I finally made it to Paris we got an early start to Sunday it was our day off and I was up at 620 and we were on the road by 7am, I was pumped couldn't wait to get there although it was a good thing I wasn't driving because my excitment dimmed and I wound up taking a 2 hour nap and only woke up because we stopped at a rest stop! After my brief nap I was more than ready to explore we got into town around 10am and went straight to Sacre Coeur, spent about 20 minutes trying to park (I do not want to have to drive in that city) and then checked it out very beautiful the grounds and a neat view of Paris. Then it was back in the car for a brief driving tour that included the famous Opera house, Moulin Rouge and then parking (22$). We started off with the Eiffel Tower, we chose to walk the first two stories partly because it was cheaper and partly because a little extra excercise never hurt anyone. It is a little over 800 stairs to the second base with all sorts of neat stories, snow and an exhibit on global warming, restaurants I never would have imagined so much went on up there. We took the elevator to the very top (no stairs to that) there was a bit of a line but not too bad I guess the elevators move something like 1700 people an hour to the top. Then it was back down Jen and I decided for the stairs, while the others took the elevator down so we decided to try and beat them and really trekked down the 800+ stairs my calves were cramping at the end but we did win by about 15 minutes... apparently we could have taken our time! However it was great because there we were standing in the middle of the Eiffel Tower looking confused trying to find our friends so we looked like excellent prey and about every 30 seconds someone was trying to sell us cheap key chains.
The next stop was the Arc de Triumph saw it from a distance and walked down the Champs D'alyesses (yes I am most likely spelling these wrong) took a bunch of pics and walked on towards the Louvre. While we didn't go inside we walked the grounds and continued on to Notre Dame, it was so much to take in for just one day but it was great to see everything and I can't wait to go back and spend a little more time there!
I am off to Moscow Russia tomorrow should be interesting... the temperature is -20 (Megs I am getting close to what you experience) As long as I make it back...
Ben comes in on Friday so I will have visitors now until I leave!
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