We're in PARIS! And really, here are the details!

Sorry if the photos are grainy - we posted a few pics that we tried to scale down to fit on the page. We have hundreds more (for real) and only posted pics from Wednesday night.

Tuesday December 4th

We both decided to go to work and leave at 3 for Philadelphia since our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 8:45pm. Well I had absolutely nothing to do at work which was making time go so slow. I printed out Sally’s emails and mapquest directions to and from the airport and then I just decided to go home at noon and see Peanut. Jeff called me at 2 and asked me to come pick him up at work , so I guess he was anxious too. When we pulled up to the airport, we were randomly selected for a car search. I was really scared b/c I didn’t have my newest registration (dad updated it on Friday). They didn’t even ask why the car was registered to someone other than me. Oh well. So we found the economy parking and had to search for a while to find a spot. The bus drove us in and dropped us off at the US airways international stop. Then we got yelled at by the busboy person because we tried to use a door that wasn’t working. Checking in was normal except the employees don’t notice you are there at the Philadelphia airport. They just carried on their own conversations and went through all the motions. I was sure our luggage was being sent to China or something because they weren’t paying attention at all. We got McDonalds and exchanged $300 and waited for our flight. We were really early so it was a long wait. The flight to Rome boarded at 7:30 and at around 8:30 we saw everyone get off the plane. Something was wrong with their plane and they had to get them a new one. They were delayed at least 2 hours. Our boarding was fine. The plane had two seats on each side and four in the middle. Jeff and I were on the sides. They announced everything in English and French. At about 10:30 they served dinner. I had bar-b-que beef and Jeff got pasta. It was surprisingly good. We both tried to sleep which was frustrating and hopeless. I probably got an hour sleep and Jeff maybe got 2. There was turbulence about half way through the flight because of the winds, but it wasn’t too bad. They served us some drinks at about 9am French time and before you knew it, we landed. We had to ride these escalators that didn’t have steps, but rather they were more like long inclined conveyer belts. The only problem was that customs was backed up and when you got to the end of the moving conveyer belt, there was no where to go. It was dangerous. People were screaming “allons y” or “let’s go!” The customs officials didn’t even look at our passports. They just stamped it to keep the line moving fast. Our luggage came out pretty fast which was good because I was scared the whole time that it wouldn’t be there. We followed the “sortie” signs to the exit and a guy was waiting with a Burton, Jeffrey sign. He didn’t speak English and seemed to be in a hurry.

