Sunday Funday.....in Paris!

On Sunday, Kelly and I headed to Notre Dame. Again, we didn't get a terribly early start so we got there in time for 11:30 mass. Kelly went to mass and I started taking a tour of the church.


It was really neat, though, because they had a choir singing and the organ playing. It was beautiful. The other neat thing about taking a tour during mass, the fact that I could walk behind the alter area and see what was going on. They were swinging the incense and preparing things just like you see in the movies. I was entertained, until the incense started making my allergies act up. That was the end of my snoopyness. So I continued on my tour of the church, taking picutres (without flash, of course). I was able to see their beautifully famous windows...

...as well as all of the side alters. It was crowded though. I can't imagine it on a day in the summer. I am not a big fan of crowds or lines so I usually avoid them. I probably should have spent more time in the church, reading about all of the history, submerging myself in the ambiance, but I just wanted out. I was sneezing and being pushed by strangers, I needed air so I head outside. Kelly and I had seen some people up on the roof of the church when we arrived, via metro, and I wanted to go up there. I love climbing bell towers and church spires so I found the door.....and then the huge line. Kelly was still in mass and I had planned on just sitting on a bench waiting for her. When I saw the line, I figured "why not just wait in line?" So I did. It was a pretty dull experience. The girls in front of me were drinking hot wine which happens to be my all time favorite winter, cold weather drink. I was jealous, but alone in line so I took a drink from the water in my purse and tried to imagine. I also watched people buying crepes from the cafe selling the hot wine. I went with a piece of gum. Finally, after about 45 minutes this man starts dancing around and causing a commotion. Turns out he was our in-line entertainment. This is a picture of him (on the left) posing with a man and his luggage.

There was also a cute old couple walking down the street arm in arm wearing georgous long coats (hers in fur) and the starts yelling "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE PRESIDENT!" Everyone laughs, he catches on and starts waving. It was fun. He also tried to kung fu chop any asian person that walked by. Very un-PC but still entertaining. Kelly finally came around the corner with several other people and then he started acting like their tour guide. Kelly started to break away from the group to join me and he kept trying to direct her back to the other people. I got a good chuckle!

So after an hour plus we got to head up the stairs towards the bell tower, home of Quasimoto, of Notre Dame. I love gargoyles. I don't know why, but I think they're cute. Here is one of my favorite...a bored flying monkey-ish type creature. Kelly counted 368 stairs, I counted 384 stairs and google said 317. We're not sure what the answer is and what was or wasn't counted by google but either way, it was a lot of stairs. This picture is on the first stop.

This next picture is from the second level up. We were level with the roofs on the top of the church. There was an amazing view of the city and we were able to enjoy all 360 degrees of it. I just loved the Eiffel tower sticking up out of the busy city. Such a pretty sight.

We also go to go up into the bell tower. This is the home of Quasimoto. We read a little history about him, and let's just say it was a bit different than Disney's version. We also now know why he was huntched over: little doors!

Kelly and I had to take a picture with the Notre Dame roof as our back drop. There is proof we were at the very top!

By the time we were done climbing stairs and taking pictures, it was 2 o'clock and we were hungry. There were plenty of crepe places around so we took a cute looking one and went in. Restaurant Roulette French style was success again. Kelly had a great chicken, mushroom, and cheese crepe (below). I had a grilled ham and cheese sandwhich, excpet the cheese was on top of the bread. Kelly's won the taste award.

There was also mayonaise on the table, presumably for the Dutch tourists. We thought it was funny so we had to take a picture.

Yup, all the way from "California" in Paris, mayonaise for the Dutch. After lunch, we headed back to the hotel, via metro, rescued poor Opel from her dungeon of parking, took her on the elevator back up to civilization. It only took us 5 hours to get home and we luckily didn't have any traffic issues...or gas. It did rain a bit, but that isn't anything to new to us in the wet world.

Paris was a great experience and there is still stuff for me to do when I go back....whenever that day may be!

