the last days.


Motor bikes and scooters parked everywhere.


































We found the answer to the Da Vinci Code


















And as the English call them "WC's"
They were on many street corners and best thing was they were free. I know, cause - with all the drinking we did, I needed them way too often-




















Gun shop next to our hotel at night








Hotel des Invalides
Home of Napolean's remains.

















Venus de Milo









Things we did/saw in Paris:
Michelle started to really like red wine and Blue cheese
Scarves are in style for everyone
Had French Onion Soup and Fries in France
Learned how to use the doors on the Metro
How to use toilets without seats or toilets
It seemed that tights were back in style for girls
That tight jeans were in style.
Nobody wore ball caps
To be continued.

Our last day in Paris starts off sunny and with promise...














Michelle has our day all planned, despite being Friday the 13th and all, and the museum that we wanted to see - Musee de la Conciergerie which was a 14th century prison where over 2600 people waited to have their heads chopped off... was today closed for some concert setup...
our son Matthew would have been right at home with all the trusses and gear that was being trucked in...

Here Michelle gets the bad news from the Gendarme in front of the museum about the closure... I think she is getting too good with the parler, everyone understands her!














Soooo we wandered around the oldest street on the second island on the Seine, Ile St-Louis with the buildings dating back to the 1600's. While wandering the streets, we turned a corner and walked into the middle of the filming of some Italian movie... hmmm hope it's not a "***" flick!

Somehow, (yeah, I wonder how!) after a while we ended up in front of a Harley Davidson Shop in the southern part of Paris...














The Metro is getting to be a fun way to get around... the only problem, we were never quite sure where we would pop out onto the streets as there were so many exits with connecting tunnels at each stop.

After the Harley shop we stopped for a morning snack at a little cafe around the corner in a real 'regular' part of town.
Realizing that there is still too much to see and our time was almost up, we decided to call it quits and we headed back to the Hotel for an afternoon of postcard writing.

Let me tell you a bit about what the area is like around where we are staying. While it is very close (walking distance) to all the main sites - the Louvre, Notre Dame, Ste Chapelle and mosts of Paris if your adventurous, we are on the edge of a bit of a seedy part of town. Next door to the hotel is a gun shop... okay a paint gun shop but they had machine guns, flack jackets and more.














Down the street, as Michelle went in to get our lunch time baguette, I noticed next door was a store with traps full of rats hanging in the display window.














A grotesque display, certainly an odd place for an exterminator shop to be stuck, between a cafe and a bakery (boulangerie).

Next to the hotel is a small square with a fountain...



















where it was time again for lunch and ... oh look baguettes and wine...














Right next to the square is a large underground mall which is called Forum des Halles. More than 1000 years ago, this area was a massive bazaar which was moved in the mid 1800's and in a recent attempt (1986) to fill the void - this underground mall sprung up to provide a green space above. It is considered the biggest masterpiece of underground urban planning ever undertaken in France.














While the area is under constant police watch, it's nice and safe in the day (we watched the local police pat down a couple of people for drugs, but they didn't find any), the night is a bit of a different story. Sex shops down the street and all-night bars and dance clubs that go on for blocks. All that said, we never had problems, the odd drunk at night walking with a bottle in hand but not much more.

The other items of note: all the billions of scooters and little cars all battling for space at every intersection. How we never saw an accident I will never understand. Scooters shooting up between buses and cars, and cars going from the far right lane to the far left... horns used as a signal - I'm coming through - and the constant wail of police sirens. You can almost turn any direction and see the flashing blue police/ambulance/fire lights flashing going somewhere. Imagine 4 policemen crammed in one of those little 4 door smart cars... like out
of a movie. Paris is certainly a wonderful place to visit and see.

As we prepare of our last dinner in gay Paris, we begin to pack our
bags and get ready for our 6am wake-up call...ouch! And off to the
airport for our flight to Montreal and then our train home to Ottawa.
It's been a blast, one we will never forget. Au revoir Paris.

This morning we tried to get a better start to the day... we were up and going by 9:30am. We are soooo French !!!

