| Jun 25, 2006 - Paris
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 | | show all 9 | | View of Eiffel Tower from Trocadero | | Eiffel Tower from Champ de Mars | | Sacre Cour Church | | |
| Bonjour from Paris!
I have been spending my first few days in Paris walking around the city, trying to get over jetlag and sitting in cafes, sipping café au laits and munching on pastries. I am staying in the Rue Cler neighborhood, a great area filled with restaurants, bakeries and little shops. It's fairly close to the Eiffel Tower, so I have been walking up the Champ de Mars, watching Parisians picnicking on the grass and hordes of tourists taking pictures. The weather was beautiful my first few days, so I walked all over the city. Last night I was woken up by thunder and lightening, and it's been raining non-stop ever since. So, I am spending a quiet day in my hotel, reading and preparing for the tour, which starts tonight. We meet in the lobby of our hotel at 5:00 pm for an introduction, then take a stroll through our neighborhood and have dinner, ending with a river cruise on the Seine. Hopefully it will stop in time for the cruise. I'am a little nervous about the tour, having no idea what to expect, but I had dinner with Paul, the lead guide last night and he helped set me at ease. I think it will be a fun time.
June 26
Today was the first real day of the tour and it was a pretty busy day. Last night we met the tour members and after introductions and a brief walk through the neighborhood, we went to dinner together and then a boat cruise on the Seine. There are 26 members, or "TM's" as we call them, and it's seems to be a pretty good group of people. More than half are from the Seattle area, a pretty good mix of ages, with 4 families with 5 teenage girls all around the same age. We spent the day touring the main sites in Paris, Sainte-Chapell, Notre Dame, the Latin Quarter and the Louvre. It was a lot for one day and the TM's were feeling pretty worn out by the end of it, I know I was. Everything went pretty smoothly, the most stressful part being when we all took the metro from our hotel to Notre Dame during the morning rush hour. Trying to get 28 people on packed subway cars, but we didn't lose anyone. They have the evening free to do what they want and Paul and myself met another one of our guides who is also in Paris for dinner. We made it an early night, as tomorrow is another busy day. |
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