Wednesday December 5th

Leaving the airport was strange because the trees looked like home, there was farmland that looked like home, and there was graffiti on the bridges which looked like Harrisburg. I know one thing for sure is that I could never drive in Paris! Taxi drivers around the world are crazy. I thought for sure L.A. was the worst I would ever see, but I think L.A. tied with Paris. Did you ever imagine that the taxis would be Mercedes and BMWs? Isn’t that strange? I know they are cheaper here than at home, but not that cheap! Most of the cars were so small. I had never seen many of the brands before. I think one accident in those cars and you would be squashed to death. The further away from the airport, the more it started to look like Paris. The old buildings were like nothing we have ever seen since nothing in America is that old, obviously. We got to our hotel at about 11am and tipped the driver 5 Euros. I couldn’t believe how fancy the outside alone was. We weren’t sure if we would be allowed to check in since it was early. Everyone at the hotel speaks English! We were thrilled. Lets just say that Jeff and I may know how to read and speak French words and phrases, but putting sentences together stops us dead in our tracks! They told us it would be a half an hour. We left our bags and decided to walk around. Everything seems so close together. We took tons of pictures already. We walked through the narrow streets to find our other hotel we will be staying at on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and were thrilled to see it is in a decent location and looks to be a nice hotel, just small. We walked out to the main street to the jardin de tulierre (sp?) and just walked around for a while to see where we could eat and shop. We could see the tour eiffel from that main street which was very cool. When we went back to the hotel, we walked around a little bit to find the pool, spa, restaurant, health club, etc. and then we went back the front desk to get our key. To our surprise a young woman showed us to our room and described things on our way so we felt obligated to tip her too. Our bags were in the room already. It is a very ornate room. Not my taste at all, but very pretty in its own European way. We took pictures of the room and our view from the hotel (which isn’t great) and then decided we needed to sleep for about 3 hours. We woke up and got a shower and got ready. We went down to the concierge desk to ask if you could walk to the tour eiffel and he said it was a safe neighborhood and about ½ an hours walk. We went to the place de concorde and there was a ferris wheel, so we rode that. That was very cool at night because all of the main places to see were lit up very clearly. We tried to take pictures, but it was so windy . I was a little scared at the top when they stopped it because it was really windy and we were rocking back and forth, but once it was consistently moving, I was okay. I’m really happy we did that, so we could see everything Paris has to offer. While we were up there, it started to rain, so when we got off, we decided to walk back and get dinner at a little café. There were 5 couples in the café and 3 were American. They spoke perfect English, so we didn’t have to speak French yet. I ordered a coke (8 euros!) and beuf bourginon / beef burgundy (13.5 euros). Jeff ordered a coke and le poulet roti / baked chicken (12.5 euros). Dinner was very very good. Jeff was so happy because when Sally and him had talked about Paris, they came to the conclusion that he wasn’t going to find mashed potatoes anywhere and he managed to on the first night! By the time we were done with dinner the rain had stopped completely, so we set out for the Eiffel tower. We stopped at some fountains, the champs eglysee , le grand palace, and anywhere there was a possible picture to take. We crossed over the Seine river and Jeff took some pictures of me with the Eiffel Tower in the background. It was beautiful weather. A little cold, but not too bad. The walk to the Eiffel tower was certainly not ½ an hour. We were fine with it though because we wanted to see the buildings and the monuments on the way. When we got there we couldn’t believe it. At the beginning of every hour they turn on these sparkles and the whole building sparkles like a Christmas tree. Only one tower was open (nord, north tower). I was getting really nervous as we were getting in the elevator. There are three stops. The first is for anyone who wants to go the restaurant, so we stayed on till the second. The second stop seems sooooo high. It was open, so you could take pictures, so we tried, but were having trouble because of the wind. It was amazing. There were buildings as far as you could see. Not like New York where the buildings end or you can see the ocean. It was just building after building. We took pictures of the Seine river, the ferris wheel we were on earlier, the arc de triomphe, the military building, etc. It was beautiful. We tried to take pictures with us in them too because everyone told us to make sure we do that. It was breath taking! Then we decided to go for it and go to the top. As we were going up the elevator my knees were locking up and I was holding Jeff so tight. I really thought I wasn’t going to be able to do it. The elevator has clear doors and all you can see is the metal beams and the lights of the city getting further and further away! I was absolutely thrilled to find out that the top level is enclosed! I felt the weight drain from my shoulders and then I was fine again! We asked an American family to take our picture. They were on a 4 month tour of Europe and they were from Washington state. The woman was really nice and talked to us about how her house is for sale and it flooded this week. She asked how much houses are in PA compared to what a teacher would make. When we said goodbye to them we walked around some more. There are signs that tell you how far away different cities are, so we found Washington DC and took a picture. There was an open level up the stairs, but I thought I would faint if we did that, so we opted out of that. Jeff found the correct setting for the camera to take good pictures, so we went down to the 2nd level to take more pictures. The second level didn’t seem that high after being at the top! Then we went down to the bottom and took more pictures. We walked a different way home and were able to get great pictures as the tower was sparkling. It was beautiful. It took a long time to walk back and my feet were killing me. I don’t know how these French women do it. They all have boots or high heels and skirts on. Jeff and I were amazed that only about every 1 in 20 had jeans on. It’s like they dress up every day! I was enjoying all the doggies all over the place. It made me miss my Peanut. We walked back to the hotel in a different direction to get a picture of the arc de triomphe. It was worth the extra distance. When we got back to the hotel we were thrilled to go to sleep. Jeff got things ready for his meetings tomorrow and I fell asleep at around midnight. Exhausted!

Thursday December 6th

I didn’t wake up until 12:45!!! I got up and got a shower and thought it would be a good idea to write down everything we have experienced. Jeff will be in meetings/lunch until 2:30 and then we have until 7 which is the dinner that we both are going to. I was worried about getting lunch by myself, but I guess I don’t have to worry about that if you sleep right through it. I’ll grab something small if Jeff and I go out before dinner. It is pouring and windy outside from what I can see, and Sally said most of the museums are closed on Thursdays, so this is a perfect day to take it easy. We are going to figure out the metro tomorrow and get a museum pass. That way we don’t kill ourselves walking or spend a fortune on taxis.

