Last Day in Paris!

Day five, the last full day in the "City of Lights." Our day began with the usual delicious and nutritious breakfast before heading out to the Eiffel Tower, hoping to beat the crowds. We did. We were able to reach the top of the tower within 30 minutes of arrival. We were completely amazed by the view... almost every monument was visible and stood out over the city.
To be that high up was a little nerve-wracking but well worth the trip up. On our way back down, we stopped on the first level to buy postcards for our families. The experience of being on a world-famous structure, was enough to keep us there for lunch. We had our lunch on the tables with a private view of Montparnasse, the tallest building in Paris. After buying a few trinkets, we descended the tower and made our way to the river Seine to take the batobus to Musee d'Orsay. The Musee d'Orsay was stunning, considering that it is a converted train station which now holds an impressive collection of artwork, is quite an achievement. I believe I have
found a new favorite Parisian museum (sorry Louvre). After our light snack of apples and Orangina on the rooftop terrace overlooking the Seine, and the city, we headed over to Notre Dame Cathedral. The Cathedral cannot be missed, and we are lucky to have been able
to walk within its stone walls and stained glass windows. The gargoyles that protect the cathedral are unbelievable, it's no wonder Victor Hugo chose the Notre Dame to house his Hunchback. We decided to be adventurous and climb one of the towers of the cathedral, but lucky for us, and our throbbing feet, it was closed. After being turned away from the tower, we went on a hunt for Pox's jersey,as a souvenir, the prices were steep, and Pox decided to pass. We went for the paintings instead. We bought 3 and got a deal (they will look great in our future home one day...). We decided to stop at Cafe du Notre Dame for sorbet floats that no
longer exist and bought ice cream so that I could use the bathroom. Turns out, you don't get a token untill you pay. That's if your garcon wants to give you one, and only after you get yelled at by one of the kitchen workers of the Cafe. Let me tell you, it felt good not leaving a tip! Too bad we can't go back because the ice-cream was gooooood. After our VIP service, we headed
to the Arc du Triomphe and on our way there, walked along the Champs Elysses. We window shopped and Pox tried to find a bargain but he is currently not looking to buy white linen capris-which apparently, are all the rage in men's fashion in Europe. Now we are
sitting at the apartment with no internet, waiting for our first load of laundry to dry at 11:41pm. I guess we will have to wait to post these entries until we arrive in Cannes. We just hope that the internet is working in our Florence Apartment...

Day 4 in Paris!

Day four of our Parisian adventure involved a lot of walking,...again. We went to the Louvre museum in the morning on the metro, which we are now experts at navigating. We saw an unbelievable collection of art from all movements and from all over the world. We saw some of the dumbest gawkers there too. People did not want to move. Pox had to kick a little kid in the face to get a photograph of the Mona Lisa. Ok, he didn't really kick him, but he did shove him a little. It was crowded around her, she is very well protected with glass and a railing around her. The Nike, THe Venus de Milo, The Gladiator, Cupid and Psyche, and the Madonna of the Rocks were always swamped, but worth the wait. Pox took on a mission to capture all of the Mercury statues. There were quite a few. Annoyingly, everytime he went to take a shot, a crowd would follow and do the same. After walking the museum for four-and-a-half hours, we began to look for the exit to take a lunch break. That took about 45 minutes. We were huuuungrey! We finally exited after walking through several pavillions and getting to see more works on the way. We ate our baguette sandwiches on the fountains in the center of the Louvre pyramid. We say "on" the fountain, because we both, along with at least another 300 people sat on the fountain with our legs soaking in the the water. It was funny when Pox fell in and got his butt wet,... like Cindy did in London. After eating, we headead back into the Louvre for a second round, we still didn't finish seeing everything. I guess next time that we're in Paris we'll see the rest. Soon after, we headed to the Eiffel tower. Once we got there, the line was up to you know where. So we decided to hang out on the lawn of Champ du Mars. We got hungry again. We bought an egg and cheese baguette and some water and had our dinner al fresco accompanied by tourists, Parisians, and gypsies. After porking out on the one baguette that we shared, we took off to catch our Bateaux Parisien river tour. We got there just in time. We got our seats and then decided to sit outside to prevent glare on our photos. As soon as we sat outside, it started to rain. We ran back inside. Pox was amazed at how many languages our tour guide spoke. She was multilingual to say the least. On our way back on the tour, the tower began to twinkle. We got off the boat and sat for about an hour and waited to see it twinkle again. We got lost again, looking for the metro, and didn't get home until 1:30 am. Lucky for us, the metro stopped running for the night as soon as we reached our station.