The Historical Side of Paris

Update: It took Mom 3 days, several hours, and lots of strong urging before she read my blog close enough to find the "challenge." Thank you Mom.

Disclosure: This is going to be a rather lenghty post and I don't believe I will use the copy and past function from Word becuase I don't have enough pateience today so therefore, please forgive any misspellings.


To start off our Saturday, Kelly and I took advantage of the snooze button on the alarm and didn't leave the hotel until about 11. I know, we are bad tourists, but our Eiffel tower excursion didn't get us home until midnight. We came up with a game plan and headed off to conquer the city. First stop, the Arc de Triomphe. We didn't want to pay 5 Euros to go inside it, so we took pictures from the safe side of the roundabout.

While we were standing there we hear a loud crash, see a hub cap roll across the street and there is a car skidding to a stop and a bumper with a license plate in the middle of the road. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but it was funny to see and made me happy our Opel was parked safely in her little spot. Kelly and I had to get a picture together to mark the occassion!

The street, Champs-Elysees is laid out with the Arc on one end and the Louvre on the other. It was built as a memorial Arc so that Napolean could ride his horses through it back to his palace at the other end (the Louvre). Champs-Elysees is one of the most famous, prestigious streets in the world with some rents at 1.1 million Euro per 1,000 sq ft. They also have stores such as the largest Adidas store, Europes' largest Gap store, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Zara, and Disney. It is just a beautiful street with a long history dating back to 1616.

Another store on this street is Swaroski. So of course Kelly and I had to pop in! We found an AMAZING stair case that we will both someday have in our houses. It was crystals in the glass and with all of the bright lights, it just sparkled! I love all things shiny and this was no exception!

After Swaroski it started to rain, and rain, and Kelly and I are not a big fan of getting wet so we ducked into the Gap. I was able to find a few nice sweaters, all 75% off, so I invested further into warm clothes attire. It has already proven useful! After the Gap it was still raining so we hurried to the next metro station to jump on it to take us to the Louvre. I started reading the history of the Louvre and got so involved with it I couldn't pick out any history to include in the blog. Instead, here is a link to the site. I will say though, that it has nearly 35,000 objects dating back to Pre History until the 19th century that are displayed over 653,300 sq. ft. To say the least, you could spend an entire weekend in that place and still not see all of it.

Kelly and I have both previously been to the Louvre so we did not go in this time. We did take pictures of the outside though.

This above picture has a story, one that ends in black and blue marks on one of us and the other practically rolling on the wet ground laughing. I will give you a moment to guess. Ready for the answer? Here is the story: Kelly took a very similar picture and I got jealous and decided I wanted one too. So I climb up on the wet, slick stone to pose for my picture with the Louvre in the background. So classic right? Well in addittion to the fountains in the courtyard area there are also two larger-than-life pyramids (so I thought anyways). The larger pyramid can be seen in my picture and the smaller one is behind and a bit to the left of from where this picture was taken. Kelly didn't like the prespective of my picture so she started backing up to get a better picture and I thought she would have noticed the gian 10 ft pyramid behind her when we walked in, but apparently she missed it. She was stepping backwards, I don't really grasp what is happening until Kelly is leaning over, trying to regain her balance slowly rolling down the pyramid landing on the wet ground silently. She tried to break her fall with her arm but it just caught the edge of the glass pyramid and she had a bruise forming by dinner. It all happened in such slow motion. I wanted to run to her, but I was on a wet stone and hear of falling into the fountain on my right, so as a bad friend, I was blamed for not warning her that a giant, stationary pyramid was behind her. I am laughing so hard as I write this, I am tearing up. Kelly isn't happy that I still get such a chuckle out of it, but it was too funny.

Now, back on to serious tour business: This is another picture of the Louvre. The skies are nasty grey, just waiting to keep raining on us. We see a man selling umbrellas for 5 Euro each, we end up walking away with 2 for 7 Euro. I consider that a decent deal. Happy to report though, we did not need those umbrellas because it didn't rain anymore. Murphey's law I guess.

