One thing I found out about Paris, most hotels don’t offer free Wifi.  So, when we checked in on Sunday, I purchased three days of Wifi for 39 Euro.  Given the current exchange rate (thanks, Ben Bernanke – but that’s a completely different blog) that translates into roughly $58.  Yikes.  But, like I said, I bit the bullet and purchased it.

Tonight, Kathy and I enjoyed a beautiful (and tasty) dinner on the first level of the Eiffel Tower overlooking the Seine River.  Even I thought it was romantic and Kathy seemed to love it.  Afterward, we caught a cab (10 Euro with tip, that’s $15 but well worth it at midnight) back to the hotel – where I logged onto the computer to find out that my three days had expired.  Because a half a bottle of white and then a half of bottle of red will substantially chill a person, I calmly ponied up 7 more Euro (curse you Ben Bernanke) for ONE hour of internet.  Therefore, I type and compose quickly.

On a side note, a word about Parisians: in many settings they are rudest human beings on the planet.  I swear I was almost bulldozed ten times today by a bee lined Parisian looking for his next Marlboro fix at the cafe down the street.  And just dang if the dude didn’t give ME a dirty look for not getting out of his way.  There are few things that are worse to me (today) than being in a crowded space with a bunch of Parisians.  Ick.  I’m ready to get home.

Props out to Rachel Pate who corralled the gaggle today and will do so again tomorrow – and to aunt Debber and cuz Leah who are holding down the fort during the wee hours.  Thanks again gang!!

Today, we crawled out of bed early and made our way to the Louvre.  Once there (after the Metro ride – say it with me now: Just 5 bucks!) we made the quick course for the Mona Lisa.  One bad thing, every one of the other 19,328 visitors to the Louvre today made the same trek.  This resulted in a human stampede to rival an 80’s hair metal concert.  Not fun.  People from around the world pushing, like toddlers, to try to get 15 feet from the smiling lady.  Pushing there way in, to the point that Kathy, who had her arms raised for some reason, could not put them down without resting them on the head of some 5’ 1” tourist.  Again, ick.  But, I was able to glean these pictures of the most famous painting in the known universe:

While there, I looked to see if Dan Brown was around, researching his latest cheesy novel where he blames the Catholic church for the nasty plagues of the 20th century like silly putty and pet rocks.  But, I couldn’t find him.  However, along the way, we did come across the Code of Hammurabi, which the kids studied this year in school – so I offer this up to my little ninos:

I could write for hours about the artwork at the Louvre, but I can sum it up in just a few words for you:  the virgin Mary and Jesus (the baby version and the crucified version) and formerly important, now dead, kings, lords, and other folk who TRULY kept the masses under their thumbs.  Over and over again.  Whether in painting, sculpture or other work of art.  Here’s the trove of photos for your viewing pleasure.

** Alert:  the hotel internet is WIGGY tonight, so I will upload these photos at a later time **

Once the Louvre was tackled, we headed on the Metro ($5) over to BHV, which is sort of a Home Depot meets Macy’s and has a Dilliard’s love child (with a hardware section).  Looking for some stuff to carry back to the States.

We did not find what we were looking for, and it was getting right up about eating time, so we headed across the Seine to the Latin Quarter (on foot) to grab a bite to eat and do some final shopping.  Here’s a picture of me, my lady and the Seine.

Lunch consisted of a three course meal (a 10 euro menu, very affordable considering…).  Kathy started with the French Onion Soup, I had a salad.  Then we each had a ham and cheese crepe which was awesome, along with a fair quantity of Heineken.   All in all, a tasty lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After some more shopping, my feet were give out and I was tired and grumpy.  Kathy bore with me and we headed back to the hotel for a little rest before we headed out to dinner.  Our dinner reservation was at 9 p.m. (which is 3 p.m. for those of you in Georgia).  Before we could go up the tower, we had to purchase a lift ticket and check in for dinner.  The line was slow, as most French lines are – but one that really chapped Kathy’s chippy was this priest who literally walked to the front of the line – forced his way in – and paid for his tickets and reservation while the rest of us stood there.  Most likely, he offered the ticket seller a special place in heaven for the privilege of paying before all of the other patiently waiting customers.   Ten brownie points for the reference to what this might be called.  Here’s a picture of the holy one – who really earned some disdain from the folks behind him.  But that’s okay, right?  He’s only representing Jesus.

