Western
Europe continued
Paris, France &
Tour of France, Sep 17 - Oct 4, by Aaron
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Heathrow Airport wasn't as bad as we thought. There was tight security, the lines were a little longer, but six days after the worst act of terrorism in history, Heathrow was doing okay. We checked into our Air France flight, and then we saw, "No Carry-Ons", and right then, we should have just ignored it and gone our way. But we were paranoid, and we wanted to be good little soldiers, so we took one carry-on that had the lap top in and it and we put everything else, Laura's journal, her embroidery, my sunglasses, the freshly printed copy of book two of my novel, into the other slim backpack and sent it on its way. You guessed it, Air France is still looking for it, and it doesn't look good. We have heard of people having their luggage lost for a while, but not indefinitely. In the U.S., on our way home, we told one baggage guy what happened and he said, and I quote, "the only thing I'd give to Air France would be my ex-wife." Well, if only we'd had known. So we turned our bag over and walked down to security to go through the metal detectors. We put our carry-on through, and it got rejected. So I turned on the computer, but still my backpack got sent through, and this happened five or six times, until the security guard dug in and found our lost leatherman. I'd been looking for it, but thought I'd left it in Spain. Well, I couldn't go on the plane with the leatherman. It was confiscated, and that's the end of it. The guy in front of us had to give up his entire screwdriver set, and that was painful to see! One bag lost, one leatherman confiscated, man, we're batting a million here!
But then we ate our sandwiches, I looked for my Guess Watch, oh I am haunted, haunted, and then got on the plane, and in no time at all, we are in our apartment, 11 Rue Castex, for a last visit. The week we had in paris before my parents arrived went by too fast. Too, too fast. We picked our bag from Gerard and Therese, got our stuff from Phillipe and Nancy from Verme Studios, and settled in. We ate in, I wrote, and Laura read, worked on getting her bag back & visited the Rodin museum. By Thursday, we were both exhausted from both the bag hunt and the watch haunt. Thursday night we ate at Café de la Post, and Laura, that night, woke up with severe abdominal pains, and when I say severe, I mean no breathing, nearly shrieking pain. We went to the American Hospital in Paris in the next day, she got her urine checked, her blood tested, x-rays, even an ultra-sound, the whole thing. She was healthy as a horse. Except for the pain. She got some stomach stuff and some pain medication and we went on our way. Friday we ate at our favorite little menu place, but Saturday, we hit the ground running.
Of course, we went to the Museum of Erotic Art near the Moulin Rouge, in a none too nice part of town, then hoofed it on over to Pompidou and saw the Alfred Hitchcock exhibition, and then we had dinner with Phillipe, his wife, his wife's friend, her son, and three language students from New York. It was the most we'd been around Americans for the longest time and we had a great time. Phillipe and his wife are wonderful and their guests were equally enchanting. The students were a breath of fresh air and we gossiped about American pop stars. I realized that I should have went in for dreadlocks, and we learned the phrases, "in-it-to-win-it" and "throw down." Let's say you want to go and talk to a girl across the room, so you say to yourself, "I'm-in-it-to-win-it" and then you walk on over. The other phrase means, say someone tries to get in front of you at the grocery store, you could say, "If you get in front of me, I'm gonna throw down, man." We had a great time, stayed up way too late, and then picked my parents up at the airport the next day. So began the great tour!
The following itinerary was written by Laura for my parents and Aaron did the colorful bits of what actually happened. We ended up changing things as we went along. First of all, we'd like to thank Madame LeSaffre for all of her help planning this little tour. She did wonders and the Chateaus we stayed in were all thanks to her and her book! Thank you Amandine, Elodie, Tony and Madame LeSaffre!!!
2 Weeks --Tour through the Normandy, Brittany, Alsace in France with a splash of Switzerland (Air tickets will be: Denver ->Paris, Zurich -> Denver)
Sun 9/23 Day 2 Paris
Air Canada Flight 880
Arrive: CDG AT 8:15 AM Sunday 23 Sept 01
Be greeted at airport by smiling son and daughter-in-law. Be
taken to our apt in Marais district. Spend day eating the best
food you've ever had, walking around city, and going to museums.
Louvre open-9am-6pm (can buy ticket ahead of time at Fnac) Musee
d'Orsay open-9am-6pm.
Mon 9/24 Day 3 Paris. Spend second day eating, walking, and enjoying the city of lights & love. Louvre open-9am-6pm, till 9:45pm for selected areas. Musee d'Orsay closed.
Tues 9/25 Day 4 Paris. Spend third day eating, walking, and enjoying the city of lights & love. Louvre closed. Musee d'Orsay open-10am-6pm
Paris sights:
St. Garvis in the morning
Walk to Notre Dame and do tower in am & see inside church
(can't do free tour)
St. Chappelle
Napolean Museum,
St. Sevrin (near St. Micheal)
Eiffel Tour
Champs Elysee
Eating at: L'Excuse, La Revile, Café de la Post, Place
de Vosges, menu house place for lunch only. And eat gnocchi inside
our place
We did get to Notre Dame, St. Chappelle, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and the Champs Elysee, and we ate at the Place de Vosges. Most of all, we chatted with my parents had a good time in our apartment. Laura did pretty well with the pain, but I did not get anywhere with my watch. I am haunted, haunted, the black leather Guess Collection watch. Get behind me Satan. My parents were pretty overwelmed by the whole Paris experience, and I must say, Paris is too cool for words. Gerard and Therese were nice enough to have us for dinner and we even got to see Xavier again. Best of all, my parents got a traditional French dinner served in a French home. We told them to pace themselves, and they did, but even they were having to push the dessert down their gullets. I ate too much and at three am even I wasn't feeling too well. I had to take a break the next day so I missed out on some of the shopping at Gallaries Layfayettes. I sat brooded about the watch and tried to call Air France about the lost bag.
Laura having her final trip to the local fruit & vegtable shop
All of us ready to enjoy a Religeuse Chocolate
The happy couple at the Arc de Triumph
Had to do the Mona Lisa, you can tell how excited everyone was about it