The below picture is a view from the "courtyard" of the Louvre to the Eiffle Tower. It is such a beautiful city!

The below picture is a view down the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. A beautiful (and expensive) district.

After walking around the Louvre, we headed to Tiffany & Co. I was given a charm bracelet from there for my college graduation gift from my grandparents. I admit, I sometimes browse their website and discovered they sell Eiffel Tower charms. I informed my loving, patient mother that if I make it to Paris, I would be investing in one of those. She nodded so I took that as approval. On our adventure there, we walked by so many beautiful stores. DeBeers, Cartier, Chanel, Mikimoto Pearls and many, many more. Their window displays were amazing. The jewelry looked like something that you might see a princess wear...or at the Oscars. There were people actually in these stores as well. We continue past all of the amazing jewelry until we see the tale-tale blue sign. We head to the door, try to open it and it's locked. They had to buzz us in (unlike the gas station). Well, actually they had the scary looking door man open the door for us. This would be my second trip into the depths of this amazing store. The first time was when I was 17 and in DC for a field trip. I also found my $97,000 engagment ring that I'm holding out for...but I won't hold my breath. Anyways, he head downstairs to "cheap" sterling sliver charms and I find my Eiffle Tower, buy it and we head out. Our curiosity gets the best of us though because we decide to look around. We wander upstairs where they have the "bridal" collection. There were several couples up there as well. Oh the beauty of all that sparkles! Kelly and I head out before we bankrupt ourselves and go back to the direction of wisdom and museums. We grab a dessert at a cute bakery and map out our afternoon plans. I have a hankering to do a museum so we decide on the Musee d'Orsay (picture below).

On our we walk over a bridge that has all sorts of locks attached to it. It is a lock of love, as google informed us. Couples put a lock on the bridge signifying their unbreakable love. Very cute. If I ever succomb to this, I will be sure to engrave my lock ahead of time. Those look so much classier.

Now, back to the museum. It is housed in an old train station built between 1898 and 1900. It holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography, and is probably best known for its extensive collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces (the largest in the world) by such painters such as Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Seurat, Gauguin and Van Gogh. Many of these works were held at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume prior to the museum's opening in 1986.

That was plagerized from Wikipedia. Here is a picture we took of one of Van Gogh's work, The Church at Auvers .

And one of his self portraits:

The museum was a big, wide open space, very much like a train station. It was an enjoyable experience compared to a cramped museum with painting after painting. Of course the museum was also undergoing renovations so things were a bit different than normal but it was still a great experience. They also have 86 paintings by Monet which we enjoyed looking at as well. In addition to the traditional paintings and sculptures they had antique furniture and a beautiful hall that overlooked the river. Once again, in my fascination with lighting fixtures, I had to take a picture of what the Europeans do so well, elegance.

It was getting late and the museum would be closing soon, as told by the giant clock, so we headed out. It was a quick trip around, but suitable enough for me and Kelly.

When Kelly was here a few years ago a friend, who used to be a tour guide in the city, recommended a fun restaurant to her and her family. We decided to set out in search of it again. It is in the Montmarte district so we hopped on the metro and headed that way. Well, we were 30 minutes early and walked in on them eating dinner. Whoops. So we knew Moulin Rouge wasn't too far away and headed that way. We also found a cute gallery displaying original works of art by various local painters. I would have loved to spend money there, but I have to draw the line somehwere. We kept walking downhill until we found it and took some pictures:

