Hotel des Bains Paris

... a zigzag to my destination so I found a couch and curled up in a ball so I wouldnt get seasick. Thankfully the trip was only an hour and half to Calais. In Calais the cold wind whipped against my face stinging my eyes and making rosy my cheeks. I thought I could take a train or bus to Arras to meet my friend from the office they dropped me at but here I had to catch a bus to the station and I missed the one I needed. An hour later I caught the bus to the station only to find when ...

... day. I also asked the receptionist to book me on an evening river cruise followed by a bus tour of the city of light.

My plan began with a stroll around the "Sacre Cuoer" church and the surrounding area. The hill is steep but there is a funicular that leads up the hill, stopping at a piazza on top filled with tourists. I was stunned at the grandeur of the edifice itself and more so by the views from the hilltop. Along the road by the steps ...

... the grandeur that is the "humble" monument to Catholicism, St. Peter's Basilica - we accidentally "missed" the Sistine chapel. With its sporadic closing hours and obscure entrance we will just have to plan a return journey to Rome. Hopefully our luck lies elsewhere than the Trevi Fountain! Being larger than 2 football fields in length, St. Peter's is impressive to say the least. Not being religious, I couldn't fully appreciate what it ...

... we got a bus tour of the city at night. We saw the crazy round-a-bout around the Arc de Triumph, (where there's an accident every 8 minutes and no car is allowed to be insured there) cruised along the Champs de Elyse, and saw the Sac Le Crue area. Beautiful views, but so many more steps to climb. Ha ha. We also saw the Opera House that the Phantom of the Opera was inspired from, and the Moulin Rouge. Just fabulous. The next ...

... waitress, was very handsome in a sort of European way. Of the whole group only Tanya and Alyssa speak even a little french. I struggle quite a bit because of the similarity I see to Spanish. Both seemed to do rather well when order whilst I smiled meekly and pointed. The handsome waiter didn't mind and before long we had our meals. Almost all of us got salads, me included. I got the Neptune. It was almost raw salmon, goat cheese ...

... t find the food that was supposedly available at the musée, so we wandered out of the garden to the streets. We found a little sandwich shop on blvd Saint-Marcel and had some tasty sandwiches: mine had grilled eggplant, fresh mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes, served toasted, and Steve had a croque-madame, although he didn't know that's what he was getting at the time. Because we speak almost no French (I can read plenty of it, just not speak ...

... en plastiques - Lunettes de soleil - 1 porte-monnaie perso (pas la peine d'amener votre portefeuille) - 1 pochette faisant office de porte-monnaie pour le pot commun (merci Cathay Pacific !) - 2 livres Ce que je n'ai pas pris, achete sur place et qui a ete utile tres souvent : - 1 montre - petites cuilleres en plastique - brosse pour laver le linge - piles Ce que je n'ai pas pris, que je n'ai pas achete et ou je me demande encore si c'est utile : - prise anti ...

... with another American I met who was spending a good part of the year touring around Europe. At this point, it was raining again, but luckily my new friend had the foresight to bring an umbrella. The watershow was an early version of the one they have at the Bellagio in Vegas. At 4 pm, they play some piped-in orchestra music and turn on all the fountains on the grounds for one hour. They don't keep the fountains running all day, as the ...

... before. We looked for another room. The next morning we checked into Hôtel Stella down the street. It had a bathroom and high, timbered ceilings for significantly less money. Like other hotels in France, we filled out a card containing our information. Instead of putting "NONE" for occupation, I wrote in "TRAVEL WRITER". I was hoping for better service or a room with a view. Instead, I got a rush from my new reality. I found a job I love going to. We got to Notre Dame in time ...

... us trying to avoid multi-lane round-abouts since these are scary! The quaint little town that is not has quite a fair peak hour (yes, I AM GLAD we did not pick the car up in Paris), and the tight little streets, with cars parked down both sides and lots of oncoming traffic have proved a little scary at times. To make things a tad worse, the car we got is a very nice, brand new (less than 2000kms) VW Golf, with not a scratch to be seen on it - so any ...