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Paris Day 1

Written by Scott Barnes on July 2, 2010.

First of all, let me just say one thing:

I LOVE THIS PLACE

Everyone I’ve encountered (so far) has been extremely nice. Who said the French don’t like Americans? Everyone speaks English, and if you ask nicely, they are happy to help.

I see lots of brown people. Love it!

Excluding the language barrier, Paris feels and looks just like NYC. Big city, huge melting pot, busting at the seems with people and cars, plenty of places to shop and eat, and lots of things to see and do.

My hotel is walking distance from the Eiffel Tower. Ack!  I can see the top of it from where I’m sitting right now.

I love our hotel room. It’s very sleek and modern. But good lawd, it’s small!

@coolac warned me that they would have plenty of towels but no wash cloths and she was right. LOL! Thanks to her, I brought my own.

But I can’t complain. There’s free WiFi and free breakfast buffet. Woot!  And the hotel staff is awesome; the concierge is worth his weight in gold.

We walked through a quaint little neighborhood. I loved it!

BG said she could see herself living here. LOL

Loved the cobblestone roads too.

We found a vending machine and the snacks were in french. We thought this was so amusing – typical tourists. LOL

We also rode the metro and didn’t get lost. Go us!

Today we did an upper deck bus tour of the city, ate lunch and toured levels 1 and 2 of the Eiffel Tower, and cruised on the River Seine.

Images from the bus tour:

My 1st in person view of the Eiffel Tower. It’s really real! LOL

Here’s my 1st meal in Paris. It was ok.

I’m allergic to nuts that were in the sauce so they gave me steak instead of the standard chicken on the menu. Woot!

BG drank wine for the first time today. Lawd, you shoulda seen her face! HA HA

View of the Eiffel Tower from the boat:

Other images from the boat:

Other observations about Paris:

  • Traffic is CUH-RAY-ZEE! It took us nearly an hour to get from the airport to our hotel. Not because it was far – bumper to bumper traffic all the way!
  • I wonder if there are any rules to the roads. I haven’t seen any speed limit signs.  I haven’t seen any lines in the roads either.  The drivers just drive where ever and the pedestrians just walk across the street whenever. Seems like an accident waiting to happen but I guess it works for them.
  • Almost everyone rides a moped – even the chicks wearing skirts and dresses. So cool.
  • Parisians are serious about the World Cup. The game is displayed on a jumbo-tron in the park. People are decked out in their t-shirts and flags repping their country. I felt the pride.
  • Too many people smoke. Ugh!
  • Hustlers are everywhere trying to peddle their rinky dink trinkets to tourists.
  • It’s hot as hades! But then it will rain randomly and stop just as randomly. Weird.
  • I exchanged 500 US dollars and walked away with 380 Euros. Boo!
  • Everything is expensive!

Ok, that’s all I’ve got for today.  I’m functioning on less than 2 hours sleep in the past 28 hours.  Our flight arrived at 6am Paris time, we came to the hotel, freshened up, then hit the ground running.  It is now after 7pm Paris time and we’re exhausted. BG is asleep…I think.  But I need to stay awake, at least until 9pm, so my body can adjust.  I’m watching Life in the Fab Lane – the french version of course. I think I can understand what they’re saying. Ha! Yea right! LOL

Until next time…

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