For dinner at the 58 restaurant, we had lots of wine and some champagne, some duck foie gras (please, somebody tell me what this is), some seared scallops, some roasted guinea hen, and a nice chocolate raspberry dessert.  At this point, I had consumed a little vin – so I wasn’t as diligent with the photos, but this is what you get:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, it was a lovely evening.   A great view (in more ways than one):

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a fabulous way to celebrate 20 years with my wife, Kathy.  How about that?  We made it 20 years!  There were some times it definitely looked like we wouldn’t.  But God has given each of us a resilience and willingness to do everything we can to honor Him through our marriage and our family – even when it isn’t easy (and Kathy will tell you, it ain’t easy being married to me!). 

I’ll be logging off now.  Tomorrow morning we fly to Munich, Germany to connect straight into the ATL.  Keep us in your thoughts and prayers – well, at least after you wake up!  Bon soir et au revoir de Paris.

A few things to start us out about Paris.  First, Parisians walk fast.  Really fast.  Especially on sidewalks.  This is great, compared to Americans who walk slowly and aimlessly, especially at home in the United States and especially when walking in front of me.  That being said, the Parisians also expect you to get out of their way.  So, the chances are good of getting some weird looks, when walking like an American in Paris.

Second thing, Parisian streets are made out of the hardest substance known on the planet.  Personally, I      am of the opinion that in many, many decades, once man has made his exploration to the nearest reaches of the universe we will discover a substance a million times harder than the hardest substance known today.  We will compare that, through various scientific outlets, and determine much to our collective surprise that the Parisian streets are made out of a harder substance.   All of that to say, that my freaking feet are killing me.  We walked at least five miles today, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was more – and my feet are, well, in pain.  Blisters, once formed, are not improved by merely wearing tennis shoes.  That’s a tidbit for all of you to pop in your hip pocket.

So, once we finally got our jet lagged booties out of the bed, we headed down to the Metro, bought a couple of tickets (for a combined $5 bucks, score one for the budget) and headed over to the Eiffel Tower.  Just outside the Metro station by the Tower we decided to have lunch.  An Italian restaurant – where the food was good – and the prices were out of this world.  Literally, $105 for lunch.  No seriously.  I had a calzone and a beer, Kathy had eggplant parmesian and bottled water.  BAM!  $105.  Like I said…. the food was good.  Here’s some photos for you:

The kid behind the bottled water was there with his parents – from the sound of it (via my eavesdropping) they were Irish.

 

Then, we took a leisurely half mile stroll over to the Eiffel Tower, which, I must say, is far more impressive than pictures or movies present.  It is massive.  We scrambled up some photos and considered riding a lift up to a higher level, but the TOP level was closed – and we knew that we are planning a anniversary dinner in the Eiffel Tower on Wednesday night, so we decided to save 20 euros and just stick with the photos.  Here are some of the highlights:

 

 

 

 

 

We had originally planned on visiting the Louvre on Monday, but since we got a late start, we decided instead to try out the Hotel des Invalides (translated: a big, massive, beautiful church and compound that had houses Napoleon’s tomb).  It was probably about a mile or a mile and half walk.  It seemed like we were walking across Nepal.  But when we got there, it did not disappoint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the actual tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte, taken from two different levels of the dome church.

 

Here are some photos of the interior of the dome church, they really do not come anywhere close to doing the architecture justice.  It was just beautiful.    

The pic to the right is a granite design in the floor of the lower level of the church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photo to the left is in homage to Napoleon the “King of Rome” from 1811 to 1831.

 

 

The photo to the right is a crucifix.