We didn't want to look desperate by showing back up at the restaurant at exactly 7 so we tried to play it cool and went to an Australian bar for a beer. At about 7:30 we decided we were too tired to walk uphill so we hopped on the metro again and rode the one stop. That public transportation and sure be handy! By the time we got there the place was PACKED. We luckily squeezed in becuase there were only two of us. You have to hang your jacket in a certain area because there isn't room at the table for personal belongings. Kelly then decides she has to go to the restroom before we sit down. I don't want to stand in the jacket hallway like a wierdo so I head to the table. To sit down at this table, one side is against a wall on a bench and the other has chairs and you have to stand on the chair and step over the table to get to the bench. Kelly warned me about this and we decided she would step over. I think she did the bathroom stunt on purpose although she won't admit it. I head to the table, alone, and the waiter moves the chair, offers me his hand, and that is how I got pressued into stepping over a table in a really crowded restaurant in Paris. I was mad at Kelly. After I'm squeezed back into place between the table and the wall, they ask if we want red or white and cheese or meat. Those are the menu choices. Red or white wine and cheese or meat fondue. The wine is served in baby bottles because, from what I've read, you have to pay at tax for all wine served in glasses. We get our baby bottles and the fondue and enjoy our dinner.

We were seated between a French group of 3 and a very loud, singing group from Spain? The rest of the restaurant was filled with American girls. They looked young, and drunk. I have no idea what they were doing in the city in February, but they were having a good time and I guess that is what is important. We didn't loiter for too long and then we headed back to the hotel for bed. It had been a long day and we were exhausted!

That finishes up our Saturday in Paris. Congratulations on making through the entire posting! I appreciate the patience!

Hello Paris...and the Gas Station!

Kelly and I had a FANTASTIC time in Paris. We were able to see so much and do so many things in such a short time. I will, of course, be breaking these posts up to keep the suspense going…and so I have something to talk about all week. I just hope I can convey the amount of fun and laughs we had over the past weekend. I am very glad Kelly and I get along so great. It allows us to have fun wherever we go!

We decided to drive to Paris. There are cheap train tickets (35 Euros) that get you there in 3 hours, but you have to buy them a month in advance for the good price. We didn’t, so have a brief cost analysis, we figured it would be cheaper to drive. We loaded up our small, cute Opal and headed down the road. This was the first time that we have put luggage in her and let’s just say that my carryon bag and Kelly’s L.L. Bean bag just about filled up our “trunk” space. So visitors please pack wisely or else we might have to make multiple trips!

The good thing about driving was that we were able to see a lot of the country side of Belgium and France. It was so pretty; lots of rolling hills and green fields. Of course, the further south we headed, the more sunlight we got. This was nice because we also got to witness a beautiful French sunset. The traffic wasn’t too bad on our way there and the speed limits are fast enough you are able to really move. By the time it was all said and done it took us 6 hours to get to our hotel, including all traffic.

So this is where the fun really begins. We’re driving along and highway and we are on the outskirts of Paris and will be turning off the highway into the city loop pretty soon. We have a quarter tank of gas. The question: Should we get gas at the last highway gas station or wait till we get off the highway and in town? The chosen answer: Wait. What we should have done: get gas at the highway stop.

We take the exit to our destination and what do we get ourselves into? Parisian rush hour. Friday evening, 6:30 pm. Not fun. I thought Kelly and I were goners’. We only had 15km to drive (9 miles) and I figured ¼ tank, we’re fine! Nope, I didn’t plan on sitting in stop and go traffic. We as we barely move I watch the gas dial get closer and closer to empty. That is only one part of the stress. The other: the traffic. Apparently, people drive motorcycles in France so they can be faster and go in between lanes. So, we are sitting there, irritated an all of the sudden motorcycles ZOOM by Kelly’s window and we freak out. Guess I better scoot over and leave the “middle lane” open. We slowly crawl along and start to get nervous about the gas situation and I ask Kelly to have TomTom find the closest gas station. All of the sudden she shouts that it is only a few hundred meters away, she saw the sign. We try to switch lanes and I am not used to looking for the motorcyclist zooming in between traffic, but being the good driver I am I take a last glance out my window to check for any more traffic (mind you, we’re all at a dead stop in a traffic jam) and it’s a good thing I did because had I started to wiggle my way over any more aggressively I would have taken out 3 bikers. That would have been a sad, sad day. We traverse the lanes, safely, and take the exit. What do we find? A 3+ lane roundabout. I don’t really know how many lanes there are because everyone just zig zags around until their designated exit is found and they shoot off in that direction. Well, I am on the verge of a nervous breakdown. We take the wrong exit, I think we run a roundabout red light, have to do a U turn, and finally enter the gas station from the wrong side. Oh well, we’re there just as our low fuel light clicks on.

