We found a lovely little french bistro near our house and while enjoying our food and reminiscing about our time in Europe nearly two years ago, I noticed our table in Seattle was much like another one we sat at in Paris:
Seattle
Paris
Brittanie and Normandie
We spent the day on the Metro, the trains, and in a van while we toured parts of the coastline in France. I was not a fan of our tour guide’s driving, which, coupled with the train rides, made for a day that will not top our best days in Europe. However, it wasn’t completely terrible or anything. We got out of the crush of people for a day, and got to see part of the rest of the country. We were on a very small tour (6 people and 1 driver) of the Medieval towns of Dinan, Mont Saint Michel, and Saint Malo. Really, we were on the tour to see Mt. St. Michel, as it is one of Andy’s favorite places.
Dinan is built on a VERY steep hill, and the picture of me is near the bottom of the winding, cobbled street that takes you to the top. If Andy had taken the picture of me at the top of the hill, I would look much more breathless! People also drive on this street, which neither of us could understand, as it is a bumpy cobblestone street that is very narrow. It makes driving in Seattle or San Francisco look like driving in a parking lot.
Dinan was very cute, but we were there in the morning, before any of the creperies or bistros were open, so we ate potato chips instead. I also encountered my first Truly French Bathroom– the stall with no toilet or paper, just a hole in the ground. I will not share the rest of that story with you.
Needless to say, between the lack of food or toilets, plus the constant rain, we were ready to be out of Dinan! We arrived at Mt. St. Michel at lunch time, and as our chips were a little less than satisfying, Andy and I headed straight for the famous La Mere Bulard, where they make those gigantic omelettes in equally gigantic copper pans and they mix the eggs using a certain rhythm. I had seen this on Samantha Brown’s Passport to Europe on the Travel Channel, so it was exciting to hear the tune of the people beating the eggs (Andy also grabbed a quick video of it– it’s hard to explain and much easier to watch/listen to). I ordered an ridiculously small meal in order to help Andy with his omelette and I was surprised at how good it was! While I’m not ready to say that I LIKE eggs, I did have several eggy foods in Paris that I liked. So I know I at least like really GOOD egg dishes in France. I don’t think I’m ready for the McDonald’s egg mcmuffin.
We then climbed the steep, windy street of the island city of St. Michel up to the monastery at the top. It was a crowded with people and we were amazed to see so many people with their dogs! We are discovering that Europeans take their dogs EVERYWHERE with them! It was a pretty brutal climb, but after Notre Dame and Dinan, we were feeling more in shape. And very,very full of omelette. The monastery was old and lovely and every inch monastery-esque, as all good monasteries on remote islands should be. When we reached the bottom, we met our van in a parking lot that would be under water once the tide came back in!
Our final stop was in Saint Malo, a walled city full of shops and museums. We opted to walk around and see the shops, so we got some souvenir shopping taken care of, and even managed to pick up some toiletries that we were getting low on.
We were ready to head home, and it was a pretty unpleasant trip back to Paris, but we did arrive in one piece, with Treasure’s omelette still safely in her stomach where it is supposed to stay. I was comforted by the fact that while we were in Paris, land of culture and high art, we still saw Spongebob Squarepants in Dinan, and a poster for The Simpson’s Movie in the Metro. Ah, America!
Full Day in Paris
I love reading the difference between Andy’s blogs and mine– I think you can tell which one majored in English and which one majored in Math. He likes the facts and I want to talk about how places make me feel. 
There are so many pictures for this post! We had a very full day in Paris, yet we both agree we need another day or two before we will feel that we have seen what we want to see here. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to come back! Poor us….
We started off our morning taking in part of mass at Notre Dame. We heard a mix of French and Latin, and enjoyed Gregorian music (it wasn’t quite the monastic chanting we were hoping for, but the music was still gorgeous). There were a lot of visitors wandering the perimeter, taking pictures of both the cathedral and the service itself, which we found to be totally inappropriate, so we don’t really have pictures from inside. It was huge and very cathedral-like, I can vouch for that!