 

We continued to tour the grounds of Invalides for the next hour and a half where we took quite a few photos, ran into some typical school children, and continued to endure foot pain brought on by the hardest surfaces on the planet.  Here are some of the photos:

 

After Invalides, we limped to a Metro station (again, $5 bucks for tix to the hotel.  “Winning”.) and headed back to the hotel, where we crashed (read: slept.  deep sleep.  the kind where you don’t move.) for three hours.  We capped off the night with dinner at a Moroccan restaurant just around the corner from the hotel.  It was awesome!  Cue the food pictures:

  

Couscous to the left, with some sort of broth, a couple of kinds of beans… omg…. tasty.

 

 

Who doesn’t like a good Bordeaux, right?  I think I drank 2/3 of the bottle.  Nice.

 

Kathy’s dinner, which we hope had very little gluten to the right.

 

 

Kathy  wanted me to point out with a photograph, that she didn’t clean her plate:

And finally, we capped it off with Creme Brew Lay (I don’t know how to spell it, but I know you get it):

At home today, the children are making the transition from the Richards’ palace of kid fun – back to the real world of our home and aunt Joy.  Thanks, aunt Joy!! 

All in all, a great day in Paris.  Now, we sleep.  Tomorrow, we are thinking out of the box.  Bon Soir.

I was prepared for the 10 hours of plane flight, but Kathy was not.  In case you missed it, it was a surprise.  She found out when we checked our bags in in Atlanta.  The ensuing celebration among Kathy and the two women working the check-in counter resulted in five drink coupons for the flight.  Very nice, indeed.

The flight to Cincinnati sucked.  The plane was an Airbus (read: European) A319.  We sat near the back and it smelled like pee.  Literally, smelled like pee.  And I swear the plane fish-tailed the whole way to Cincinnati.  Yuck.

The flight to Paris was much, much better.  A massive, wide-body Boeing (read: American) 767.  We actually had a small amount to stretch out.  In flight entertainment was decent with The Dilemma (Vince Vaughan) and How Do You Know (Reese Witherspoon).  Bad husband John couldn’t figure out how to get the gluten free meal on the plane, so Kathy braved it and only suffered a small stomach ache.  She slept, I did not.  Smooth, smooth flight.  Hard landing and voila!  We are in Paris.

We caught a cab (another moment of poor planning on my part) which cost us nearly $90 to get to the hotel.  Here’s some photos of the ride from the airport to the hotel.   If I look sleepy, it’s cause I am.  By the way, that’s me next to the smokin’ hot lady, in case you didn’t know. 

 

 

 

 

When we got to the hotel it was 8 in the morning (which is, like, 2 in the morning in Atlanta).  So… our room wasn’t ready.  So, we went to a small cafe and had some over priced coffee and an omelet.  Very tasty, very expensive (if I didn’t complain about how expensive it was, you would think something was wrong with me, right?).

After a brief breakfast, we went for a walk up the streets.  The footwear was not appropriate, and eventually we got some blisters.  But, we did get to hang at the Arc De Triomphe for awhile.  Ten brownie points for whoever can give me a brief history of the Arc De Triomphe in a comment post to this blog.

Photos of the Arc and us at the Arc:

 

After the trip to the Arc our feet were blistered from walking in sandals, so we headed to the hotel lobby where Kathy crashed and slept for a couple of hours and I finished watching Little Fockers which I had rented for the trip.  On the way back we passed a bakery (OMg, the smell was awesome) and I was instructed by Kathy to take this photo. 

We checked in the hotel at noon local time and I proceeded to sleep until 7 tonight.After waking, the concierge pointed us to a French restaurant about a block away.  It was fabulous.  We have taken photos of all the food, because we know that some of you are interested in the cuisine.

 

 

 

Kathy had some kind of Salmon and Rice – while I had Seared Scallops with Provencal Risotto. 

Did you know that you can just rent a bike on the side of the road here in Paris??

After dinner, we walked up to see the Arc at night time – and headed back to the room to crash. 

All in all, a great first day!  Tomorrow on the agenda is the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.  More pictures then.

Tell the kids we said hi and that we love them – and thanks so much Lesli for keeping them the last couple of days.  We love you and your family too – and are very thankful to them.