"Well Hello Paris, Nice to Meet You!"

“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” – Susan Sontag


It’s 7:45 pm here in Paris, and we took a break from our pilgrammage across Paris to get some tech time in! Uploading pictures and what not so that if our cameras get stolen we still have our precious memories of our time here in France :)


So much has happened in the 36 hours since we left Richmond, and I really wanted to post a blog last night but after 28 hours awake my body demanded two things: A shower and sleep! Both were glorious. ((That is, until Michael woke us up at 7 am – Mom, I’m sure you’re as confused as I was!)) But alas, that was Wednesday, and I haven’t even told you about Tuesday yet! So, check out the stuff below, it’s a very loose outline of the awesome things we have accomplished since we left Richmond.


Tuesday, June 15th, 2010


We left around noon from the Richmond airport and had a fairly uneventful flight. Things got interesting when we got to the Charlotte, NC airport – I was blown away! I think the airport is actually bigger than Emporia. Okay, I’m exaggerating, but this is my blog you know, it’s allowed. There were, however, more restaurants in the airport than in all of Emporia. There was a salon (I’m talking massages and pedicures too!), and a huge chocolate store, so you know we had to hit up both. I had the most amazing chocolate covered frozen banana on a stick. Danielle and I consumed an entire day’s worth of food in the span of our three hour layover, there was just so much to choose from we couldn’t resist.


Even cooler, while waiting for the flight to Paris (which was delayed briefly), Eric got the gonads to start practicing his French with this cute little high school exchange student. I wonder if she was a little creeped out by the 50 year old man who was so interested in her? I kid, I kid. :) She was very sweet though, her name was Claire, and I really wish I’d gotten her last name so I could Facebook her. She was everything you imagine about Paris, pale and slender, with a cropped haircut, and “loud” clothes. Total adorableness. I’ll see if I can find her picture to post.

The flight to Paris was pretty nice, two free meals and all of the movies and music on your own personal tv that you could want (also free). The disasters started when we got to Charles du Gaulle airport and discovered that not nearly as many French people speak English as I had assumed. Our first mistake was in not figuring out before we got there how we would get to the Hotel from the Airport – taxi, shuttle, metro? We opted for the metro after a man who spoke very little English told us it was the best and most economical way to do so. Well hello Redneck in the City, we had NO idea how to get to the Metro and once we got there not a CLUE which train/line/blue chicken to take. After much confusion (including taking the wrong train and having to backtrack), we finally figured out the Metro deal and officially consider ourselves pro’s (wink wink).

Before pro status, however, and having only been in Paris a few hours, we experienced our first encounter with pickpockets. We were warned by everybody and their mother that this would happen and by some miracle avoided getting all of our valuables swiped by those sneaky buggers. We were huddled by the subway pole, clutching our enormous bags, when a man beside me “dropped” his cell phone and money all over the floor. Obviously we all looked down, torn between bending to help him out of instinct and our nagging fear that it was a set up. Hustling and bustling ensued and I see two other men, apparently friends of Mister Oops-I-Dropped-My Phone, sandwiching Eric near the subway door. It was like a slow motion movie and I focused on his camera/man bag waiting for a grimy hand to slip inside. I saw nothing, and at that moment the subway doors opened at our stop. We hopped off the train and the one guy followed us off and then hopped back on right away. We were all immediately concerned, clearly on the same page that something was fishy. Luckily we were all okay and Eric hadn’t stored any valuables in the bag other than the camera, which was still there, although the bag was partially unzipped. Phew! Talk about scary, and we hadn’t even gotten to the Hotel yet!


We finally arrived at Hotel Monceau Elysees, after walking around in circles briefly. Paris is confusing! The room is beautiful but TINY, and we are lucky enough to have a corner room with three huge windows overlooking the busy street, brimming with people at the various shops and cafés below. I go to check our Eric’s room (which I clearly hear the clerk inform him as room # 12), only to discover that he is not there. Hmmm. That conversation went something like this:


“ Gee Eric, how did you get in room 15 if the clerk gave you the key to 12? What? Your key unlocks every door on this floor? And the next floor too?! “


“Oh, Hello people that are supposed to be in room 15 that are alarmed that we have a key to their room, how ya doing? Sure are glad you are the only people in France that speak English and don’t think we are trying to rob you.”


Wow! We explain the situation to the clerk and she looks at me like I am another stupid American ((okay, I won’t dispute that argument, but I’m not crazy!)) and follows us up to the rooms. After trying the key in about 5 doors and confirming that it did indeed open them all, she tells us that it is a master key that was mistakenly labeled as 12 and given to us. Okay I get that, but how many times have you made that mistake? Who else has that key? Definitely not a warm fuzzy feeling.

We settle in the rooms and decide that instead of wasting precious Paris minutes in the rooms waiting for Michael to arrive (which was tricky, btw, since we had no way to contact him or vice versa) we would go in search of food. We wandered aimlessly for quite some time and ended up getting lucky. We found a restaurant called Hippopotamus, and had steak so good that we can BOTH confirm it was the best we’ve ever had. (Sorry Tony! :-P ) About 5 hours later we went back to the hotel and met Michael, and then went back out to find dinner.


After dinner we went to our first real tourist attraction: Le Arc de Triomphe, a m.a.s.s.i.v.e. monument erected wayyy back in the day durin the Napoleonic wars to honor fallen soldiers. It is crazy big and in the middle of what Eric says is the most dangerous round-about in the world, there are NO traffic lines and people literally don’t even hit the brakes when they enter it. We are talking a minimum of 65 cars in the circle at any given time going in all different directions with INCHES TO SPARE!! To an American (okay, just me?) it is terrifying… which brings up the driving here, which is not at all what I expected. We can talk about that later, we're goin to try to get video for you guys.

The Arc de Triomphe is conveniently located right off of the Champs Elysees, a street that runs through the heart of Paris and is loaded with amazing restaurants and high end stores. We stopped at an Adidas outlet and I saw the coolest pair of cleats ever for 400 euros (that’s like $520.00). Unless you are David Beckham, you do Not need a pair of $520.00 cleats… Hell, all he even needs is a speedo and maybe a towel, hehehe.


Wow! It took a lot longer to type all of that up than I thought it would, and we are packing our day so full of amazingness that I don’t really have time to tell you about Wednesday. It looks like I will probably be about a day behind on all of my posts, so bear with me please! Or just leave me hate mail on the comments, either will work. Tomorrow we are going to the Louvre, only the most famous museum IN THE WORLD. Talk to you soon!! ((Oh and don't worry, I'm taking more pictures than you could even possibly want to see))



Au Revoir!

Ashleyyy