Jeff’s meeting went well, but lunch wasn’t so great. It seems like to be an investor that you have to have an interest in politics or something. Every dinner or meeting he goes to puts him in a position to talk about politics which both him and myself couldn’t care less about. Some guy made a comment about Mormons since Romney is Mormon. I guess the misconceptions are stronger than I’m aware of because the whole table was confident that Mormons are polygamists that are mandated to go on 2 year missions. When Jeff told me about this guy I figured he was French, but he used to work at PSERS! What American openly mocks a religion in a professional setting? He even asked Jeff if he was Mormon. Who does that? Jeff explained that there was a sect that split off that calls themselves Mormon and they believe in polygamy, but the true Mormon church does not. He tried to say that they are only encouraged to go on missions. I don’t think this guy was listening to anything Jeff said though. I met him later and he seemed to be a very cocky know it all type. Oh well, I guess he can think what he wants.
Jeff took a nap after his meeting and I got ready and ironed my suit. We met everyone that was staying at the hotel in the lobby and took shuttle buses to the Four Seasons, George V hotel. We checked my coat and had to go to a cocktail hour and mingle. That is harder to do than you would think. Everyone looked so professional. They had good champagne! Then dinner was in another room. Jeff’s name tag was on the other side of the table, so I moved my name card because I was not going to spend the whole night with some French speaking stranger. I sat next to Mr. Wong (spoke English) and Jeff was sitting next to someone who he knew from other meetings in the past. I read the menu of items we were going to be eating and was immediately nervous. The first course was duck fois graut (it was like pate). It was so nasty! It was like meat paste. I knew Jeff was doing the same thing as me….we were trying to cover up the awful taste of the pate type thing with the bread. It didn’t work very well. I was chasing every bite with wine to cover it up. Thankfully the second course was okay. It was lamb (I kept picturing a cute little white lamb the entire time I was eating it and I felt really bad). Everyone who knows me well should know that I can’t eat pink meat. I don’t know why I am so lucky, but I got the only piece that was cooked. Jeff was having trouble because his was sooo pink! Mine was good though. The presentation was incredible! They served an apple tart with vanilla bean ice cream for dessert. That was amazingly good! I should have know that their pastries would be excellent. They served coffee and little tarts at the end. It was an okay night, but I would have been happier at McDonalds for sure! Jeff did really well talking to everyone. He knows a lot about PASERS and their investments. He’s going to get really good at this, I can tell. I could never and would never want to do his job! Oh yeah, there were only about 5 women there. I’m guessing 4 of us were wives. That is so different from my job. Half of my office is women (and that isn’t including the administrative staff). I was happy to go back to the hotel. We got a shower and then watched PTI because the only American channels on the TV are the News, sports, and MTV. So we settled on sports of course. We have to check out in the morning and go to a less expensive hotel, so I hope it is still nice. Au revior mes amis.

(This is Jeff now) So we couldn’t quite fall asleep right away. I was absolutely dying of thirst and I really needed une soude, especially une coca (a Coca-Cola). Just so happens the Ritz has a mini bar - but a 12oz can of soda was 10 euro which is basically $15 USD. It was so late at night there was nothing I could do. I rolled around on the floor trying to stop myself from drinking the $15 12 oz soda, but the outcome was inevitable. After 10 minutes of me staring at the coke (while Nichole was laughing hysterically at me), I finally opened it and the two of us drank it together out of champagne glasses. It was the best soda we ever had. I’ll post pictures of the whole ordeal later.


Friday, December 7th

(Jeff again) So it was a slow go for me getting up this morning. Nichole was up well before 10 a.m. Paris time and she didn’t yell loud enough to get me out of bed until 10:30ish. We packed everything up and headed out. I think we were the only people in the Ritz in jeans and sneakers pulling our luggage down the hallways. I felt like people were looking at us the whole time so I put on my biggest smile to cheer everyone up. I checked us out without a problem thanks to the English speaking staff and somehow Nichole and I managed to make it out of the spinning door with our huge bags.

As Nichole mentioned earlier, upon our arrival on Wednesday morning we located our 2nd hotel. We dragged our bags about 3 blocks and tried to check in but our room wasn’t ready. We were told to come back after 1:00. We left our bags and headed to the Jardin des Tuileries to get to the Louvre.

Tuileries is a desert right now. It’s not a garden at all. There is some grass and fountains, but for the most part it looked like Pennsylvania after a cold, heavy rainfall. We were not very disappointed though. We didn’t expect to see much with it being winter time. So we headed down toward the Louvre and Nichole managed to get pooped on by a seagull. It hit her purse. She was not happy.