Day 3 in Paris!

Our third in Paris was great. We took the hop-on hop-off bus to the Opera Garnier and admired the great architecture and the elegance of it. On our way there we saw the Madeline church and some prominent Parisian theatres. Soon after, we got back on the bus and took the Grand Tour. We were able to see the majority of the monuments and places that Paris is famous for, such as; the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, Musee D'Orsay, La Conciegerie, Notre Dame Cathedral to name a few. Oh yeah, and little, insignificant tower created by the same man that created the Statue of Liberty, his name was Eiffel, if we're not mistaken. After the tour, we visited Place d'Invalides. Before going inside, we had a picnic on the lawn in front of a fountain. Cindy invited a pigeon to eat with us, which in turn brought along two of its buddies.This great museum holds the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte, and was it huge. Correction, his tomb is actually made of several layers of different materials like marble andlead. It is truly a sight to see. After leaving the museum, we ate ice cream as we waited for our bus to return to the apartment. We organized our blog in hopes that our internet connection was working, but it wasn't, which is why this entry and the following are so late. After we freshened up, Cindy decided to surprise me by taking me to the Marais district. However, for the first time on the trip, we got lost. It turned out to be fun and interesting anyhow. We were looking for Place des Vosges, which holds the apartment were the artist Victor Hugo lived. We found it,... when it was closed. It is said to be one of the most beautiful squares in Paris. After all the walking around, we worked up an appetite. It was about 11:30 pm. We walked to Canal St Martin hoping to find something that was bumpin'. We ended up eating nutella,banana and chantilly crepes at Cafe Le Bistro, right across the street from our apartment. It was delicious and fun. We fell asleep with the excitement of knowing that we would be going to the largest museum in the world the next day.

Day 2 in Paris!

Our second day in Paris was a very eventful one. Cindy, did not sleep one bit because the rain at night kept her up. Yes, the rain. The days here have been beautiful, but surprinsgly, it's rained every night, which is a good way of cooling off the city. We started the day out by eating a beautifully prepared breakfast, courtesy of Pox. Cereal with bananas, hot coffee, and nutella and banana sandwiches garnished with a launges du chat, cookies shapes like cat tounges. We left our apartment soon after and went on our way to Versailles. A few things went wrong. First, We went to buy the tickets for the tour bus to Versailles. We took the metro, got off at the right stop and found the tour office right away. However, we soon found out that the Versailles tour no longer runs. So, we decided to take the metro instead. On our way, Cindy realized that she failed to bring our museum passes anyway. I forgot to ask her if she had them, but since she's been really good at not forgetting what to bring, I assumed that I had nothing to worry about. Off we went back to the apartment to get the passes. Quickly, we went down to the metro station and took the line to coonect us with the "RER" train that takes you to Versailles. Unfortunately, the "RER" train was not available from that stop because of repair on the track. We were bussed to another station, but by that time, it was already 12 o'clock and we didn't know if there would be enough time to see Versailles and come back to do the rest of the activities we had planned. We went anyway, and was it worth it. The display of opulent French royal money and power was worth the eventful morning. We saw artwork, sculpture and furniture from a time long-gone, full of elegance from that period. Some may see these almost gaudy works and become easily uniterested, but if you take the time to take everything in, it's almost like time travel. Outside, we had the opportunity to eat our lunch on a lawn along with others from around the world, listening to music from a past epoch. We saw small rowboats in the man made lake, and were about 2 euros short of renting one. After at least 4 hours, we left the Chateau Versailles, and walked all the way around the entire grounds and finally got to the station. We were sweating like prostitutes in church. Once in Paris, we showered and freshened up, or as Ben would say,"talced it up" and were on our way to the Sacre Couer in the Montmartre area.



The basillica steps were covered by a hip Parisian crowd singing along to music blasting. Jugglers were entertaining others and pushy street merchants were everywhere trying to pawn off their wares. One even tried to persuade Cindy by addressing her as "Big Momma", as he tried to sell her something.Once at the top, the view of Paris and the basillica are priceless. We also had a great dinner at a highly recommended piano bar, La Petuadierie. The minestrone soup was amazing. The glace at the end was delicious. The vanilla ice cream, according to Cindy, tastes like cate batter. We headed back to the apartment at midnight, just as it started to rain. When we got back to the apartment, we conked out. What a day!

I See France!

