Peredhil is in Paris

I wondered what he'd do when he saw "the thread" - I think you did great! Nothing wrong with calling in the reinforcements!

 

DUDE!!! I would be grateful to have a brother like you that took the initiative to solve the problem---You did great!! Call or post any of us, anytime.

 

just in case he curses you out in french, i can send you the worst curse words in frogcais. or if he uses english, shock him with the french. lol.

 

picture time









here it is, finally, a pic of me and mine

 

Where you guys able to eat at one of the restaurants in the tower? Where the people friendly? details man......details!!!



Luna

 

i was not even about to wait in that line to go up the tower. waiting in lines does not appeal to me.

we ate predominantly in 'cafe's' where you sit out on the street area. it is surprisingly difficult for a novice france tourist to find any cheese.

the french have a weird habit of only drinking bottled water... which means if you are thirsty, you pay. and i am always thirsty. it did not help matters. they particularly enjoy water "with gas" (sparkling or bubbly water). that got old real fast.

they are proud that they can offer americans "real iced tea". i have to admit, for their tendency to not use ice, this is an iced beverage... of instant tea. yuk. i like my tea sun brewed with no sugar... like i said, i pretty much stayed thirsty.

i checked out where princess D ended. and ate at the cafe over it (the cafe predates the historical event mentioned). apparently the locals find this to be bad taste...

in the city the french are extremely nice and courteous and beyond that patient with me and my incredibly poor language and pictionary skills. leave the city and that changes. instantly. i believe bc they are the world tourist capital (on the order of 80-88million tourists a year) they figure they should be nice to their income

they are proud of odd things (In my southern Texas opinion).

pedestrians have the right away and drivers seem to be quite fine with this. quite the difference from where I'm from where pedestrians must be quick and agile (and be knowledgeable in current vulgarities).

france took in a lot of bosnian refugees (and a lot of bosnian refugee posers) that are basically beggars. they're everywhere.

the city stinks. every few feet you get a fresh wiff of nasty.

breasts are in ads and so forth as if it's no big deal. and it is no big deal precisely because it is no big deal... it just is. nobody cares.

there are a lot of small cars... but having been to several countries in Western Europe, their cars are by no means averaging super tiny the way they do in, say, Rome. BMW over there is just a car. like a ford taurus over here. I think those last two sentences speak for a lot more than just the surface of what they say.

ford is popular in europe and i am use to seeing them there. particularly the focus. but paris had a lot of chevy's too (not a super lot, just a surprising amount). over there a corvette is what a ferarri is to us. i love the idea of that.

"modern" in old cities like france is a very after the fact concept. not destroying these ancient buildings that are in use regularly trumps any sort of code. it's something that comes to my mind every time anyone starts touting the benefits of the extreme amount of building codes we have. it's a different way of looking at things.

eating anything takes forever. the longer you have to sit and eat, the longer you have to visit with the family. : no, it was fun and i enjoyed the laid back way of eating. eating "out" from what I could gather, is much more common than it is here... but fast food isn't on the menu... these aren't Cysco food conglomerates reheating frozen blocks of soup... quality stuff.

i didn't see a single fat person. not one. i'm not real sure what that means because i only saw a few kids while I was there total too... so what I did and didn't see might be misleading

ok, enough random typing. paris is definitely a tourist city/location. it's the aruba of europe (does that analogy work?). it was the only place that I've been to in Europe (well, outside of america even) that felt rather generic. it could've been any old city in europe... other than the paraphernalia that was trying to be hawked (eifel towers and so forth).... i found that surprising.

 

im jealous of you dude. such a cool city and the overall ambience of being in an "old" city such as paris. i would be mesmorized by the architecture and just the whole scene. totally different to our ways of life over here. im glad you had a good time , expanded your horizons and such. so when you doin rome or greece? lol. good to have you back and glad all went well on your trip and with your tank .

guy

 

Peredhil, I love your synopsis and pictures of the Paris trip. I'm with Guy on the architecture - I would have had major neck strain with the camera pointing up all the time!

 

You forgot to mention all the dog poop on the sidewalks

My mother is French and my father was a Sicilian who was raised in Tunisia during the French occupation of WWII. Needless to say, French was my first language. I was still treated like a moron when we went to the Sacre Coer Basilica because apparently I speak French with an American accent . The guard there was asking me, in VERY poor English, if I had a knife. I was asking him, in French, to repeat himself as I had no idea what he was asking. He refused to speak to me in French and eventually had to show me a pencil drawing of a knife that he had in his booth. We giggled like school girls when we saw that which incensed him to no degree.

I can't wait to go back. I'd go back simply for the food and to people watch while sitting at the cafe. It'll be a few more years before I can get back but I'm definitely planning on going back!

 

Thanks! I went to Rome and Athens year before last. From my history curiosity point of view, athens has been the most fascinating place to me (well, Greece in general). We toured the country looking at the ruins and temples. Rome is a stunning place. Do you remember the HBO mini-series "Rome"? I went to Rome after having watched all of those on DVD. That made it particularly interesting to me to see things like Augustus Octavian Caesar's tomb and such after having "seen" him grow up on the show (I know, not the real thing, but it was a neat show!). Rome is beautiful.

Thanks! Notre Dame was really impressive with its flying buttresses. The architecture is very impressive considering its age. There was heavy use of gold (leafing or paint? I don't know). Gold statues everywhere that were just gleaming in the sun.

That's a really good story. Best I got is my father-in-law likes that water "with gas" and he's learned (subjective word there) how to say it in French. One waitress couldn't understand him so I said "with gas" and pointed at my butt. She did not get it at all and looked at me oddly but we all cracked up.

The food was delicious. Clams seem to be really popular (and delicious). I had kangaroo at this Afrikaan themed restaraunt. It was one of the better places (just so different) that I've eaten at.