Ohh La La!

Greetings from Paris!

Hubby and I are sitting in an Internet Cafe, trying to figure out how to use a French keyboard-- the good old QWERTY board does not work.

So far the trip is going well. Amsterdam was great. Everything they say is true. Great walking city with plenty of bikes to dodge. The streets follow the canals and round the city in a circular motion. Therefore, we only got "lost" twice. Fortunately, lost is relative in Amsterdam. The city is small, so eventually you get where you wanted to be.

We went to the Anne Frank Huis -- very interesting, also to the Red Light District. Even MORE interesting... Ate a wonderful Argentinean dinner; had great coffee. The people were very nice and friendly.

The train ride to Paris was amazing. Service was spectacular -- got fed not once but twice, with food that was very good indeed. We went through the Hauge, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Brussels on our way to Paris.

Good news -- arrived on time; bad news -- arrived during rush hour. Over 2 million people apparently used the Gare du Nord station to get home. Chaotic and exciting.

Found the apartment -- very quaint on a great street with an open market and good bakeries.

Tried to get to the Tourism office to buy Museum tickets but got hopelessly lost going there and, after getting there and being told it was too late in the day to buy them, on the way back. That was a bit frustrating: maps didn't jive, streets twisted and we wandered much more than we wanted to. But, we finally made it back and had a lovely dinner at the restaurant near our apartment. All was well.

I'm turning over the keys to Hubby so he can tell you about today...
Greetings,

Today was the day for the Louvre. It is quite hard to describe all of the world's finest pieces of art in one place. Unbelievable and Fantastic just don't do it. Amy's tolerance for ancient artifacts was put to the test. I am happy to report that she passed...

We started our tour of the Louvre by making a bee-line for the Mona Lisa. The crowd was just starting to gather in the lobby of the museum and luckily we beat the rush. This painting is absolutely amazing, no pictures or posters can prepare you for how this masterpiece looks up close. Not only the eyes follow you around the room when looking at it, but the mouth changes from an odd smirk to a smile and then back again as you move from side to side. DaVinci was incredibleé.

One of the most interesting items we saw in the antiquities section was the collection of tools dating back 200,000 years.

7 1/2 hours later, we felt satisfied that we finally saw half of the collection, oh well we have to go back!

Now Amy will tell of our adventure strolling down the Champs-Elysées.

We had a great walk through the gardens, to the Concorde Plaza, through the park leading up to the Champs (including sharing a snack of crepe de chocolat and banana along with a great version of the good old hot dog...)

We got to the Arc de Triomphe -- took great photos, which we can't upload yet (wrong size port) and then had a real dinner at a cute overpriced place in the Champs.

Some very nice locals helped us with directions to this internet cafe, so after dinner; we took the Metro to an area close to our apartment and are winding down our day here. Phew.

Tomorrow: the museum D'Orsay, the Effel Tower and a much cheaper dinner in this neighborhood!

Are we having fun?

Oui, sure youbetcha :)

P.S. KLM rocks. More about that later.