Things are already beginning to blur, what we did what day. This blogging thing is a bit of a chore, but I want to do it and I know that there are a couple of people out there that appreciate it…
So we saw the arc. Actually we see the arc all of the time because we are staying right down the road from it. It is 200 feet tall, but we still lose track of it. There are tall buildings with narrow streets, so you can’t see far. There are also tiny, tiny, tiny cars everywhere. As Marlo haphazardly crosses streets she is not even scared of them. It seems as if they would jus fall over and give up if they hit you :>
So, we walked our butts all the way over to the Eiffel Tower. It is a lot bigger up close, but then again, what isn’t … we climbed the steps to the second floor and walked around. The view was great. Then we walked the steps to the third floor… someone wanted to take the lift (that’s the elevator for you yanks…), but we took the stairs… then we had to take the elevator to the third floor. It was windy and cold… we walked around, took pictures and enjoyed the view. Tag, Eiffel Tower, done! We cabbed it back to the hotel and napped for a bit… ok, several hours and then we went to the Latin quarter… oh, but wait, we were talking to a couple of girls from Boston college, sophomores… ok, what college sophomore can afford to go to Paris for spring break???? Anyway we were talking to them at every turn ov the line… you know one of those serpentine lines that wraps in on itself to the destination… anyway behind them were some other people. There were two women and two girls. Mom’s and their daughters… one of the mothers looks at us and tells us that they have college students too… ok, ok, we will talk to you too….???? After a bit it made sense. She thought that the first girls were our daughters, so she was looking to make friends for their kids… it was funny the way she said it though… hey we have college kids too, talk to us :> we did talk to them. I think they were going to school in Indiana. They told us how they went dancing in the Latin quarter until four in the morning and slept until two… that sounded good to us… so after the tower, Marlo wanted to go for a boat ride on the Seine. So we did. It was pretty good.
Now, little did we know, the bus tour that we booked actually included the Eiffel tower AND the boat tour, ooops, no biggy.
We went into a restaurant and they had a menu in English. Many places were closed and it was only midnight… we found a decent place and were intimidated by the pushy waiter… I ordered some snails and Marlo ordered the cheese plate, aren’t we such the Parisians :> the snails were good, they were in garlic and oil. Now what can be really bad soaking in garlic and oil… the bread was had and crusty. I asked for some fresh bread. Fortunately they understood enough English. Now it was 12:05 am. Marlo had been abstaining mostly for the last month or so. The month was up at 12:00 at 12:04 she had a glass of wine. She said that it was really good!… I waited until noon the next day, actually the same day to break my fast…
I think that was all we did that day… but like I said it is all starting to blur…
Monday…
I actually wrote down the plan for what we were going to do. it was getting confusing… I called it te clipboard of fun. Please comment of that sounds familiar :>
So Monday was bus tour day. We walked down to the bus office and got our tickets. It was 1:00 and the next tour was at 3:00. We waited. It just so happened (and it just so happened happens a lot to us) that the restaurant with the awesome hot chocolate was right down the way from the bus place. So we decided to have lunch there. Angelina, world famous for their hot chocolate and their desserts. We had both. We also had a lovely glass of champagne… that was also good. I had an omelets and Marlo had a club sandwich. They were both very good.
While we were standing in line, we struck up a conversation with the six foot woman behind us. It turns out that she is a fashion editor for Elle magazine and she is here for fashion week. Hello! Not only are we in Paris for fashion week, we and chatting it up with the editor from Elle… how cool are we :>
We sit down and the waiter was very nice and spoke excellent English! He did wink at me all of the time though… actually lots of Paris men winked at me… I am hoping that it is JUST a friendly gesture… as we are ordering food I look across the restaurant and spot Andy McDowell. At first I did not know if it was her. We had just see “Four Weddings and a Funeral” so I could recognize her. Now movie stars in real life do not have the advantage of all the makeup and the lighting so they look a little different. I was pretty sure it was her, but not positive… I had a clear view of her and I kept looking. Finally I could hear her across the restaurant. Now how I could pick her voice out over the din of the rest of the people I am not sure, but I could. It was her… such fun :> I watched her for a while and then Marlo and I decided to take a video of her somewhat discreetly. We had to do this for Mr. Jeffery Roller. She is #1 on his LIST… so we did. Of course se mocked him.. here we are, there she is and what not :>
After a lovely lunch with awesome hot chocolate and really good dessert we took the bus tour. We saw all the sights and they dropped us at the Eiffel tower. We ditched them and went back towards the hotel. We took a bus… we have now taken a place, a bus, a taxi, the metro and a bus… it dropped us by the arch. We attempted to go back to the hotel. We wandered a bit. We are in no hurry. We went into shops and what not.
They we happened on the James Joyce Irish pub. I wanted to go there since we got here. We tossed back an pint and chatted it up with the French bartender (he looked Irish) and an Irish couple who were waiting for a bus to the airport. We had a lovely conversation and totally enjoyed speaking to people we could understand…
We want back to the hotel and napped…. And it was a good thing too…
We were going to go to a club called Queen, but they would not let us in:< either because of the way we were dressed or we did not fit they target demographic… ok, we were not young and hip and gay… so we were going to do to the Duplex… whatever that was. But first we stopped in the phamancy, bar, jewelry store… yea, a little odd… while there I had absinthe. The bartender poured it over sugar and lit it on fire. It was a VERY strong liquorish taste. It was better after adding a little ice water.
At this odd place we met Benginin. He was a 40 something guy hanging out at his bar. He made tv movies about musicians. We told him about our experience with the Queen club and offered to take us to a spot he knew. Millionaire.. actually I think it was more like Mille on Airre or something, but it did not matter, it was closed… so we took a cab to a place over by Notre Dame, it was a basement club with some woman singing at the piano on the top floor… it was a little scary, but we had Ben, our guide. He had some months ago had a large party here so they remembered him. He made excuses for us. Something about taking two Americans… there was a band and a long wooden table. The singers would dance on the table along with some of the more adventourous patrons. People would even goo up on stage and dance with the very good dancing girls. Yes, I did both! Marlo was keeping Ben amused. I think that his night took a turn for the better when he met us. We amused him. And bought him drinks :> We did not get home until after 4:00 :> Paris was done right!
Tonight is a burlesque show at the crazy horse. But first we go to Notre Dame and St. Marie. It is 3:00 something, I have to go rouse Marlo and bring here to church :>
Ha, I am caught up…