Residence De La Tour Malakoff

... in sleeping bags and hoodies. We had dinner, and as we had had a big last few days and an early start tomorrow, we went to bed early. We said good-bye to Sophie and Ambre, as they wouldn't be awake when we left and I got pretty sad. It's sad to think that you may never see someone again. It felt good to go to bed after a long day, and I was so happy with my time spent in Paris, but I have so much more that I want to see. Hopefully I can go back soon.

Wake up, get the bags packed, last minute double checking of all our plans in Paris ... bags to front desk and check out... and off to Disney for our final morning in the park. I am SO proud of my son. He cried yesterday after the Nemo ride, CRUSH. Its like a young teenager's version of Space Mountain. Pretty exilerating actually. I don't blame him for crying. But today, after he's thought about it on his own, he has decided that he wants to try it again. He ...

... shops and restaurants leading to the underground entrance to the museum under the pyramid. I bought my ticket, and plunged head-first into the throngs of people still making their way in this late in the afternoon. Oh boy... I realized then that I would have little patience for full-fledged museum appreciation, and opted for the tourist tour: the Venus of Milo and the Mona Lisa. Anything else I'd see between the two would be a bonus. How awful, really, to be at the Louvre, and ...

... to the city. He pointed out the shop on Ile St Louis with "the best ice-cream in the world", showed us an area in St Germain with good restaurants.... oh, and these food tips were just the aside to an informed cultural tour that ended wondering through the grounds of the massive Louvre museum. Today, having been joined by our friend Tera from San Francisco (a fellow visitor to Antarctica last year), we ...

... up. And, considering the Palermo airport is right on the edge of the island, it was pretty horrifying to shoot right up thousands of feet above the ocean---yikes! Plus, after 30 seconds or so into the decent the pilot started flopping us around, left and right and very steep turns, not gentle gradual turns like I am used to. So, that was traumatic. Then, the stewardesses came around with "magazines", which turned out to be ...

... clair au chocolat. J'ai trouvé une boulangerie viennoise. Je vais aller tchèquer ça demain. Je ne pourrai pas appeler Butch parce que nos heures adonnent pas bin bin. Lui revient à la maison vers 21h et pour moi, c'est 3h du matin. Peut-être une nuit où je serai insomniaque. Pour les photos ...

... materialized)-all of us actually had jackets on (the girls were in jeans!). It was a relief from the unrelenting heat and humidity in Venice. Once we got in the golf cart, we hit the trail and went as far as the Grande Trianon (which we realized we made Peg walk to 24 years ago) and parked our heap and walked around the grounds. It is much like I remembered it, as was the palace though it smelled of urine to me (Lauren and Alison thought I was crazy). After we got back ...

... Lucky Gem can drive and is not suffering from the Vodka! We headed out to Arromanches which is where Port Winston and the allied troops towed in artificial harbor from the UK, sunk it into the bay and used it to of load 30,000 vehicles in 7 days. Very ****** rainy, windy cold weather so it was a bit hard to enjoy!! Next we drove to Caen where we were looking forward to seeing the memorial to Peace. Not much of the original city is left of Caen as it was destroyed during the ...

It's nice to be in the same place for a few days but it makes us lazy. I like not having to pack every morning and move on but when all our **** remains on the floor for five days, it is not a pretty site. We also tend to get up later, have a leisurely shower and laze around for a bit before we get going. The only thing that gets us out of the room before midday is the need for caffeine. MAF was up nice and early and waiting for us in the ...

I'm not even being original anymore. It's getting too late at night. And, you know, if I wanted to, I could just lie and say I've been to all these cool places, if I'm so stuck on getting my % up... but I guess I still want to be truthful. Oh well.