bonsoir (good evening)

Well we are back from Paris and completed cashed out!!! We saw so much in two days! I'm not going to go into detail because that would just be way too long, but here is a list of all the places and neighborhoods we visited and walked through while in Paris.

Place de la Concorde
Jardin des Tuileries
Musee d'Orsay
Ile de la Cite
Cathedrale de Notre-Dame
St. Germain
Arc de Triomphe
Montmarte
Sacre Coeur
Moulin Rouge (didn't go in just took the picture of the windmill)
Tour Eiffel
Musee d' Art Moderne
Musee de Louvre
Musee de l'Orangerie
Champs Elysees
Bastille

So a large list huh? Everything leading up to the Louvre was all done yesterday! We totally exhausted ourselves and didn't get back to our hotel till 1:00 am and slept in this morning. My favorites...standing on top of the Arc de Triomphe and the 360 degree view of the city. Walking up the steep hills to Montmarte to come to the top and see Sacre Coeur and the cute little area there. Was worth the painful walk (which we did right after we just climbed all the stairs in the Arc). Seeing amazing artwork from the Mona Lisa to Monet at l'Orangerie.

And of course our evening last night was so much fun and so us! We asked the young guy at the front desk for suggestions of a place to eat and he seemed hesitent (maybe because he wasn't sure if we'd like his suggestion) but told us the his favorite place to go was the Musee d' Arte Moderne at a restaurant called Tokyo. It wasn't Japanese, just has that name. He said this is where they had a ton of fashion shows and edgy modern art. We decided to head there and at first weren't sure because it's in a very traditional building. But we walked in and wow! Perfect!!! Very modern inside and a great menu which they even gave us in English. Our waiter didn't speak English very well, or at least he pretended not to, but we got through it and had a wonderful meal. Pat spilled his wine all over the table when he was trying to tear a baguette so that was pretty funny and he was really embarrassed as we're surrounded by all kinds of trendy locals. Ha! We did feel bad that we couldn't speak more French, we'll have to learn it better for next time! After dinner we walked up to go through the museum and unfortunately this was the only museum our museum pass did not get us into. After finding out that it was 4.50 euros a piece and we only had 5 euros we were bummed and they stopped taking credit card after a certain time. But the lady let us both in for the price of one...so sweet! Talk about a dramatic difference from the art we had seen in the d'Orsay!!! This was all modern, cutting edge art. I'm sure not all of you would have liked it, but we enjoyed it and spend a long time watching some of the artistic films, etc. When we left the place was filled with young adults just chatting away. We loved the atmosphere! We're going to write the hotel guy (Frederic) a thank you note and send it to him!

We walked outside and after walking just a few steps saw the Tour Eiffel flashing through some trees in the distance. We walked down to it and hung out there for awhile and decided to wait till the light show would start again. We walked around and actually were stopped by a couple from Ohio to take their picture. Everyone always says Paris is the "most romantic city" and I started to see that. Even during the day couples would just stop in the middle of crowds of walking people to kiss. I have to admit Pat and I may have kissed under the Tour Eiffel (this is how you say it in French instead of Eiffel Tower).

Today was rough because we were so tired so we just took our time in the Louvre and l'Orangerie. We paused at a cafe terrace there after braving the crowds surrounding the Mona Lisa. After going to the l'Orangerie, walking the Champs and briefly visiting Bastille we grabbed chairs and sat at the main fountain in the Jardin des Tuileries (the garden in front of the Louvre). We literally sat here for an hour and I even dosed off with my head on Pat's shoulder. It was so fun to watch children pushing along these sailboats in the water. I've decided no matter what language, which there were many here, you can always tell when a child is excited!

We also fell in love with several Parisian food items! Bageuttes are so yummy! Ham and brie ones were our favorite! I think we ate about 5 while we were there in two days! We also loved cholat crepes! We only had one that we split but Pat's says he's going to learn how to make these at home...so come on over when he gets that figured out! And then the cholat croisant and hot cholat there was also delicous! I like the way they spell cholat too, I always have trouble with the spelling the American way.

I wrote a ton of pages in my journal on the train ride on the way back to London. As we were walking back to our flat we chatted about now we feel more comfortable here because we got through the language issue in Paris. We've got lots more things to see and do here in London so we're looking forward to the weekend and resting tonight for it. Anyone walk to fly here and join us for the long weekend? Come on it'd be fun!!! ;)

We're so sorry we can't post pictures...so you could see everything we're talking about! Oh well, you'll have a ton to see when we get back!