Paris:
We began our trip at 3am only to shower and find out through email that our flight was moved to 12pm. Opting not to take the shuttle we drove to Milan from Lugano. Getting through customs at the border and at the airport were a breeze but when we arrived at our gate an hour early we were informed that the flight was delayed 2 hours because of a fuel injection problem. Our in flight meal was a half a tuna sandwich with a ton of mayo and diced up olives & tomatoes. Lele had a pepsi and I had a gas water. The brand (Perrier) of my water reminded me of movie "Talledaga Nights" the French driver's main sponsor on his car and since we were on our way to Paris I put two and two together LOL. Lele had a field day too because the thicker lady next to me on the plane took up a lot of leg space, the whole arm rest and used my tray for her trash. Lele said I was her "female dog"!
Day 1 of Paris:
After grabbing our bags we headed to the information desk to get help getting to our hotel and downtown Paris. We followed the instructions given to us but yet still seemed a little uncertain so we asked a very helpful French man if we were on the right train. He ensured us we were and we were on our way. We checked into our hotel and jumped on the Metro to the Latin Quarter. We had dinner at a very nice Parisian restaurant called Vins et Terroirs! The food was incredible! After dinner we tried to find a nice place to have dessert. We were informed by my assistant coach that there was a place where crepes originated in the Latin Quarter. We stumbled across "Creperia Saint Andre des Arts", which was a small, older, restaurant with only crepes on the menu and none of the waiters spoke English. Following dessert we left no time for digestion and began exploring in the high 20s degree weather. Abby, Carp's girlfriend, suggested to us on skype before we left that one thing we need to do was try to see the Notre Dame Cathedral at night. Abby thanks for the suggestion, it was unreal and let's just say we have another Christmas card candidate for next year. We carried on our journey to the Louvre. Before we hit our destination we stopped at a coffee shop for a cup of hot coco. After about 30min of dethawing we continued our journey to the Louvre only to be halted at the crosswalk outside the coffee shop by a small explosion. Not knowing where it came from a French man in a van pulled over seemingly accusing us in French! Other cars avoided it and other onlookers from the cafe stared curiously. A waiter hurried out to pick up the aftermath and the French man who unknowingly accused us of the crime was even quicker to express his remorse. As we were on our way about 3 blocks later a policeman made his way to the seen. Luckily for us that French man realized we were innocent otherwise I couldn't of imagined trying to explain what happen let alone spend Christmas eve in the Paris police station. Continuing our long cold walk to the Louvre in the distance you could see the symbol of Paris the "Eiffel Tower" and the light show that goes on at night daily all year. When we finally reached our destination all I could think of was the "Da Vinci Code". After a few pictures, a couple of mental movie reenactments, we walked to the nearest metro and called it a night so we could get an early start the next day.
Day 2 of Paris:
Christmas day we were blessed with beautiful weather. Cold but beautiful nonetheless. We got up had breakfast at the hotel and discussed where our adventure wanted to take us today. We decided on 3 locations: The Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph and Moulin Rouge. We also decided we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower during the day and the night. So we hopped on the Metro and headed to the Eiffel tower and took a ton of pictures. I'm hoping we got at least one good one because I'm a volume shooter when it comes to taking pictures. Our next stop of the day was supposed to be Moulin Rouge but a little communication mishap between us and our hotel receptionist put us no where near our destination. We stopped a French woman on her jog and she told us we were quite a ways away, so we waved down a taxi and 20 euros later we were right in front of the infamous Moulin Rouge. In our cab ride over the cabby gave us a quick history lesson informing us of all the attractions in the area and how not many tourist visit this area slash it is known as the red light district of Paris. He had many other fun facts for us, which was actually very insightful. We took a few pictures and tried to get in like the rest of the tourists that were there but unfortunately no shows were going on that day. Before we headed back to the hotel we stopped at a Starbucks for coffee and donuts. We Skyped our families to wish them a Merry Christmas and from the sounds of things everyone was on the NICE LIST because Santa was really good to them. We took a quick nap to re-charge our batteries because we had a few adventures to go on before dinner.
We set out to the Latin Quarter again because the night before the lady at the jewelry store told us everything would be open on Christmas after 12pm. The Latin Quarter was great because of all the shops, restaurants and people. It is a very active area and a fun environment to be in. We picked up a few gifts and headed to the Arc de Triumph. By this time the weather was really starting to get cold. What was unique about this attraction was actually standing in the middle of the road with other tourists on the famous and busy street known as Champs-Élysées, trying to take a photo. There wasn't a whole lot of room to spare and we (the tourists) were all attempting to fit on this little island in the middle of the street. I would of loved to of spent a little more time walking up and down the street but by this point we couldn't feel our toes. We hurried back to the metro to make the last stop of our day, the Eiffel Tower. During the day we had no problem getting people to take good photos of us but maybe the lighting was different or it was too cold and people didn't want to take their mittens off because it took us several tries, with several different tourists, to get a decent photo at night of the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel tower was by far our favorite attraction of all the ones we got to see.
Following the Eiffel Tower, we went to dinner at very nice restaurant right near our hotel and just off the metro. I might go as far to say that the food in Paris was some of the best food I've ever had in Europe. It's tough to beat the states food but man oh man! Everywhere we ate in Paris the food was superb and the service was accommodating too. If I had to fill out a customer satisfaction questionnaire they'd all get 5 stars.
Day 3 of Paris:
Our final day in Paris we decided to do a tour of the Museum de Louvre. Obviously, before we could embark on our journey through endless ancient paintings and sculptures, we needed a jump start, so we stopped at the entrance where they conveniently put a Starbucks for us. After a white mocha and a caramel macchiato we were on our way. We grabbed a map and highlighted a few things on each floor that we really wanted to see. For those of you that don't know the layout of the Louvre it's kind of maze. After multiple round about ways to a few paintings and sculptures in the first hour I had to turn the map over to Lele. We had lunch at one of the food stands in the lobby of the Louvre to take a break before we finished off the rest of the artifact sight seeing. The second part of the maze had the Mona Lisa on it and it was kind of a mad house in the front trying to get a picture. I got one with my phone and the camera but took me several tries because there was a man behind me and to my left bumping me in the head with his big ass canon camera trying to take a photo. Lele was standing back having a field day with it as I struggled to push back with my head. Funny thing was I think I remember him getting pissed too but not at me, but because even though signs clearly showed no flash, people still took pictures with the flash on. And because the Mona Lisa sits behind a large plate of glass it will ruin any picture you try and take if you take it while they are. KARMA! We still had some time to kill after the Louvre so we decided to walk back to the Latin Quarter to look for some more gifts/souvenirs. After an hour or so there we headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags and we were off to the airport. Christmas day the airport was shutdown because they ran out of defrosting fluid but luckily for us we didn't run into any problems. We grabbed a bottle of wine at the duty free shop, played a few games of solitaire on the plane and an hour and a half later we were back in Milan. When we got to our car in Milan it took us about 15min to scrape of the ice and I'm not sure if I mentioned before but the check engine light had come on the day we left for Paris and the car was puttering all along the freeway, so I was just hoping to make it home with out any troubles. I was playing it cool to Lele like I wasn't worried but I don't have the greatest history when it comes to driving to and from Malpensa. We made it home safe and had a tremendous amount of fun. I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas. I love and miss you more than you know. Until next time............................................................. Love
"Enjoy the Journey"
Love
Bud
