Des Deux Avenues Paris

... that we could not follow as it was in French)

... the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower along with a very restrained walk down the Champs de Lysee where every shop had a sale on!

We also managed to somehow stumble across the memorial to Princess Diana at the start of a a rather large tunnel. Ironically, there was a photograph of her with Michael Jackson.

Ours econd day in Paris was taken at a much more ...

... way to the Eiffel Tower and arrived in the late afternoon to the usual 2 hour long queue. After standing in the line for a good 20 minutes mom announced that she had no intention of actually going up the tower which was followed by dad's announcement that he no longer planned to if she didn't. So mom and dad headed over to a café for some coffee and Bonnie and I stayed in the line. An hour and a half later, now almost at the ticket office and through the security point I noticed a ...

... a fancy French restaurant/brasserie about 30 metres from our door called Cafe Panique. I had haddock salad and a nice filet mignon, whilst Kath had a filet mignon and a pineapple and mint biscuit for dessert. Something to remember for France is that the French do not like to cook their steak much, so if you ask for a steak made medium it will be rare. After a great lunch we went to the Louvre. It was absolutely ...

... are all excited to be going to Disney later this week. But in booking it, I fear we (or maybe it's just me) are moving further to the dark side, with transgressions perhaps worse than "borrowing" someone's unsecured wireless internet access (which by the way I am doing right now...thanks "Marie453"!). Prior to starting our trip in June, we had checked the Disney package prices and it was definitely much cheaper and more flexible to just do ...

... Georgia were at le Place Des Vosges just around 1:00pm, and in the northeast corner no less...after an hour or so they moseyed up to one particular shop they had in mind - yes you guessed it - Fragonard. They stopped, they shopped, unwittingly in our wake. While we all knew we would meet the next day, who knew we were on such ridiculously similar paths that sunny afternoon. What fun it was to discover the coincidence over brunch the next day ...

... went by the Eiffel Tower. We got some ice cream and then waited in the line for the tower. It was pretty neat, nice to see the city from up so high. We were then really tired so we came back to the hostel and rested. At this point I wasn't really liking Paris all that much. It is dirty and there are beggars and people in your face trying to sell you stuff all over the place. BUT, after our rest we went up to the Sacre-Coeur and it was amazing. The basilique itself is awesome ...

... then dawned on me that I had to go to the bathroom. Well, this was not an easy task as I had to move the whole table, climb over a chair, step over the stroller and squeeeeeze through a very small opening! When I finally got to the washroom I found out, to my surprise, that it was a "turkish" toilet! Yuck. Steve went to take a picture of the washroom later on when I told him about it. Oh well, at least the food was good and ...

... at the front of the church. A large translucent sheet had been suspended above and a historical sketch of the cathedral was displayed. The air was cool and a faint scent of incense filled the air. I sat at the front noticing quite a few visitors who stopped briefly and took pictures (with flash) before deciding that they didn't want to stay. The elderly lady taking collection tapped a man on the head (sitting in front of me) with a disapproving look motioning him to ...

... Dijon- the next night's concert- was relatively nearby, and the show in Paris was an early one, I was assured that we would probably have time to wander around Paris a bit after the show. What could be better than a night in Paris with your sweetheart in tow? Well, not everything went quite as planned. For starters, Paris is a lot more than the Eiffel Tower and all the charming areas that one usually sees as a tourist. It is a huge freaking city, filled with all the industrial ...