Our first stop today was the Louvre. We saw Mona, and some other painting in the same room which was the biggest in the house. Viewed a bunch of half broken statues, piles of family jewelry that was really old, and saw furniture that belonged to Napolean. One note, we think we solved the Da Vinci code.... One item of interest was the special security gates that came down suddenly.



















Good thing we picked up what we wanted before they emptied out half the place for some security issue.

Then it was off to test Michelle again... the great Notre Dame Cathedral. But before we could attempt this great church and its towers... the usual - baguette and wine...















And again we climbed. This time the tight turret staircase seemed to go on and on - almost 400 steps up and up - nearly killed me. But when we got to the top, the height nearly killed Michelle. The view was awesome. To prove it, I even got a picture of Michelle with the great bell high up in the bell tower. Her smile was a little forced.... to say the least. ( I think the wine helped)




















From the roof... yes Michelle did venture out on the roof again... you come face to face with the gargoyles so protective of their towers.

















The view east down the Seine from the roof of Notre Dame was like them all... spectacular.

Note the barges on the river ( one turning left and another under the middle bridge) bringing sand and other building supplies to the contractors in town. It's amazing, the amount of business traffic that constantly moves on the river, not just tourist boats. In the picture on the left you can see the little park of white sand at the back of the church next to the rows of trees where we ate lunch in the photo above.

Then it was time to climb back down and into the courtyard infront of the church where a medieval style market was open with vendors doing glass blowing, painting, jewerly making and more food.

We went back underground to the Metro, and headed back to a shopping mall that somehow we mis-timed yesterday. Afterwards, a snack... 24 Euros for a coffee, beer and two desserts. (That's about $36). But it was in Paris and we got to use the bathrooms for free.















Well, it's 8:40pm here, we're getting hungry... (and I think we are loosing weight too... ha!), so now it's time to head out for dinner... another adventure I'm sure.

So the Metro we explored. The first place we ended up at was the Paris zoo. We spent a few hours wandering the gardens and exhibits of a zoo that has a history dating back to 1890's. A fascinating stroll.

As we left the zoo, we came across a Smart Car store with an interesting sport version of the little square box, which is oh so popular here.
















From there we went by Metro off the the highest building in Paris - Montparnasse -There we went up to the 56th floor and got some amazing pics of the whole Paris area. We even went up onto the heliport on the roof (59th floor) which for those of you who know Michelle, was a very big and brave step.





















Again we had a snack looking out over the city from high in the sky... and after watching the city get dark, off we went to take a river cruise by the lights of the city.
Getting back home by 11pm and feeling good that we seemed to have mastered the Paris subway has us feeling good about tomorrow... where will we go next, who knows. Our evening ended with a bottle of wine in our room and a can of ravioli heated on the stove. It was another great day.

So last night we searched out a restaurant called 'The Grand Colbert'. An 1890's style bistro that was in the movie "Something's Gotta Give". Finding out that we were SUPPOSED to have reservations didn't stop Michelle from pouring on her sweet french on the owner who finally let us wait at the bar til a table was ready. The atmosphere was great, service was wonderful and the meal more than we needed. Odd thing was how even at 11pm, locals were still coming in to have a full diner.



This morning was a chore day. Laundry, groceries and a quick stop in at a music store.

Now that it's past 1pm, lunch (with wine ... again... ) in our room and then off to explore some more. Maybe we'll make it back before midnight this time.

Last night we went back out for dinner and on the way home got this picture of Notre Dame.














Tuesday, October 10... the reason we came to Paris was to celebrate our 25th anniversay. A bright and sunny day, the day was perfect.

We took a cruise down the Seine and saw the city from another view. You see lots of canal boats all along the canal walls which have been converted to personal homes. Some are pretty fancy.














Lunch was again... and wine by the Seine.














Later in the day, we went to a fancy store and from the roof we got a great view of the city... here is Sacre Coeur amongst all the other buildings of history.














Now it's time to change and go out for dinner at Le Grand Colbert recommended by the art teacher at Michelle's school. (It better be good Doug!)

Tomorrow we step out of the tourist world and head out with the Metro (the Paris subway). Bon soiree.

Another sunny day at the start, and we began it by finding a garden that National Geographic this month featured in one of it's articles on great green spaces.














