Sunday November 24

No photos today.  Up at 5:45, on the metro by 7:00.  Two trains to get to the RER train.  At the airport by 8:00.  Print our boarding passes, check in our bag, go through border services to get our passport stamped, catch a train to take us to the building where our gate is, go through security...whew!  I got all of my stuff in the trays, started to take my boots off but the security woman said no.  I told her they will beep, she said leave them on.  I go to walk through the metal detector, next security guy says take off your boots first.  I tell him I tried to but his colleague wouldn't let me.  He says take them off.  I go back and tell the lady that her colleague wants me to take my boots off.  She ignores me.  By now the three people behind me have started filling up their trays, so I have to ask them to pass me another tray and get my boots off.  Something always happens when I go through security!

Our flight was delayed 50 minutes, so we had 20 minutes to go to the lounge for a quick coffee and snack.

I actually managed to sleep for a bit on the flight, which I have never managed to do before.  About an hour and a half before we were due to land, a gentleman across the aisle from me had a medical incident (heart).  Brad offered to help right away, told the flight attendant that he was a critical care flight nurse.  She said doctor?  He said no nurse.  She said no thanks, they were going to page for a doctor.  Meanwhile the guy is being helped out of his seat to the galley (right behind us) and they take the time to page someone, when they could have had Brad helping from the start.  They got a doctor, an anesthesiologist and a paramedic.  Brad did eventually head back to help which was a good thing because none of them were sure what the drugs were that the airline had provided to them.  You need a nurse for that!  The man seemed to be doing ok, BC Ambulance came on board first thing when we landed to take him and his wife to the hospital.

Once we got through border services and got our suitcase, we went to Air Canada and asked to get on an earlier flight.  We were able to fly out at 2:45 instead of 8:20.  We had time to go to the lounge for lunch and Ryan was able to pick us up at the airport at the earlier time.  We had a little reunion, Tyler made us Kraft dinner and we were in bed by 8:30 - up for 24 hours except for the nap on the plane.

What an amazing trip, we are so lucky!

Saturday November 22

Today was a very lazy day.  We had a late breakfast in the hotel.  This is where I learned that, unlike the Dutch and the English, when the French put out whole eggs, they are not hard boiled, they are in fact raw.  I wondered what the vat of hot water next to the bowl of eggs was for!  I was able to warn an English woman at the next table in time to save her from the same fate.

We mostly worked in the room, me on the blog and Brad on our finances (gulp!).  We had a nice walk around the neighbourhood in the afternoon, had lunch and picked up a couple of things for breakfast tomorrow.  And in the evening, out to a patisserie down the street for a snack and these.  I couldn't leave Paris without eating macarons!

Friday November 22

Next door for breakfast again, I am sad that they are not open on the weekend.  We have gotten to know them well over the last few days.

Today was a very busy day, we had pre-booked tickets for the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.

First the Louvre at 10:00.  The scale of this place is enormous, you can't appreciate it unless you are there.  We thought we were doing pretty good after an hour, then realized we had only seen about 1/4 of one floor - and there are four floors.

The famous pyramid.

We made it a mission to find this lady.  There was a huge line up to take her photo, so we just went off to the side and got one from a distance.

View from a window.

 One of my favourite things is the furniture, it brings the residents of the palace to life in my mind.

We thought what we had seen so far was old, until we went into the galleries with the Egyptian and Near East collections.  Most of the articles are over a thousand years older! 

My other favourite thing was the sculptures.  You just don't see anything like it at home.

And of the sculptures, this was one of my favourites.  It is placed in a window so that you can see the translucence of the marble in the cloth he is holding above his head.

We met a couple from Bainbridge Island, outside Seattle, in the line up at the cafe.  They invited us to sit with them, we had a great visit, and we ended up exchanging email addresses.  When we go to Port Townsend in May we are going to get together with them.  Again it was Brad's Nanaimo Emerg. jacket that sparked the initial conversation - they had visited Tofino a couple of years ago and flew into Nanaimo.  He doesn't wear it every day, but whenever he does, someone seems to recognize the name.