Next we joined a very long line to go to the top of Notre Dame. We had rushed to the church without breakfast, which also means NO COFFEE. Normally, this is not a good idea when we are in Seattle, but with all of the traveling and walking around, mornings DEMAND coffee for those of us on Team Samuel who are named Treasure. Thankfully, coffee is never far away in Paris, so while I kept our spot in line, Andy ran across the street to find coffee (he speaks better French, which is why he was running my errand). He brought me what I can only describe as a dixie cup of espresso. It was like drinking a concentrated version of Jeanne’s coffee, but without creamer. It did the trick, however, and then we had to get food because the coffee gave me the shakes! At least it entertained us while in line for 45 minutes. I had been told the line was long but worth it and they were right. We climbed A LOT of stairs. Narrow, windy stairs up steep spiral staircases. I believe the sign said there were about 455 steps, and that is just the main climb, so we definitely got in our stairmaster time!
It was wonderful to finally see the end of the staircase and to step out onto the roofs of Notre Dame, overlooking all of Paris and being up close with the gargoyles and chimeras. We were up there when the bells rang, which was fun (we videotaped the sound of the bells, as well as what descending the stairs looked like, so we can share that with you sometime). We were also able to see the Big Bell, the infamous “The bells, Esmerelda, the bells!” Bell. They only ring it on special Catholic holidays, and the climb to the bell tower was clearly designed for hobbits, as the doorways were tiny tiny. The walkways on the roof are also very narrow, so while I would absolutley recommend going up there, there are certainly some physical size and strength considerations.
By the time we reached the bottom of Notre Dame, we were breathless and shaky, so we decided it was time for lunch. Rather than sit in a bistro, we did the traditional French picnic lunch of bread, cheese, proscuitto, and fruit. We picked up these items at different shops (some of you know this already), as the items are sold in specialty shops (boulangerie for bread, for instance). Andy took a nice picture of our picnic in our hotel room.
Now refreshed, we headed to Musee d’Orsay, which I was really excited to see. However, the line was over an hour wait, which is longer than I am willing to wait for a ride in Disneyland, let alone a museum in a city full of other sights. So alas, this will have to wait for Paris II, as will Musee Rodin. 
We instead headed to Hotel de Invalides, which was a veteran hospital centuries ago and is now a military museum and where Napoleon is buried. The museum was neat and Andy enjoyed all of the armor and uniforms. It was very interesting to see how the French interpreted the World Wars, as we had just recently been at the Winston Churchill Museum in London. Because the French were occupied by the Nazis, they had a very different experience than Britain, and certainly than the US. There were a couple of display comments that we were less than thrilled with, but we just smiled to ourselves at the thought that the mild tension between the French and Americans is certainly mutual and well deserved on both sides.
Napoleon’s tomb was hilarious and I HIGHLY recommend it. It is absolutely beautiful inside and contained monuments/tombs of his family members and other military friends. His tomb is in the center, under a huge painted dome, surrounded by statues. The casket is 5 different caskets, so the one pictures is the outermost one and therefore gigantic. If there was ever a question about whether Napoleon had a complex, let me reassure you, he did. They also had some of his military wear on display and he was indeed very short and small in stature. His casket, however, is about the size of my living room!
Outside of Invalides is a lovely garden and then an ornate bridge that crosses the Seine to two palaces (there are a lot of palaces roaming around the area). I have been told that you must find your favorite bridge in Paris and I think this is mine. We continued on to the Champs-Elysees to people watch and see storefronts for clothes that I will never, ever buy. I just don’t need a thousand dollar Louis Vuitton purse. I will, however, look at them in the window and pick out my favorite! We stopped for crepes (this was a frequent occurrence with Andy’s sweet tooth in tow) and then proceeded to the Arc de Triomphe, which takes about 10 seconds to look at and then you’re good. We hopped the Metro to the Eiffel Tower and paid an arm and a leg to take the scary tram to the top. I don’t mind heights, but being inside a very old looking elevator contraption with 360 degree windows that make your brain think you are free floating is not my favorite thing. I also discovered that I kept waiting for the elevator to drop. That’s it– no more Disney Tower of Terror for me!