We then got the morning sun through the massive stain glass windows of st. Chappell church, thought to be the one time home of Jesus' crown of thorns.



















From there we stopped outside of Notre Dame for another bite to eat... crepes with Nuttella and bananas.




Only missed my Blackberry twice this morning...










We rode the buses again and spyed a fine example of a gas station. For all the vehicles, it's surprising how few stations you see. Even fewer garages... but it seems every car has dents and scrapes. Even more amazing, we still haven't seen an accident... I can't wait to get back home and try some of the new tactics for heavy traffic we've discovered.














We then stopped off at Sacre Coeur, a massive church on a high hill overlooking Paris, for a walk, and then again something to eat...bagette, cheese and wine... sense a pattern?



















Then it was more gas stations and flower markets. Fall seems so far off here, flowers still blooming and trees green everywhere.





























The day will end tonight at another cafe/restaurant and no doubt more wine. Bon nuit.

Day two in Paris, is another sunny, beautiful day. We slept in after an exciting first day yesterday... and today we finally got going around noon. We took a bus tour of the different parts of the city. We first went back to the Eiffel Tower and had a true French lunch... baguette, cheese, meat and of course a bottle of red wine.





















Then if was off to tour the north side of the city from the top of a double decker bus. Michelle was facinated by all the wrought iron window treatments on almost every window on every building we passed.










One of the many sites today was Moulin Rouge, in a racey part of town.
We stopped for many snacks along the way... French onion soup of course was a great way to end the day on the Ile de Cite.

So I wanted to break this posting up - just in case - (since I didn't have my BlackBerry and couldn't be sure the world was safe)...

So, feeling good about ourselves... off we went farther into the city. In the end we walked over 11km's just lookin' to see what we may want to catch latter in the week...

Like the Arc De Triumph

And then there's this big tower thing.

We had crepes on the Champs Elysees (with Nutella)

Well it's late, were tired but smiling. Mom had a Pizza for supper...

Catch you all tomorrow again... bye bye.

Hello from Paris... Where do I begin? I met Michelle and Niki at the train station in Ottawa and the train pulled out about 2 minutes late... no big deal... The first picture is of us on the train... after a couple of trys with the flash thingy... my smile was worn out already...

Then when we got to Montreal, all we had to do was catch the airport shuttle ... but that shuttle it turns out was out the train station, up 3 levels and around the corner. Then when the darn thing showed up, our "all included shuttle" ride was not valid and out we had to fork out an extra $26 if we wanted to make it to the airport in time. Time was getting short. But we made the airport and even the plane on time...

The next picture is us on the plane... duhhh I found my smile with about 2 hours of sleep it was now 10am local time.


Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but when we landed in Paris the terminal was soooooo small...
Boy do I miss my BlackBerry....
Anyway, we had to sit around and wait while the tour people organized our shuttles (code word for large vans which hold 9 people). Then it was off to drop everyone off in the van... opps need gas first... 2 here, 2 there... finally after about 2000 car accidents... horn honkings and fingers pointing to the clouds... we were dropped off at our place for the week.

Not a bad location. Close to everything. Of course the first order of business was to check the bed... since we had a studio apartment, we got a fold out couch for a bed... not bad... heavy duty... they must be used to having newlyweds like us staying...



Okay, enough you say... I don't believe your really there....

Well we decided that since there was still some light out... it was about 2pm local time. And since we had a kitchen in our room we went shopping for groceries. We did that, found a cute little shoppe just down the way... no big food chains here. We dumped off our bottles of wine, and bottles of wine, oh and cereal, milk and wine... and out to see the sights.

Didn't take us long before we tripped over the Louvre.

Richling's Still in Ottawa

With only a few hours before leaving, Michelle is having Niki pick her up at school and drive her to the train station. And I (Mike) am going straight from work to meet Michelle at the train station. Then we train to Montreal, and catch our flight direct to Paris latter tonight.

We will be landing about 10am Paris time, so it's going to be a long night. I hope us newlyweds don't make too much noise for all those old farts around us in the plane.

Check back Saturday night, by then we will probably be asleep in our hotel room in Paris but maybe we will have had time to download some photo's.

Till then it's just wait and hold on...