Wednesday, April 16, 2008

... Paris, Part 2

Here I am about 2/3 of the way up the Eiffel Tower. Hans bought tickets for us to get to the top, but once the elevators dumped us at this level, the line to get to the top was awful. Only a small amount of people at a time can go up and the line was huge and serpentined in a horrible, claustrophbic way so we stopped here, otherwise it would have been a long wait.







Below is a foggy kind of view of the Eiffel tower taken from near the fabric district.








Here I am (if you can see me, and I don't know why I'm standing so pigeon-toed) at Versailles under a cupid. We took this picture because I told Hans that about 4 years ago Cupid had to beat the heck out of me with MANY arrows on the night of what I thought was going to be our second and last date. I have no idea what happened that evening but I went into that date expecting to tell him he was a nice guy but... and something just happened.

So I blame Cupid, and for once in my life I didn't make a really stupid mistake.



This above picture of me is hideous but we're still at Versailles and I just wanted to give you an idea of how huge it is. This is the lower end but unfortunately the fountains weren't yet working. Once again we just couldn't fathom standing in the enormous lines that were waiting to into the buildings themselves. There must have been 50 tour buses there. Maybe we should have just done it though, who knows if we'll ever go back.


This shop was just down the street from our hotel. Actually it's right where the body I almost stepped on was. I was excited to find fabric so close to our hotel but once I looked at it, even I could tell that the quality was extremely cheap. Oh well.






Hans outside of Notre Dame. We were fortunate enough to go in and find that a service was being performed. A priest was doing the whole incense waving thing and 2 people were singing and the acoustics were unbelievable.

Below is the entrance to Notre Dame.

Looks like someone lost his head.







Here we are eating yet once again. Hans had a difficult time with the menu and luckily he asked for some help or I never would have known that moule meant mussels. So I got a bucket of mussels saturated with roquefort cheese. I was a complete pig and just ate them straight from the shell. Hans ordered what had to be the toughest steak I've ever tried. He gave me a bite and I chewed it for hours! Too bad because the night before he ordered filet and the bite I had of it was fabulous!


We also watched cars whizzing around the Arche de Triumphe (ala Chevy Chase in National Lampoons European Vacation). There's nothing like watching cars and scooters shooting into the circle, merging, and then exiting. All of this happens in about 5 unmarked lanes and at what I think are unbelievable speeds. I have no idea how anyone knows how to get on or off that insane piece of pavement.
Actually Hans said he once walked across it. He's has done a lot of crazy things in his time, I'm not sure that I want the details.


Next... Good bye Paris, Hello Geneva.

2 comments:

Angelia said...

Pretty pics! It looks like you two have such a great time :)

laura said...

We do! Even when we're doing nothing we have fun.