Now, I did something that I really really really shouldn't have. I signed us up for a group tour of Paris. I thought it would be a more relaxing way to do Paris. We wouldn't have to worry about transportation, and we'd have somebody to show us around. I really just wanted to splurge on a somewhat pricey tour, and relax.
I was oh, so incorrect. I will never again do an overnight tour with this company.
Don't get me wrong - Josh and I had a great time. And this company wasn't a bad tour company. Our guide was good, the itinerary was good. But this was the most whirlwind, jam-packed, least relaxing, most expensive thing we could have ever, ever, ever done. Plus, we were surrounded my ignoramuses the whole time. NEVER AGAIN. Although I am glad we got a taste of Paris - now we know what spots we want to revisit - and what spots we don't.
Seriously - we had a wonderful time together. But as is my nature, this will be a blog filled with complaints and judgments of others. Because it's just more fun to write that way. ;)
So anyway, our trip started at 5pm Friday with a 6 hour bus ride to Paris. Why, isn't Paris only 4 hours from where you live, Courtney? Yes, yes it is. But, we're riding in a bus that can't go over 90km/h. Sounds like the set-up of a bad '90s movie, eh? (and by "bad", I mean "I secretly think that movie was kick-ass"). Plus, we had to stop halfway there for a 45 minute break at a French gas station/restaurant.
FYI, gas station restaurants in France are not like gas station restaurants in America. They are much nicer, with selections such as soups, salad bars, fresh pasta, a prime rib station, etc.
Oh, and another FYI - restrooms in France are not fun. I'm actually pretty confidant that I used the public restrooms incorrectly. None of the toilets had seats on them, and at least one location had footprints on either side of the toilet that were pointing backwards. But, I ignored those facts, and just used them like a true American would....and made sure to Purell my body afterwards.
I am thankful, however, that we never came across the French toilets that are just holes in the ground that you're meant to hover over.
After a looooooong trip to Paris, we arrived to our hotel which was actually pretty nice. The only negative was that we were in the industrial section of Paris, about 20 minutes from Paris Paris.
And here is me, enjoying a glass of Australian wine, bought from the BX in Germany, while in our Parisian hotel. How worldly I am....
After a super-restless nights sleep, we got up at 6am to go have breakfast, because our group tour started at 8am. And ya know, I'm not even going to complain about the fact that we had to get up that early, because our hotel breakfast was AH-mazing.
Baguettes, croissants, brie, yogurt in little glass jars....oy, I stuffed myself silly. As did Josh.
I'm glad we ate so much, because we ended up skipping lunch. Normally, Josh and I end up skipping a meal any day we are traveling. There's just too much to do, and see. Plus, we try to save as much money as possible when traveling. Although on this trip, there wasn't enough time to eat on Saturday anyway. But I digress.
After breakfast, it was off to the Notre Dame Cathedral.
Josh and I are completely non-religious. However, we both loooove going to cathedrals and churches. The history and architecture and artistry that goes into a cathedral is just mind-boggling.
We got to walk around the cathedral and surrounding area for a little while, but then it was off to the bus again to head on to the Luxembourg gardens.
It's at this point that I start realizing that this group tour may not have been the best idea. First, I should mention that we have assigned bus seats. We're sitting in 2nd row, right behind the tour guide. That was nice, because she was a fun girl about our age, and it was nice to talk to her. She's German, but she speaks fluent English, French, and Latin, as well as some Italian. Smart, eh? However, I soon realize that most of the people on our group - ESPECIALLY the people surrounding our assigned seats - are some of the most mind-numbingly stupid people I have ever met. Yes, I know I'm judgmental, and I know that I think a lot of people are dumb.....but our group had a monopoly on stupid. So while I liked that our seats were in front of the bus, I did not like that I couldn't escape from the dummies that surrounded us. Nothing but constant comments and dumb jokes and dumb statements. I could write a book on that alone, so I'll just stop now.
Anywho, Luxembourg gardens. It was built by Marie of the Medicis (Henry IV's wife) to remind her of home.
After a walk through the grounds, we headed over to the Church of Saint-Sulpice. This was one of the churches featured in the Da Vinci Code - where the keystone was located. This church has a brass meridian line running thru the floor. I love it when science and religion are intertwined!
And after that, we went to the shopping district downtown for a little bit. Josh and I went to the Fragonard perfume museum/shop for a quick 15 minute tour. It was actually an interesting tour, but afterwards the perfume guides quickly turned into super-aggressive perfume saleswomen. So, we high-tailed it outta there to walk around downtown. This was probably our least favorite part of the weekend. It was the mall district, and there were SO MANY people. We did get to see the opera house, though.