We pull up to the pump and it is credit card only and our credit card doesn’t work. I try to go in and pay for the pump but we HAVE to use credit card on that one. Kelly is waiting in the car for me and a bike comes up and starts knocking on her window. She is panicking, thinking this is the end of her and she is going to be car jacked. No worries, he is just informing her that the gas cap is off. So I come back and tell her the bad news and give her the keys so she can move the car to another pump. Well, due to our current positioning at the pump, to get to the closest one, she has to go the wrong way around the gas station, cuts some guy and pulls into position. She fuels up and I head inside to pay.

I get to the door and CANNOT for the life of me, figure out how to open it. I try to push, there is no handle to pull on, I grope at the hinges, I feel like a total idiot. So I look at the guy and hope he will “buzz” me in. I guess I’ve been hanging out at too many jewelry stores. I finally find the handle, it’s a hidden one. I go in to pay, and come out to find Kelly doing laps around the gas station. She stops so I can jump in the driver’s seat and she runs around to the passenger seat and we buckle up and we’re off. Well, not so fast says a big truck driver who parks his truck precariously near our car “sandwiching” us in. We slowly approach the opening where our dear Opal just barely fits. Everything is fine until the truck starts to pull forward at the same time. We scream and look up at the driver, and just in time he looks down at us before crush our dear car. That would have been a story to have to come back to tell everyone. We finally leave the gas station and get on the road to our hotel. No more major happenings.

We find the hotel relatively easily and we pull up in the front, no parking zone while Kelly runs in and asks where we should park. The lady gives her instructions and we head around the back of the building for the entrance. Well, there is a small, elevator looking blue door. Kelly tells me we need to ring and she will buzz us in, I insist that it’s a human elevator and we should park on the street and then ride it in. Kelly wins since she got the instructions and goes and buzzes. The doors open and it’s an elevator for our car!!!!

I pull and don’t even think about shutting off the engine. Kelly is standing infront of the car and is yelling at me and I have no idea what she is saying. Good thing it was a short elevator ride because I might have killed us both otherwise! We pull into the lone parking area where we plan on leaving our dear Opel for the next 2 nights. We unload and head upstairs to our room. They don’t have any rooms available with two single beds so we get the “king.” We’ll be fine. Turns our King in French equals a double in English. To say the least, Kelly and I really bonded over this trip. After ditching our stuff we headed out for food and to see the Eiffel Tower at night. We grabbed dinner at a café across the street from our hotel and the metro stop and it wasn’t good. It was just bland. The French do have some nice cuisine choices, but hamburger is not one of them.

As we are walking towards the tower, it starts to shimmer, or sparkle, or glitter, whichever adjective you would like to use to describe it. I included a video at the bottom. We got some great pictures. The nice thing about going to Paris in the off season: no lines. The bad: everything is being remodeled or closed for maintenance. We weren’t able to go up to the very top of the tower but still had some great views from the 2nd stop. Nothing is ever negative being around the tower!

The tower from the ground. So Pretty!

A view of the city and river from the Eiffel Tower.

After our tour, we had to get a crepe and sit and stare at the tower and let the fact that we are in Paris for the weekend sink in. The crepe was good, and the weather was great. It wasn't raining and relatively warm compared to what we have been slowly getting used to. A nice change of scenery.

Below is the video of the tower lighting up. I hope you enjoy it. I aploggize for it being sideways, but I guess we didn't think ahead to our blog. We are bad bloggers. Wish you there!!

Where's the Love?

