Campanile La Verriere

... and croissant (yummy chocolate ones) and opportunities for photos and soak up the atmosphere. You literally had to keep on moving because it was so damn cold. I think my legs were numb, and when u breathed out thru your nose u could see it. We jumped onto the bus to thaw out and headed into the town of Villers-Bretonneux. This town is amazing. Every second or third house has an Australian Flag proudly ...

... on TV! So great to watch these pro's go at it. Before we know it, its time to get dressed and ready for our evening activity: dinner at L'Alterier Joel Robuchon. http://www.joel-robuchon.com/ . This is our largest splurge activity by far on the whole trip. Its not cheap. At all. But just the fact that we got reservations is a flippin' miracle. Normally, you must reserve a spot several months in advance. BUT, it turns out that like many popular high-end Parisian restaurants, this ...

... she too has already been to Paris and so together we saved our pennies and just wandered the streets. We started our walking tour at the Arc de Triumph, which is the arc that commemorates the war and its soldiers. From there we wandered down the Champs Elysees all the way to the Place du Concord, home of the Obelisk. We got some lunch afterwards and had a romantic picnic by the Eiffel Tower. I ended up turning it into a fiesta =) We really wanted to see the Catacombes and b/c we were on ...

... pass is only 30 euros. Not only does it cover all the major museums, it also allows entrance or special tours at many of the popular sites (Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, Versailles, Arc de Triomphe...) The pass also allows you to cut lines at many of the places it covers. I was able to go through the Louvre, Army Museum, and Napoleon's tomb much faster because I didn't have to wait to buy tickets or in the Louvre's case, go through the normal entrance.

... Euro and very cool - we had a great time! The next day we saw the Pompidou center (Museum of Modern Art), Notre Dame Cathedral, tasted the best hot chocolate ever at Angelina's (it's pretty much melted chocolate with some milk mixed in...mmmmm), and then walked along the famous Champs Elysees while it was all lit up at night (City of Lights, indeed), all the way down to the Arc de Triomphe. Then we got a little bottle of champagne and sat in the park by the ...

... again, so we got supper at the Quasimodo located close to the church. It was here that I had my first experience with French Onion soup...and man was it tasty. I think it was extra good becasue France is its home...and they pretty much pride themselves on this. After supper...we were pretty tired from the early morning...so we decided to head back to the hotel and call it a night. Before going to bed...Kelsey and I decided to watch some tv...because this was our first exposure to ...

We awoke to a very rainy and cool day. Breakfast was in the Executive Lounge of the hotel, flaky crescents with a bit of meat and cheese on the side, some fresh juice and strong French coffee. We had decided since the day was going to be rainy we would purchase our 2-day Paris Museum passes and begin with the Louvre. We walked, with umbrellas, to the Tourist Bureau and purchased the passes. It was pouring down rain when we left there, so we stopped at a ...

... store and then downstairs to the cloakroom. We were also asked to show our tickets again (after three hours at the museum, mine was somewhere at the bottom of my purse) to fetch our coats. Barbara disagreed with me about some of the museum's design layout--she liked the doors, and probably from a professional's standpoint, they are a useful museum design. I think she would agree with me that the traffic pattern suggested by the museum is ...

We awoke before 8am to get everything packed and ready for our departure later in the day... but first, we had a race to crash.... All of us were tired, The night before we went to the buddha bar, Chez Felix and a few other places before crashing it around 4am, so we were spent, but we had a race to watch! Dr. Ryan from Yale tagged along with Mikey, Eva and I and we set shop up right next to the finish line at ...

We left Newark on the 30th of December and landed in Paris on New Year's Eve around 8am I think. Once we finally made it out of CDG, bashing into everyone elses' carts, rushing for the door with hundreds of other international travelers (who all seemed to arrive at once), nearly running over feet for fun and out of spite for the lighter travelers...we grabbed the first taxi we saw, threw the bags in, threw our tired selves in, and we were on ...