No More Cheese, Please
Paris has been a blast, but, alas, the end of our European trip draws near. Monday we will board a plane at 2:30 p.m. and arrive, after a 7-hour flight, at about 4 p.m. in New York.
Hello, jet lag.
Paah-wiiiiss
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I promise to fix as many of these typos as I can, but bear with me here.
So here I am in Paris, which definitely lives up to the hype as a beautiful, bohemian paradise. We are spending our days taking in all the sights and sounds of springtime in the City of Lights. I will not bore you with all the details, but we’ve seen the usual suspects — the Eiffel tower, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arc d’ Triumph, the Louvre, the cemetery with Jim Morrison, all the stuff from the brochures — as well as other cool stuff — like a tour of the city’s underground catacombs (miles and miles of skulls and bones from way way back; see the photo). I am very excited to go to a museum about graphic design and advertising, but I may have to drag the girlfriend.
We will be staying with Sarah’s friend Mary-Noelle over the weekend, and allow me to drool a little bit over just how fabulous her apartment is. It even has a wrap-around balcony that overlooks the the bustling neighborhood.
Anyway, so Paris is fun and vibrant and looks like a million bucks in the springtime, when the numerous gardens are brimming with colorful tulips and other flowers.
Other notes & observations from the past few days:
- Sarah sat slightly horrified as I yodeled through the car window as we drove through the Swiss countryside.
- Swiss chocolate can be delicious beyond your wildest dreams.
- We stayed overnight in a couple of towns in France on the way to Paris. In Chalons en Champagne, we had champagne — the real stuff, locally made and very tasty. In another town, we found an American Wild West-themed cafe where everyone gathered around to see what we strangers had to say. It was an interesting and very fun experiment in French-glish.
- We finally relinquished the rental car when we arrived in Paris. We had traveled 1,961 miles in all, covering nine countries in our whirlwind tour.
- At a dinner party last night, Mary-Noelle served a pasta dish that featured bacon and a raw egg yolk that you poured over the hot pasta and mixed up. I guess the theory is that the pasta cooks the egg on the spot. Not wanting to be rude, I reluctantly gave it a try, and you know what? It was good!
