Paris Trip

Paris Day 0
We left the house about 7am on Wednesday. Long term parking was very convenient. American Airlines curb side check-in is either very selective or racist. They let white people cut in front of us, not once, but twice. Jaime was going to get angry, which is a shock, because it’s normally me. Imagine that. Jaime getting mad. I flipped some attitude too, but not much. We had a long flight ahead of us.

Our flight to Dallas went off without a hitch, though the flight was packed and I’m a little too large for the seats.

In Dallas, we ate at one of the expensive airport restaurants. It was alright. What sucks is everything is on the other side of the TSA security checkpoint, so we had to go through it a couple times as we went outside to smoke.

We finally we boarded the plane to Paris. It wasn’t packed so Jaime and I got to stretch out.
FACT: even if I’m laying across three seats, I still am crammed and can’t sleep. I think the old man in front of us shit himself too. It was foul!

We flew opposite the earth rotation, so we saw day and night, then day again fairly quickly. We are 8 hours ahead of everybody in Arizona.

My super awesome headphones broke at the jack, that sucks bad. I had to use some crappy iPod earphones. It’s such a long flight. Especially with some crap ear buds crammed in my ears. Note to you all, if you are flying for a really long time, download some movies to your tablet if you have one. I have an iPad that I got for father’s day last year. I downloaded Amelie. A fun French movie. The price is bumped up because you can’t ‘rent’ it and fly without Internet and see the movie. So I bought it. I do wish I bought more movies.

P.S. I hate flying, mostly because of how uncomfortable the seats are. I can’t get comfortable and I definitely can’t sleep on a plane.

Paris Day 1
Once in Paris, small shock to our system, it was freezing cold. we took a cab to our hotel. On the way we caught a glimpse of the sacre cours and saw the arc de triomph.

For a four star hotel, our room is very small with a leaky sink. I pity those fools in three star or less.

The location of our hotel gives us quick walking access to everything. We walked around after our nap then grabbed some dinner at the Pepiniere Brasserie. We snapped a few pictures.

Coffee here comes in tiny cups.

I didn’t think the food was that amazing or tasty. Could be the place.

Eglise Saint-Augustin de Paris

Paris Day 2
Wow, what a day!
Though, we woke up extremely early (3am), we had a great breakfast at the hotel, and then walked our feet off.
We saw the Madelaine. A huge columned church. The columns made me look small.

Our first sighting of the Eiffel tower!!!

We went to the Musee l’Orangerie which is French for “Claude Monet’s Purpley-Blue Painting”
Don’t get me wrong but it truly should be called that. A large museum built specifically for two room large painting. There is some other stuff there too, like Picasso’s works. That dude painted a lot of pictures of naked women.

Some fountains were turned off because of how cold it was. I bet they are even more beautiful with the water flowing.

This is how cold it was:

A lonely chair. Oddly awesome!

A lion has a light snack… on my head!!!!

Mon cherie est tres sexy!! ooh-la-la!!

This is a statue just outside of the Musee l’Orangerie

And this is the same statue with me desecrating it by adding myself to make it a devil’s threeway!

Watch your hand dude!

We then walked over to the Musee du Louvre. Yes, that building you see in the picture below, can fit my house in it 434.86667 times. I did the math.

This here, is called the Arc du Triomphe du Carrousel (opens in a new window/tab). It’s located right in front of the Louvre. If you look closely, it has pink marble columns which is super expensive. It is another dedication from Napoleon to his troops.

Near every inch of the Louvre’s 652,300 square feet is covered in art or priceless artifacts.

I don’t know who insures this building, but I’m guessing Lloyd’s of London.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace (aka Nike of Samothrace)

The Mona Lisa

A super old beauty and a young sexy hottie!

Jaime had to do a report on this picture in High School

Read about the Raft of Medusa (opens in a new window)

If you ever go to the Louvre, don’t forget to look up. It really is amazing!

I wasn’t kidding about nearly every inch being covered in art.

The Louvre used to look like this back in the olden times.

The foundation is preserved. And why not? It really gives you a sense of how things used to be.

It’s definitely a must for everybody. No matter if you are into art or not. There are many things to see. Once inside the glass pyramid, there are many areas you can go. There are numerous paintings and statues and artifacts from the whole worlds history. While there, we ate lunch, just a baguette and another sandwich. We walked our feet off. So much that we took a cab home.

We were so tired, we took a long nap. When we got up, we didn’t want to be late for our tour of France via double-decker bus, that we nearly ran the mile to the bus stop. Hard to believe we did that with our sore feet!

After the tour, which was amazing and recommended for anybody new to Paris, we walked about, found a cafe called Coupe d’Or and we both had a nice little meal of rotisserie chicken and fries, for a late dinner, I think the waiter was hitting on my wife. Which he should, she’s pretty sexy. We then went home.

I had my first glass of wine tonight, wow it was good and warmed me up. I must have been drunk because I tried to convince Jaime that we should run a sixty mile marathon. I think she talked me out of it.

Paris Day 3
I finally slept in. It must have been the walking or whatnot. I woke up at 3, but then went back to sleep until 8.

