Day 11: Thursday June 24th was our 10 year Anniversary. Devin and I woke up and traveled to the train station to catch the Eurostar Train that would take us to Paris. This train station was CRAZY! There was really no way to know where to go- you would just wonder around and hope you arrive at the correct counter. The train was cool. We paid a little bit extra for an upgraded cabin. The seats were comfortable, you were served free drinks (and these were ANYTHING you wanted), and a lovely lunch and dessert, a hot washcloth to clean your face prior to arriving in France, and just a lovely trip. The trip took a little over 2 hours and we traveled under the channel. It's not like Disneyland-you're not encased in see-thru glass--it's just a dark tunnel and after a few blinks you're out. The French countryside was really pretty. The train traveled over 200 miles an hour-so taking any pictures was not an option. When we arrived in Paris we had to wait in line for a taxi. This line was so long! It began inside the building and went back so far. Once you get outside you get excited thinking that soon you will be on your way; nope-not the case. You exit the door and realize the line loops back and forth and your wait time is close to 45 minutes if not longer. It was just like waiting in line at Disney World for a ride in the hot sun. It didn't help that a lot of the taxi drivers would refuse to take a person to their destination and there would be a heated argument between the cab driver, the tourist, and the attendant trying to get the cabs thru. This happened a lot! We just hoped we wouldn't be one of those the drivers refused. We finally got in a taxi and was on our way to the hotel. The driving in Paris is out of control! Cars are going in every direction, the lanes are tiny, motorcycles are weaving in and out, pedestrians and bicycles are in the road, and there are "round- abouts" everywhere. The round- abouts aren't actually round: they are more oval, half circle, square, moon shaped-basically any shape they felt like placing in the middle of the road. SCARY! Taking the metro system (subway/Train) wasn't an option for us, since they were actually on strike the days we were there. I guess we were lucky the Eurostar Train was still running.
Our hotel in Paris was by far the smallest. It was a Best Western and had a grand total of 25 rooms. The staircase you had to walk up was so small you had to walk sideways and they placed 2 rooms at the end of the hall-again, you had to enter the room sideways. The room itself was so small that we had to place our luggage on top of the table. I tried to take a picture, but to even get half the room I would have had to hang out the window. We decided to walk-map in hand-to find-you've guessed it, the Hard Rock Cafe. AAAAahhhhh!! The map was no help-the streets were all in french and the street signs were very confusing--we walked for over 2 hours and I finally told Devin that it was ridiculous to walk around for so long to find a stupid restaurant and get a stupid T-Shirt. So I sat on a bus bench while he continued on for a few more minutes. While I was sitting there a guy named Mopet began to hit on me. Since I was American he assumed I was from New York and wanted to get to know me. Too bad he only knew 5 words in English. He even tried to get an Australian to interpret. Poor, Poor Mopet---hopefully someday he will find himself a nice-single women from New York. Devin had no luck and we decided to actually see the sights of Paris. Unfortunately where we had been walking-all of the sights were in the other direction, miles away. We found a nice cafe and decided that we had to get me something to eat before I went crazy on some poor French person. The food was good and our waiter was great. Devin ordered a coke and asked for the biggest one they had. Holy Crap! He was brought out a coke in a pitcher that was bigger than his head. Oh- and it was $15.00. We continued our way to the Eiffel Tower. This was pretty-for a big steel structure. What really irritated me were all of the street people selling lead based Eiffel Tower souvenirs. They would gang up on you and follow you trying to get your 2 Euros. I was even harassed by 4 of them while coming out of the restroom. It was so annoying that we left the area just as fast as we had arrived. We continued walking along the river for hours. The city is very pretty at night-all of the lights-the Eiffel Tower at night is breathtaking-the older buildings, beautiful-but quite dirty. Paris really isn't the City of Lights- it's the City of Let's Pee in the Streets. We were constantly walking over pee puddles. Come on people! We finally arrived at the Louve around 12:30 am. This was an awesome sight to see at night- the lights, the pyramid thing, just cool---until I looked over at the shrubs on the side of the Louve and realized what was going on. I will not be going in detail about what takes place in the shrubs at the Louve in the darkness of night- but I will say that a certain Idaho Senator who is innocent until proven guilty about a certain airport restroom incident, would LOVE the shrub activity. EEEEKKKKK!!!!
We continued to walk and realized we were MILES away from our hotel. It was now past 1:30am and there was no possible way I could walk all the way back to the hotel. I actually began to cry because I was so tired and exhausted. We made it back to the Eiffel Tower (which they turn the lights out after 1:00am) to wait in a taxi line for 20 minutes. I would have waited forever and paid whatever to get a ride back to the hotel. Around 2:30am we finally made it back to our room. Hallelujah!
Day 12: We woke up the next morning, left our luggage behind the front desk, and made our journey to some more Paris sights. It was so hot and my feet were on fire! I even considered asking one of the many men we spotted relieving themselves on the sidewalk or wall, to pee on my feet. Gross, I know-but holy cow they hurt!. We had to stop to eat so we chose the closest place to us---McDonalds. Hmmmmm--interesting place-it's not your American McDonalds across the street. We made it to Notre Dame (FINALLY) and took photos. While Devin waited in line to go thru it- I sat on a bench with an umbrella and tried to schedule our taxi pick up for the way back. I was reviewing the Paris map we had and realized the night before we had walked well over 20 miles. No wonder my feet were on fire and I wanted to cry. When Devin came out we had 1 hour before our taxi would pick us up and we had 4 miles to walk---not going to happen; so we hailed a cab. Best decision. While waiting at our hotel I picked up a brochure they had at the front desk and there it was, and advertisement for the Hard Rock. Oops---we were looking on the wrong street and the wrong side of town this entire time. What idiots! The cab ride back to the train station was so scary. It took us forever, and the longer it was taking-the pissier our driver was becoming. He would just lay on the horn at traffic but the traffic had no place to go. I really think he thought about running some people over. SCARY! We go under this tunnel-in a hurried fashion dodging cars and motorcycles and he begins to tell us-look, that is where Princess Diana died. You think? I'm surprised more people don't crash into the cement walls. The train ride was nice and the food was really good-it was nice to have 2 hours of comfortable space to rest our feet. I'm very happy we decided to spend a short amount of time in Paris. I didn't enjoy the city- it was dirty, gross, and I think one visit in my lifetime is enough. Don't get me wrong-there are a lot of people out there that love Paris and would go back again and again; I WILL NOT be one of them.
Since Days 11 and 12 are so long-I'll be finishing Day 12 in a day or two. I'll give you all time to breathe and take in my long-winded account of Paris.
