Auvoir Paris!

Our last night in Paris tonight. Since our last post we have

-battled through huge crowds at the last stage of the tour de France
-battled through huge crowds at Notre Dame
-battled through HUGE crowds at Versailles (see picture) and the Louvre
-battled...you get the picture...le grand masses!!!

Most of it was worth it. Notre Dame is amazing and very spiritual, except for the chapels where they were storing boxes and coat racks. Enough said. The Louvre was completely overwhelming but also amazing. Along with half the population of Asia, we hit the biggies--the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Starbucks (not kidding!!!), and then browsed some ancient sculpture exhibits as well as Renaissance paintings.

Versailles. Sigh. As the Ohioan we had lunch with said, "that's why they had a revolution.". Over the top decadence and self glorification (for King Louis XIV, not the Ohioan, he was quite nice). Versailles is incredibly beautiful but we couldn't help but see it as a grim symbol of the state of French society at that time (and not because of the lack of toilettes in the palace at the time!). And of course, heads rolled eventually, and many French treasures were nearly destroyed in the process.

Speaking of French treasures, the lavaries (laundromats) are great--central controls with credit cards accepted...and one load costs about $7, twice as much as a fine bottle of wine from the grocery store.

Tomorrow we hop on a train and head to Val d'isere in the Alps, where we will start our walking tour of the vanoise national park and nearby towns. We have enjoyed Paris and there are many places we didn't get to visit but its time for some fun in the mountains. More coming...

Well, we made it to France. The flights and time change required us to stay awake about 32 hours straight (with a few short naps on the plane). But in that 32 hours we saw the museum of Auguste Rodin's sculptures(pictured below with the Eiffel tower in the background) which was fantastic. We also saw a museum of impressionist and post-impressionist art. Then we spent way too much for dinner.

Today we toured the Latin Quarter of the city, including streets that have been in existence since Roman times. We saw two old churches, one that was built in the 13th century and was unfortunately made infamous by Dan Brown in his book The Da Vinci Code (which Mark confesses that he read). Two things have impressed us. One, just about everything is very old and stunningly beautiful. Two, there are a lot of tourists in Paris.

We have been surprised at how pleasant most Parisians are. They tolerate our butchering of French and are quite willingly speak English when they are able.

And the prices! 12 euro (or about $15) for two coffees! 25 euro for "breakfast" (coffee with some bread)!! Tonight we bought cheese and sausage from a vendor in the Latin quarter, bread and wine from a supermarket and ate dinner in our hotel room. We'll venture out again tomorrow night. More to come.

France

Stay tuned...


Stay tuned...