We ate breakfast and I was amazed at how hard it was to get coffee. They forgot the first time, then later, I had to ask a couple more times to get a refill. Perhaps my bed head kept them away.

Breakfast is very filling here. It must be the selection but after breakfast, I’m good until late dinner (8pm late).

Today Jaime looked like a hot French model. I think it was the addition of her hat. Le yumm!!! I’m such a lucky guy. We went to the Eiffel tower today and WOW, it’s impressive. We took some pictures then made out under it.

Our camera battery died so that kind of sucks. We took the rest of our pictures for the day on her tablet. (not in the current linked photo album)

We toured the museum of architecture which is just amazing, the level of detail is awesome. Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine (Link opens in a new window/tab)

After, we walked home and on the way we saw the flame of liberty which is a replica of the flame the statue of liberty has. It might be smaller because it was not impressive. It doesn’t even deserve a picture on my blog.

Once we made it back to the hotel, I think we were done for the night. We hit the hotel bar and even ate there. Their wine is good, I didn’t try to convince Jaime of more marathon running or other silliness I think. The bartender was nice and we struck up some conversation with him.

Paris Day 4
Well, I got up at 3 again. I was even the last to fall asleep last night. I did get to fall back asleep and we went to breakfast as usual but a little later then hit up the Pantheon and the tombs/crypts underneath, the bath-house and the little museum they had, the Eglise Sulpice, the Luxembourg gardens, the musee d’orsay and the famous coffee place called les deux magots.

Panthéon

The Panthéon wasn’t that wonderful to me, truly only because I don’t know enough about the history or the people who are buried there. It was pretty though. There was a giant clock of sorts on the ground in the center of the room and a metal ball suspended by a super long string. As the ball swung, it would swing over the right time. Magic? Mystery? No! Read about Foucault’s Pendulum… it’s science!!!

The Cluny Museum bath-house had pretty cool statues and truly made you think of the days when a bunch of dudes would get together, get naked and chat.

There is a story about the Lady and the Unicorn here, but it’s really a narwhal tooth.

The Gothic ceiling in the Abbot’s Chapel

The Luxembourg gardens were very beautiful, the toilets were out of order though and I had to go! But I can hold it forever.

We headed to Les Deux Magots, but on the way saw the Eglise (church) Sulpice was quite nice. Being a Sunday, we went to church and I lit a candle for my mom, I also told her about it on Facebook!! I’m a good boy!

We continued to Les Deux Magots (the two magog’s which are a type of monkey) for some cappuccino, some hot chocolate and a Napoleon.

The two coffees and the Napoleon were about 25€. Roughly $33.

I’m definitely glad that we fill up on breakfast at the hotel. At least I do. There was a few times we passed by a street vendor selling crepes and I had to turn them down. So I actually never had a crepe in Paris. I know, sort of strange.

Paris Day 5
We woke up sort of early and had breakfast, then after we got ready to go, went to the Arc de Triomphe which is amazing, huge, and has a lot of steps. To get there, we walked the famous Avenue des Champs Elysees.

The view from the top was pretty spectacular!

The crazy stairs all the way back down (we did climb up them and that was actually quite winding!)

The eternal flame that marks the tomb of the unknown soldier

We went to the the Eglise de Notre Dame. Pretty cool, I feel that the one in Montreal is prettier, but this is the original.

We went back to the Louvre again, I brought some sticky notes and wrote our names on it and put it under a bench. Haha, my name is at the Louvre!

These are pictures of one of Napoleon’s dining rooms. It seats 40-60 people

Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss

After this fun filled day, we actually hit up a McDonald’s.

The McCafe here in Paris would put any Starbucks to shame. They served awesome coffee and had macarons and other pastries.

Paris Day 6
Galleries Lafayette, which is like a huge overpriced mall, like the Fashion Square in Scottsdale.

We then went back to the Louvre and looked for some Royal Jewels and crowns and such but couldn’t find them, we basically got lost in the Louvre, that sucker is huge. We bought some little things at some shops near the Louvre. Later on we bought a bunch of souvenirs. We bought a lock the other day and we placed it at the bridge on the North of the Musee D’Orsay. If you are ever there, look for our lock!

This is Vendome, it’s Napoleon in his Ceasar’s robes.

What a French meal looks like. Potatoes au gratin with Steak and a side salad. Nearly every meal comes with a mayonnaise sauce…

We went back to the hotel, on the way, we stopped at the Monoprix, which is like a great, big, Walgreens. We should have stopped there our first day for sandwiches, fruit, and souvenirs. Seriously! So if you ever go, go hit up a Monoprix.

A vehicle came to pick us up to take us to the Moulin Rouge (french for Red Windmill) and ate dinner there. We met a couple right next to us who let us drink some of their Absinthe. Right out of their glasses. Strong stuff. The show was awesome! Sorry, no cameras = no pictures.

Paris, Bon Voyage
Early the next morning began our long journey home. I can’t believe that my wife got us this trip. She planned out everything in detail. I love my wife so much and can’t thank her enough for the experience of a lifetime.

Looking for more pictures?
We would appreciate comments on the pictures.