We arrived in Paris on time after a short but turbulent flight full of French teenagers who had a problem keeping quiet. ( fermé la bouche!) We discovered that the Parisians aren't rude,but they do move at a fast pace when it comes to catching the metro, if you don't move out of the way, you might get hurt. We had no problem traveling all the way from the airport to the 10th arrondisment, a half an hour ride on the metro. What proved itself to be very difficult was finding our apartment on the busy, Boulevard de Magenta. After realizing that we both looked like typical, American tourists, gawking around, avoiding getting hit by cyclists (apparently the bycicles painted on the ground indicate that the lane is for bicycles ONLY)Finally, I had to take over, Cynthia, was of no use, she just stood there complaining, and looked around. I had to do what I had to do. I asked Cynthia to ask someone for directions. It turned out that in Paris, there are two sets of numbers, one set is labeled "BIS" for businessesand another set for residences. We were standing right in front of the door to our beautiful apartment.Once inside, Phillipe, the owner, who kind of resembles one of the members of ZZ Top, is a very nice French man. He brought in our baggage, gave us a tour, he even bought us a very nice and generous welcome gift;a French book on natural disasters, and a bottle of red wine. ( maybe these go hand in hand) The only drawback is that the internet is down and will not be up for at least three days... and thus the hunt for an internet cafe will begin. After unpacking, we went dowstairs and bought our groceries for the week and spent only 40 euro. Cynthia prepared a yummy dinner, that we ate at our dinner table with a view of the typically-Parisian architerure just across the way from us. So, to conclude,please, be patient and keep checking the blog for entries and pictures.

I See London!

First of all, let us apologize for not posting on the blog. We experienced some complications with the internet at our London Hotel.Internet problems aside, London was amazing, we saw so much in very little time. We took the tube to our hotel, all by ourselves, and we did not get lost, or ask for any help! The 16 hour flight was a bit much but the food and service made up for it. After checking in to our hotel, we went to Cafe Meze,where, brace yourselves, we actually ate FISH and chips. It was so delicious! It was Pablo's first time eating fish too, I'm so glad he enjoyed it. With our Hop on-Hop Off tour, we were able to see Tower Bridge, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and The London Eye, among other attractions. If walking ourselves to the point of dilerium, and uncontrolable thirst, wasn't enough, I had to do it all with a wet butt. I accidentally sat on a wet seat on the double-decker: Eventually; it dried off; but I did have to cover it with Pablo's camera bag for quite some time. After a very long day, we headed back to our room and ordered up a margherita pizza and 2 cokes and We tried to get enough rest for our morning flight to Paris.

1 Day to Go!!

Well, it's the last night before the trip. We can't believe that a whole year and a half of planning and saving has presented us with an amazing trip--a trip of a lifetime! While we will most definately miss our family and friends (and pets), we know that our loved ones are happy that we will have this opportunity. We have tried to spend as much time taking in the last moments at home (including a very crazy slumber party with my nieces Maddie, Zoe, and nephew Ryan) before we head off for a whole month and a half... we look forward to seeing you all and sharing every bit of our adventure when we return on August 31st.

2 Days To Go!

We are super excited! This weekend, our families got together to send us off to discover Europe. Everyone had a great time. We're a little stressed. Ultimately, it doesn't matter how prepared and tedious we have been about planning and organizing, there's just never enough time. We can't wait.

10 Days To Go!

Time is really flying by! Hopefully, when we're actually on vacation, time will slow down for us at least a little bit. We are practically ready to go. Just a few ticket reservations here and there and currency exchange, and we're on our way. Surprisingly, Cindy has narrowed down her wardrobe so much, that I had to ask, " Is that all you're taking?". I am very proud of her. After days and days of going from store to store looking for the perfect pair of this, or the right shirt for that, she is finally done shopping. (Keeping my fingers crossed!) We're both hoping to be packed by the weekend, that way, we can enjoy our weekend and relax before our ten hour flight to merry old England. This week, we are going to try to condition our bodies to all of the walking that we'll be doing, as opposed to just talking about walking, like we've been doing for months. If we're lucky, we'll have some good walking weather, we have had crazy L.A weather all week.

17 Days To Go!

We cannot believe that we will be heading overseas in just 17 days! What seemed to be an eternity is just two and a half weeks from now! We won't have to wait much longer. We have described our place in Paris and some of the other places we will be staying at, yet, we have not shared anything about our place in Florence, Italy (which we will be at the longest--the whole entire month of August to be exact). It is a one bedroom loft with a kitchenette and private bathroom. It has air conditioning (yes!), washer/dryer, computer with internet access, and a view of the Santa Maria Novella Campanille (bell tower)! We can't wait to see it and we hope that we don't have to go up too many stairs to get there! If we do, it will be a great way to work off all of the pizza and gelato!