Today is an exciting day. It is the day that Kelly and I head to Paris!!! As you American based people are reading this, Kelly and I will most likely be there, looking at the Eiffel tower. I’m sorry to rub it in, but we are SOOO excited. We are both packed and ready to go!

On another bright note, I finished my boring book. I hope the movie is better because I have no idea why anyone chose to make a movie about this book. Maybe it’s because the book reads like one of the really boring movies I don’t like. Maybe that’s why I don’t like the book. Maybe I’ll just save myself the 2 hours and the money and never see the movie. I am that bitter about this book.

On a less bright note, I found out my mother doesn’t read my blog religiously. I know she has a busy life and is constantly on the go, but I spoke with her last night and she said she hasn’t checked it in over a week. No wonder she had no idea what I was up to. Granted, she does get more “up to date” info via BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and I try to send her pictures, but I don’t give her that much info. I figured that my mother, the reason I started this blog so she could have all the details of my life that she craved, would read my blog religiously. I was dreaming - a sad day to the daughter’s ego. We shall see how long it takes before I get a BBM mad at me for making this post. It’s a challenge Mom!

Kelly and I have this amazing little pizza place down the street from our apartment. I have mentioned it before, New York Pizza. It was our first dinner in Holland. Comfort food. It’s also right on the way home, cheap, and fast. I was a bit grumpy last night by the time we left work so we stopped and got a pizza and a bottle of wine for dinner. The wine was slightly disappointing; more of a college day’s cheap wine than anything else, but the pizza was, as always, great. I love spicy foods. I even brought my habanero sauce with me from Mexico to make sure that I had spice in my life. This pizza, my favorite I’ve decided, has spicy chicken and jalapenos on it. I also enjoy jalapenos just a bit more than I used to because I have now been to the capital of the jalapeno pepper, Xalapa or Jalapa, Mexico. Since pizza is also a great leftover food, I brought it for lunch today. Yummy pizza! For all of you that haven’t caught on, I’m definitely NOT starving over here. Don’t worry.

I can’t wait for my next (several) post(s) because it will be about our trip to Paris. I hope to take lots of pictures and will do my best to put as many up here as possible! I hope you all have a great weekend!

The Travel Bug Has Gotten An Itch

Kelly and I have officially begun our tour of Europe. We have a hotel reserved in Antwerp for Saturday night and will hopefully see some surrounding cities as well. Every Dutch person we mention this too always gives us a disgusted look. Apparently, they aren’t big Antwerp fans. It’s only 2 hours away so we figured we better go see it! We also heard Ghent was a nice city as well. Hopefully, you will have pleasant report to read this weekend.

We have also booked a hotel for our trip to Paris next weekend. It is only a 4-5 hour drive (depending on who you talk to) so we figured we better not waste any time! Kelly loves Paris and the only time I’ve been there was a very rushed experience, so it will be nice to spend a bit more time there, especially with someone who is a bit more “seasoned” on the ways of Paris. We will have a good time I’m sure. The weekend after that is Brussels then Kelly’s boyfriend will be arriving for his visit. I’m excited to meet him and Kelly is just plain excited. She just booked their tickets to go spend a few days in Munich and visit some castles, drink beer, and see Salzburg Austria as well. I know they will have a fabulous time. I am happy for them.

I, on the other hand, have dreamt up more ideas. Kelly and I have limited holidays so we have to be careful how we spend them. I found a good, inexpensive trip to Iceland to try and possibly see the northern lights. I have always wanted to go to Iceland…and see the Northern Lights. If I could get them both in one trip, and do it in a long weekend, I would be very proud of myself. Now, all I have to do is to find someone to go with me this week because for the special, I have to have it booked by the 31st. We’ll see how this goes. Anybody interested???

There is a group of young guys that work here so they try and teach me Dutch. I always have reservations about trying to remember something that they all start snickering at once one of them says it. I’ve learned these little signs and try to stick with it no matter how much they tell me that it isn’t a bad phrase. I know how guys work…it is pretty universal too.

So, to start off the day with practice: tot ziens!