Paris, France

So this past weekend Christian and I took off to Paris to meet up with Jessie (Christian's sister ) and her husband Mike. We took the early train out of Brussels Midi Station and 1 hour 22 minutes later we arrived at the Paris Nord Station. What a piece of cake train ride that was!

After checking into our hotel, Mike called and asked us to meet them at their hotel in an hour. So, we head out towards the subway station to get to their hotel. We get there and wait and wait and wait - where are they? An hour later they tell us that they are lost and have been walking around in circles. We look on the map, find where they are and tell them to stay put until we get there. After realizing that they were only a couple blocks away - we head out to find them and when we get there Mike is standing outside in the pouring rain, soaked and we can tell it has already been quite the morning for them.

After a quick change of clothes, our first mission was to find some food so we set out for lunch. We found a quaint little bistro and ordered up some of Paris' finest French Onion Soup, French Fries and Croque Madame's - they were excellent, some of the best French Onion Soup ever.

After lunch we walked over to Notre Dame to check out the church (and pray for the rain to stop). We wanted to go in, but the line was out the door - it was All Saints Day. We decided to just look from the outside and move on. Given our lack of patience God continued to let the rain pour down on us...

For some reason, the rest of the day just seemed like we were looking at maps. Every couple of minutes I look back, Christian and the crew are staring at maps.

Next stop was Sacre Coeur (or Sacred Heart) which is located at the top of this huge hill that had two ways to get up, take the tram or walk it. What do we decide? We walk it of course. We must have walked about 300 steps to the top, we were all struggling to make it there, Christian passed out but was given mouth to mouth ressessitation by a local French girl in heels and a short skirt. Needless to say he woke up very happy.

What a spectacular view of Paris from Sacre Coeur!

From there, we walked over to the Arc de Triomphe and the largest round about in Paris. The Arc was a site to see...especially when you imagine what it must have been like during the war.but I think we had more fun watching the cars coming into and out of the circle. It was like bumpercars - but amazingly we never saw any accidents. Does that mean that the French can actually do something well? It can't be...

That night Jessie made us dinner reservations at the Buddha Bar which is apparently the place to be seen in Paris from what we heard. We arrive a little before Jessie and Mike and decide to order a drink; 27€ later we both sip our drinks like they're the last ones we'll ever have all the while knowing we're in for a very expensive night. For dinner we ordered sushi, tempura, steak and fish. Dinner was great - the company was even better and the bill was...heavy to say the least but what the hell...we were in Paris!

Day 2: We set out for Le Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. We had decided the night before to meet there at 9:30am which is when the museum opened. Christian and I were waiting outside and around 9:45am we get a text that they had just woken up and they were running late - apparently Daylight savings time messed them up. Sure. Given their tardiness, we decide to head in and wait for them inside. About an hour late, Mike and Jessie finally show up, embarrased they screwed up! As punishment for keeping us waiting they have to buy lunch...suckas!!!
(Sorry guys, had to do it!)

We saved the best for last - the Eiffel Tower. From far away, the tower looked small, but the closer we got the more intemidating it became.

As opposed to cramming ourselves into a small elavator with other (slightly odorous Frenchies) we decide once again that we will walk up to the second level of the Eiffel tower, the farthest that you can walk up to. From there you need to take the elevator all the way to the top, which we were not allowed to do given the windy weather.

Christian knows that I'm not good with heights, but instead of staying behind, I decide to join Jessie, Mike and Christian on our way up to the second level, so we walked all 686 steps - my legs trembling the whole way. We took several pictures and then began our decent back to solid ground!About half way down the steps became quite challenging for me and my panic attack starts in. On the second set of steps, I lost it and tears started rolling down my face - all the while doing everything I could to keep going and not pass out.

By now, I'm embarrassed and can barely see because of my tears; Christian grabs my hand and I made it all the way down. Christian can't help himself and has to have a picture:Jessie wanted to make me feel better, so we jumped on the carousel and went for a ride. She was right it did make me feel better. Thanks Jessie!
Our Paris trip ended that night with a nice French Cuisine dinner and some great company! Thanks Mike & Jessie for inviting us to be part of your European vacation. What a weekend.

We love you both!