Paris

DAY ONE

Our first day of travel consisted of a flight to Minneapolis and a transfer flight to Paris.  I slept through most of the 8 hour flight to Paris, Dave did not.  Once in Paris, Dave walked us through the airport as if he had been there before.  Our attempt to take a taxi to the hotel lead to future transportation exploration!  The taxi would have been €90, so we opted for the metro.  After about 45 minutes we got off where it seemed like downtown Paris.  Crowds of people rushed through the area while we looked at the intimidating city map.  We were lost!  A man working behind the ticket window approached us and asked to help us.  Thankfully he did, because we had no idea what we were doing.  He led us in the right directions and two train rides later we arrived.  It was cold and rainy.

Our first meal in Paris was coffee and bread at a side street café.  After breakfast we located our hotel and dropped off our luggage. Tired and feeling signs of vet lag we pushed through the day avoiding a nap. Vertigo had overwhelming taken over!  

Regardless, we walked to the Eiffel Tower and then up the 668 steps.The views were incredible.   

Afterwards we found a great restaurant for lunch.  Dave had oysters and frogwa and I had prawns. A much needed nap, the one we were trying to avoid was calling our names.  After 3 hours of sleep we went to dinner and enjoyed French Onion soup and Margarita Pizza.  At 3am we were both awake and ready to continue our travels.  The plan was to sleep until 5am.  Our early rising gave us extra time to Skype the kids and then we were off to the airport for our flight to Rome.  We tried to take the metro, but it was closed!  Instead we took a taxi and passed a couple night/dance clubs that are open until 6am.  We arrived at the airport at about 4am.  This ride only cost €60.  The airport was closed and we had to wait until 6:30 to board.  Had we known about the night clubs we would have wasted our time there instead of the airport!  But seriously I can’t imagine getting up and going dancing to really loud music first thing in the morning. Leaving France behind was hard.  I liked it more than any other big city I have been in.  In general the French were very accommodating and kind.  We think they just have a bad rep.  I’d go back to Paris in a heartbeat.