We timed our tower climb to coincide with dusk and the lights of Paris coming on. We enjoyed our time at the top, but the Jules Verne restaurant was closed, so we had to find another place for dinner. When we arrived at the bottom, the Tower was doing it’s hourly light show, so we stopped to enjoy the twinkling tower and to convince the annoying vendor once and for all that Andy was NOT going to buy an overpriced red rose for the lovely lady. This lovely lady nearly decked the vendor after try number three, so while it looked like Andy was steering me away from the guy to protect me, really it was to protect the guy.
We ended our day eating in the Latin Quarter and then fell into bed with an early morning to follow.
2nd day in Paris
On our second day in Paris, we visited the palace of Versailles. Versailles was built by Louis the XIV, a man known as “The Sun King”, a great contributor to the art of ballet, and a guy with a lot of money. The palace itself is huge, but there is also a sizeable garden with little tucked-away sculptures. When the gardens are close to closing (which is when we were there), they play grand classical music and run water through the fountains which surround the sculptures – it was awesome.
One of Louis’s descendents married Marie Antoinette. She was from Austria and 18 at the time. She desired a setting that was more familiar to the farm life she had known as a child, so they added a small house, theatre, garden, waterfall, gazebo, and village onto Versailles in order to accommodate her. She only allowed visitors upon her approval – this included the king (poor Louis XVIth!). She didn’t like the state life and spent a large part of her time looking after her children. The prince was a sickly kid…I don’t know if he lived very long…which probably doesn’t matter because Marie Antoinette told her starving people to eat cake, and then came the French revolution & off with her head. But her home was lovely!
As Treasure and I were walking back to the train station, we saw the cutest thing: a little boy and his sister playing around. I was lucky enough to grab this quick snapshot. We are finding many things about different cultures in the world that are very similar to ours: the love of dogs, the silly-ness of teens, the cuteness of children…there are all sorts of things where transcend culture. Of all the things to do while travelling, gaining an appreciation of cultures which are different from one’s own while finding similarities and common ground is perhaps one of the most important pursuits.
Arriving in Paris
Andy and Mona
Alright, so now that we are in Vienna in a hotel with my three favorite things: Internet, room service, and a bathtub, let me catch you all up on everything. My apologies for such a delay. We were very busy in Paris, our Internet was spotty, and then I felt sick for two days (I was car sick and overly tired, nothing terrible), and once we made it to Salzburg after missing our train, we had no Internet. So again, sorry.
We left Marie early in the morning and left London to take the Chunnel to France. The Chunnel was not as exciting as I had hoped. It was a tunnel. And there were air pressure changes. And I felt train sick. We were glad to get off the train and we had the joy of lugging our luggage through the French metro system, which is not as well organized, frequent, efficient, or signed as it is in London. We wandered around Paris for a bit until we found our hotel. We had a lovely room for one night (they didn’t have a standard available our first night, so we HAD to have the deluxe) with a view of the Pantheon. We enjoyed the bathtub, both for washing our clothes and for relaxing our tired muscles.
The Louvre was open late that day, so after settling in and enjoying the tub, we headed out to walk to the Louvre. I immediately fell in love with the city of bridges and lights. We plowed through the Louvre, hitting the spots that were important to us. I knew the museum was big, but seriously, I think it is at least the sizes of the towns we both grew up in!
I appreciate so much that Andy and I seem to have about the same level of tolerance for museums. In art museums in particular, we move pretty fast and reach our limit within two hours, but we can spend a lot more time in history museums. After the Louvre, we went to this great area of Paris that was between the museum and our hotel. It was about a block of winding streets full of restaurants. We stopped at one for fondue, and it was SO good! We love the Melting Pot in Seattle, but this one was even better! The cheese was fantastic, and of course the atmosphere was great. I learned that you can’t just order a GLASS of wine in Paris, and God Forbid you don’t order wine, and since Andy doesn’t drink alcohol, I had quite the task ahead of me! Thankfully they let you recork and take bottles home, otherwise I wouldn’t have made it back to the hotel! We were actually really impressed by the water we had there! As usual in Europe, you typically get mineral water and it is usually lukewarm and therefore a little icky. This stuff was ice cold and we downed it like it was…. well, water!
Dinner in Paris
View from our room the first night
