Kyriad Île-de-France

... and walls and decorative furniture. Greg and I had an audio guide but the girls didn’t get one (entrance was free for them, but we weren’t told until we were at the audio guide counter that we would have to line up again and pay for an audio guide for them, they said not to bother. It all got a bit overwhelming after a time. So much artwork and so many historical stories. You could see the beautiful gardens from the ...

... it felt like 1:00 am to me. we walked around a lot and saw many interesting buildings. one building had all of the internal support things (plumbing, electricity, etc) on the outside. I thought that was neat. We also had extremely good pastries and the coffee was amazing. later on, we went shopping and bought really expensive clothes ( 2 shirts for 210$ yikes!) and saw many things that ...

... walked back over to the Louvre where I had a proper tourist shot with the French Police on rollerblades. We walked back towards the hotel to pickup our bags. We did a bit of shopping for souvenirs etc and then sat at our last sidewalk café to have dinner before going to the train. There we watched an organ grinder receive a few coins for his small effort and then turned our attention to the street dancers looking to please the crowd. A couple down from us were your ...

... After the Senate, we (Jen, Conrad and I) went to Paris Plage to meet up with everyone else and sat in these giant public hammocks and ate baguettes with cheese and wine. It was the perfect day, yet again. I realize I am happiest when picnicking. We stayed until 10 PM then went home. We walked through Ile de la Cite to Cluny-La Sorbonne (St. Michel) and the street was bustling with buskers and demonstrators and cafe goers, it was so lovely.

... to allow any of us to sit in the front so we all squeezed in the back and confronted the horrors of Paris traffic. Apparently George Bush was in town and so that exacerbated the traffic jams even further. We arrived at our apartment in the Marais district where Michael's mother Julie was waiting, having flown into Paris from Australia that morning. It was lovely to see her and the apartment was very comfortable and spacious, in a fabulous position close to the ...

... Epoque with a visit to the Musee Jacquemart Andre on Blvd Haussman in the 8th. Not only did they build an elegant mansion similar to the Elysee, but they furnished it with great luxury and an extraordinary collection of great paintings from the 12th to 18th centuries. Their life's passion was to seek out beauty. And when they died w/o inheritors they left it all for others to enjoy. Should we be so fortunate! Sgt Pepper rocks!

Ah Paris. The city of love. I gotta say, after all of the movies, poems, songs, paintings, and books about Paris I never really understood this love affair that all of these romantics had with this city until now. And now, after spending a mere 3 days in Paris, I can officially say that I am in love with the city. I can also say that 3 days is absolutely not enough time to spend in Paris, so I guess I'll have to go back (poor me haha.) I actually ...

... so we stopped there for an American lunch. It was nice to have some great food and they even had ketchup! Most places here and in Italy don't use ketchup, so they don't have it. You had to pay extra for it at McDonald's in Italy and at the McDonald's here they give you one packet of ketchup and one packet of the sauce that the French dip fries in, which is like Mayo. After lunch we walked around a little while ...

Aqui comienza. El ticket confirmado -que tranquilidad-, cervecita de rigor en el aeropuerto y dispuestos a pasar 11 horas con las piernas dobladas en el vuelo AF090 hacia BKK. Vamos a cambiar los grises dias de enero en Paris -y la bajada de 14 grados en el termometro para los proximos dias- por dias azules y soleados (34 grados!) en Tailandia.

... show after all. On my way down to the ground floor (or whatever it is that is below that but still above ground), one of the people that works at the foyer tried talking with me; I tried my best with the french I haven't used in years... he told me I was doing pretty good but I know I sounded like a child (very basic, if even complete sentences). Then I caugth the metro to the Gardens des Tuillers (butchered the spelling of that) and went to check out the Musee ...