When we left the Louvre, we walked along the Seine to the Île de la Cité to see Notre Dame.  Unfortunately the entire property is blocked off while it is being rebuilt.

You can see where they are rebuilding the wooden rafters.

We stopped for a late lunch then realized that if we didn't hurry we would be late for our 5:00 Eiffel Tower time slot.  We caught the RER for the first time, which is the train system that travels outside of Paris and circles the city.  We made it just in time.

The view of the city from the second level.

Looking up.

Going up - view from the elevator to the top. 

What a view!

We took the elevator from the top back to the second floor.  There are shops, and a short film to see.  We walked down to the first floor where there is a restaurant and more views.

We decided to walk the 674 steps down to the ground, and discovered this guy sitting under the elevator.

A few last views before having a glass of wine and heading back to our hotel.

Thursday November 21

Bonjour!  To the bakery, pictured below on the right, for breakfast pastries.  There is an apartment above the bakery for rent, it's tempting!

We had tickets to Les Catacombes so toured around underground.  This photo shows part of the quarry tunnel system.  It was a sandstone quarry long before they began filling it up with bones in the 1800's.  I didn't take any photos of the bones, it just seemed too creepy to do that.

After walking 1.5 kms and then climbing 112 stairs back up to the surface, we went to the Liberation of Paris Museum across the street.  We did not take the time to see everything, but what we did learn was very interesting.  Under the museum is a bomb shelter that was used by the Resistance as a headquarters under the noses of the Germans.  They had someone on the inside with the Nazis - every time they asked him if the shelter was occupied, he would tell them it was still empty.  You can only go down with a tour, and our tour happened to be virtual reality.  It was pretty cool wearing a visor and following a virtual soldier into different rooms, and performing tasks.  Ninety-seven more stairs to get back to the surface - time for a rest and a snack.

We sat outside at the restaurant across the street (with the red awning in the photo below).  The French know how to heat their outdoor eating areas!  Off came the gloves, toque and scarf, I almost took off my coat it was so warm.  We had some excellent guacamole, chips and wine.  For entertainment we had a fender bender right in front of us.  And once again, Brad's Nanaimo ER jacket caught someone's eye.  This time it was our waiter, who was born in Paris, but whose mother was born in Port Alberni.  He traveled there quite often as a child, but hasn't been back since 2010 (the Olympics).  He misses it and wants to go back soon.

After returning to the hotel to download pictures and write the blog, we went for dinner at a crêperie a couple of blocks away.  It rained a bit, but luckily stopped before we headed out.  We had a really good day today!

Wednesday November 20

We got up this morning and walked down the block to breakfast.  Our hotel has an arrangement with a hotel around the corner to serve it's guests breakfast.  My one and only full English breakfast, beans and all.  I could not eat the bacon though, it tasted ok but was so salty I could feel the hypertension coming on.  

This is our hotel, looking up the street toward St. Pancras.

At the station we went through security and crossed the border into France.  We got settled on the train and enjoyed the nearly 2-1/2 hour ride.

Emerging from the Metro at Vaugirard.

Our room with butterflies projected onto the bed.

After we unpacked we walked around the corner to see this beauty in the distance.  It is just over 2 km away as the crow flies.

This is the military school near where we got off the bus.

It was clear but bitterly cold and windy this evening.

We crossed the Seine to see the tower from the other side.

We had dinner near the tower, then made our way back to our hotel.  We met a man from New York City on the Metro.  He said that just before we got on, a young woman got stuck in the door of the subway.  He tapped her on the shoulder to tell her to be careful, and she threw something back into the train and got off.  It was a woman's wallet - turned out the girl had just pick-pocketed a woman on the train, and panicked when she tried to get off.

We stopped at the Boulangerie next door for dessert and a hot drink on the way home of course.

The view across the street at night.