Hotel Little Paris

... s autumn and damn if they're not going to dress for the season. I can't believe they don't feel the heat, especially in the Metro where it's like being in a toaster oven. They've all got scarves tied fashionably around their necks, and they're wearing layer upon layer upon layer. I've yet to see a Parisian remove a layer. Fortunately, my room has air ...

... eating up the lead that the break away leaders had built, and positioning their respective sprinters (Cavendish for Columbia, Farrar for Garmin) to have a chance at the stage win.

"Last time around, ladies and gentlemen, last time around for the riders! A big round of applause for all these athletes, as their next time around will be through the finish line and will mark the end of the Tour!", said the public announcer. Everyone who wasn't already standing stood, and up in the ...

... bottom of the Montmartre hill, who try to grab your wrist and braid a bracelet on it, then tell you that you owe them some ridiculous amount of money for it. One of them tried to tell me it's 'for the church.' Yeah, right. What I realized as I got back to the hostel is that I barely took any photos today or yesterday. I just have no interest in having my own photos of all these landmarks when I can probably download better images form the internet, or buy ...

... crêpe parties, going to the only French restaurant in Roswell and feeling "cool" to speak French with the waitors, but the highlight of the year for the French Club was the annual Mardi Gras party on that glorious Tuesday afternoon! We made masks, had a limbo contest, but the extreme joy was eating the "King's Cake". Now...Roswell High School's French program taught me that the King's Cake was a gaudy looking cake covered in ...

... a train out to their house for dinner. Cyril and his wonderful wife, Juliette, have four, yes FOUR wonderful girls. Flavie, Anais, Solonge, and Roxanne keep their household busy, busy. We were able to communicate with the girls through our very small French vocabulary and a few song they learned while they lived in Dallas. The songs we could sing were "It's a Small World" and "Do you know the muffin man?" We played dolls for a while and even were able to make bracelets together ...

... beefs qui ont apostrophé Abélard et lui ont coupé les shnoles...ou les testicules. Bin, là Héloïse brâillait, Abélard encore plus fort, et il et elle ont décidé de se faire moine et soeur. Mais ils se sont aimés toute leur vie et se sont envoyé des lettres d'amour. Et quand ils sont morts, ont les a enterrés l'un à côté de l'autre. Et la légende dit qu'un arbre a poussé et les racines sont allées dans les deux tombes pour les unir. Et sur ce, bisous de Paris. Gilles et Micheline

Friday 5 October Our last bus trip over!!!! Good because no more loooong bus trips!!!! Bad because its our last bus trip which means that our trip is almost over :( This trip was a long one too, 13 hours in total and the stops were terrible! Only one stop for 40 min, all the rest were only 20. When we did get ito Paris though they did a bit of a ticky tour and we got to see the sites at night which was good. We also went for a circle around the Arc di Triomphe, which is ...

... of my camera.

Paris Adventure (female perspective):
Let me rush to say that 3 of those bags were gifts and give-aways only; I'm proudly travelling with just my carryon, which saved the day in our miscount--just to set the record straight before I damage my preferred image.

And the desserts at Le Malakoff were awesome--the very best citron (lemon) sorbet I've ever tasted. Pancho's entry explains our entree to this adventure se magnifique (& edits).

... accessed all the major attractions; the Eiffel Tower, Musee d'Orsay, the Louvre and on and on. But I hadn't made it to Monmartre that first time round so, on this, my second occasion in Paris, I booked a hotel in the old artists' quartier. I wanted to explore the former haunt of the likes of Picasso and Lautrec, wanted to see where they had lived and worked during their most formative years. I could have just as easily, I suppose, stayed elsewhere and taken the Metro up ...

Here I am on my 4th day in Paris, and what a whirlwind it has been! The city is absolutely beautiful (once I got over the initial culture shock everything went fine!). The metro system really threw me when I got off the train, the lines didn't seem to make any sense, and the guy I asked for help at the info desk didn't speak much English. So he just pointed and off I went... I finally found the hostel - it is in a very bohemian area, with lots of little shops selling ...