The glass pyramid to enter the Louvre was awesome. Surprisingly, there was not a very big crowd in the plaza. We took some pictures, took in the fresh air, looked around in awe for a little while and then decided to head inside - mind you, we had not a clue what to do or where to go. Since I’m the “man” I’ve been trying to take the lead on everything and figure things out so Nichole doesn’t have to worry about anything. We entered the pyramid, took a couple of pictures and saw ticket counters everywhere. I went to the information desk and half asked in French/English where we could buy a Museum Pass. The pass lets a person access around 60 tourist sites in Paris. Since the Louvre was 9 euro per person and we knew we wanted to visit a few other places the next couple of days, we sprung for the Museum pass. We went to where the museum passes were sold and waited a while. The lady only spoke French. Speaking French, I managed to tell her what we wanted and backed it up by pointing to it. Done. Off to eat.
We ate in a café in the Louvre. I thought I was clear on what I wanted but then the waiter asked if I wanted two baguettes de jambon (two ham sandwiches) and I said no, one chicken and one ham, but we ended up getting two ham. We were fine with it and ate. Nichole nearly got whip lash from biting the bread and then snapped her head back trying to break through it. It was hilarious.

I’m not going to say much about the Louvre other than it was spectacular. We walked around for 6-7 hours and on the day I think we took another 200 pictures. There are areas where you can’t take pictures, but hundred of people were filming and taking pictures anyway. Since nobody was saying anything, we also took pictures and were one of the few that took the flash off. Here is a tiny list of some of the items we saw: Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Napolean III Apartments, The Raft of Medua, The Wedding Feast At Cana, Borghese Gladiator, Cycladic Idol, Christ and Abbot Mena, the Crown of Louis XV, and on and on and on.

We stopped at a café on the way back from the Louvre. It was shortly after 6 at that point. Nichole had spaghetti with meat sauce and I had chicken penne. Not bad at all. It was relatively inexpensive also. I think we only paid 13 euro (approx $18 USD) for the meals and soda. Not much is cheap in this touristy area, especially with the exchange rate.

We made it back to the hotel at 7 and checked in. The room is tiny but we shouldn’t be here much. We decided to try to go to the Musee d’Orsay since we could just cut through the Jardin des Tuileries and make it in 10 minutes. The Tuileries was closed so we couldn’t cut through. It was raining but we had an umbrella so we decided to walk around it. That was a mistake. It started raining even harder and we got pretty wet. We finally made it to the museum and it was closed. (Oops, I didn’t read the pamphlet first). We sat under a canopy at the museum to rest for a few minutes and looked at pictures that we took earlier in the day. I got out the map and found a metro stop nearby. I convinced Nichole that we should take the metro back rather than walk back in the downpour. She seemed nervous but said it was fine with her.

We found the metro a couple of blocks away from the museum and I bought a carnet (a packet of 10 tickets) for 11.10 euro. The cashier said something to me and in French I replied I didn’t understand. He said it slightly slower a second time and I understood what he was saying. He couldn’t break my 20 so I paid in a different way. I got our tickets but we didn’t know how to use them. I put it in the turnstyle thingie and then promptly ran into a turnstyle that didn’t turn. I noticed my ticket came through the other side and I had to grab it for the thing to turn. Victorious. I told Nichole so she wouldn’t have a sore hip from the turn thingie. I mapped out our route and we made it back just fine.

We are planning our day for tomorrow right now. We’ll be up bright and early to see as much as possible! We have to get our smooch tomorrow on Point Neuf (according to Sally), Musee d’Orsay and Notre Dame de Paris are on our list. We have to talk about it some more and looked at our pamphlet of sites that we can see with our pass.

Lots of love to everyone and sorry that I haven’t called but it’s $1.30/minute for me to call on my cell phone. Also, this is the only night that we are going to pay for internet access. The Ritz wanted something like 15 euro for one hour of internet service and I wasn’t about to cough that up…in hindsight though, I did have the Coke so I guess it would have been no biggie!

P.S. - It has rained here everyday, but I’m told that’s Paris in December! Major props to big Sis Sally for getting so much information to us ahead of time on Paris. Although I say we don't know how to do things exactly, we have a pretty good idea of where to go and how to do things thanks to Sally!