I'm not good with crowds anyway, but this was just ridiculous. We were on a street where the "famous" Lafayette mall is located. They do elaborate holiday window decorations every year (I'm thinking like Barney's in NYC) so there were a ton of people lined up to check out the windows. Plus there were a ton of street vendors as well. It was pretty neat seeing people roasting chestnuts in garbage cans and selling them on the street to the shoppers. But there are also sooooo many beggars on the street. A lot of them were quite aggressive, too. You had to tell them "no" at least 3 times before they'd go away. Hell, even the vendors would follow you around.
But, one good thing about our stop in downtown was that we got to witness the Umbrella Incident of 2011.
Josh and I are walking down the street, when we hear a dog start barking. Loudly. I made the comment, "Man, that dog does NOT sound happy!". That's when we round the corner, and see a street vendor (the owner of the dog) chasing after a guy in a business suit, beating him with an umbrella. The dog is pissed, the street vendor is absolutely furious (I could have sworn I saw smoke coming from his ears) and the business suit guy is running around trying to keep from getting whacked again.
I don't know what the hell happened, but that was definitely the most exciting part of our hour and half in the shopping district of Paris.
After that, it was on to the Arc de Triomphe. Unfortunately, we only had 15 minutes to spend here.
This is an example of another reason why the mister and I should NOT have done a group tour. We had a group reservation for the Eiffel tower at 1:30pm. So, everything throughout the morning had to be timed out - how long we got to stay at each location. The same damn people kept showing up late to the bus all weekend, which just aggravated the piss out of me and Josh. It made the whole schedule all out of whack, and made us end up having to rush through certain things...such as the Arc.
So the Arc is out in the middle of the biggest, scariest roundabout ever. But, there is a handy dandy access tunnel underneath the road that we basically ran thru, in order to get the pictures we wanted and make it back in time. I'm so thankful I wore my ankle brace - it REALLY helped!
One thing I learned on this trip - the Arc de Triomphe has a museum on the top floor. I didn't even know you could go inside the dang thing. Of course, we couldn't, since we didn't have the time. Earmarked for the next trip!!
Please ignore the lovely layer of sweat coating my face. I hate rushing.
After the Arc, we were finally off to Eiffel. We had tickets that took us up to the 2nd floor of the tower. We really wanted to go to the top, but we only had an hour and a half to spend, and apparently the wait to go to the very top was 45min to an hour. Really, it was just as well, because the view from the 2nd floor was still spectacular. One person in our group DID actually go to the top. Buuuut, he was 15 minutes late back to the bus, so we left him, and he had to take a taxi back to the hotel. Ha!! And I found out later he said the view really wasn't that much better than on the 2nd floor anyway.
Then we had a 5 minute stop at the tombs of Les Invalides - where Napoleon (among others) is buried. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go in. You see why I was so happy we left the guy that was 15 minutes late??
Sooooo, then we head back to the hotel, where we have an hour to get ready for dinner. Our dinner was not included in our ticket price, but was an optional 60 euro per person meal (appetizer, main course, dessert, and a half bottle of wine per person). We went ahead and splurged on it, thinking it would be the most amazing French meal ever. Wrong. It was good, don't get me wrong, but so NOT worth that much money.
We left the hotel at 5:15pm, and didn't get to the restaurant until 6:15pm. The restaurant was only 15km away, at the most. The traffic was just HORRIBLE. Paris traffic is awful anyway, but Saturday evening was ten times worse. Rules and laws are just suggestions in this city, and I can't believe we never saw anybody get run over - especially the bicyclists and motorcyclists.
I had a goat cheese salad, vegetable lasagna, and tarte tatin. Josh had french onion soup, mushroom stuffed chicken, and creme brulee. I normally do not like goat cheese, but this was the best goat cheese I have ever had, and I actually ate most of it. Other than that, the meal was just meh. Good, but not great.
It was actually pretty funny at the restaurant - when we first got there, everyone was just hungry and cranky and tired. It was kinda quiet and awkward. But man, once everyone got to eat, and had half a bottle of wine each, the volume in that restaurant skyrocketed.
After dinner, it was time to go on our Seine river cruise. They let you bring drinks on board, so we took one of the unfinished bottles of wine from dinner and brought it with us (somebody gave it to us, we didn't just TAKE it).
The boat ride was fun, except for the constant fear that birds flying overhead were going to crap on us.
Once the boat ride was done, we went BACK to the Eiffel tower for a short 10 minute visit. Every night at 10pm, the Eiffel tower has a sparkly light show. The pictures don't do it justice, but it really was beautiful.
The first picture is before the light show started, the second is during. It lasted for about 5 minutes. Imagine several thousand flash bulbs all over the tower going off at different intervals, over and over and over. (btw, at night, the Eiffel tower is constantly bathed in orange light, and the blue spot light on top is always rotating. it's just the sparkly lights that come on for 5 minutes at 10pm)
After this, it's back to the hotel for the night. Other than an hour that we had at the hotel at 4pm to get ready for dinner, it was nothing but go go go all day long. We were EXHAUSTED, but at least we got a much better sleep in preparation for our next day.
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