Day one, or is it two?

Flight was good, uncomfortable, but good. I watched edited versions of the Atonment (didn’t like) and The Great Debaters (good). Arrived in Paris exhausted, but excited to be there. I didn’t notice any huge cultural differences because many signs were still in English. We picked up our car. To Tyler’s disappointment we didn’t get a BMW or Audi, we got a Citroen C4, diesel minivan! Of course it’s smaller than an American minivan, but it is a relatively large vehicle for Paris.

We checked into our hotel, The Park Inn. It was clean and comfortable, although the décor was a bit odd. (Modern and traditional both). The exchange rate was .24 percent lower at the hotel than in the airport so we kind of got screwed there. We had scheduled a bike tour at 3 – so once we got into the hotel we got into the car and tried to go into the city. Luckily, we had GPS – a must for any foreign city. We were supposed to meet at the Charlemagne statue in front of Notre Dame. As we began driving the traffic was terrible. Our hotel was right by the airport, a good 45 minutes outside the city – little did we know it would take that long

As we drove we realized soon that we were not going anywhere. A large market between the streets was closing and there were trucks lining the street, cleaning up everything.

As we got closer we decided to park and just walk. So we found parking underground (as all paris parking is) and began to walk. The city center is the Seine, and by the time we got there we were 45 minutes late so we called and had to postpone the bike tour. Driving in Paris is insane and very scary. If you are not a confident driver then do not attempt it. It is like a marathon, where everyone is everywhere, running to a destination, with no lines or rules, except to stop at red lights and not hit any bikers, motorcycles or pedestrians.

I printed off several things to do before arriving in Paris, so we decided to go on a walking tour as a replacement for the missed biking. The tour was something I just printed off the Internet, and was relatively easy to find when I googled “how to do Paris in two days.” We went to the Pantheon – a memorial and burial place for many French people, including Victor Hugo (author of Les Miserables). It was beautiful.

Next we went to one of the oldest colleges – University of Paris, that started in the 12^th century. Along the streets and throughout the city there were a ton of young people. There are many colleges around, so seeing students drawing, studying or talking is not a surprise.

Practically next door are the Luxembourg Gardens. Huge, beautiful gardens where children play and people sit and hang out. All the spring flowers were blooming and everything is meticulously groomed. It was cold and drizzling rain but people were still out and about. Today the assembly (or some body of government) meets at the palace.

There were also the neatest antique book stores. Beautiful French books that were very old. We went from the Luxembourg Gardens to the grounds of the Louvre, and met up with Tyler’s co-workers. The Louvre is huge (you always hear that) but what I didn’t realize is that it was the King’s palace for hundreds of years. Each king added onto it and added onto it. Until Louis the XIV decided it was still too small and he had to build Versaille.

We continued to walk down to the Champs - Elysees and had dinner at an Italian place on a recommendation from Tyler’s boss, Marco. Dinner was good, large, but good.

We tried to take a boat tour but we were too late. We arrived back at our hotel around 12. I had only had an hour or so of sleep. It was weird.