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The adventure has begun!
It is now 5PM Paris time and I'm totally exhausted. I didn't really sleep on the plane ride over - an hour max - so I'm going on two days with no sleep. Brenton, on the other hand, is so hopped up on coffee that he wants to head out for more sightseeing today. I'm hoping the crash comes after dinner so we can catch some rest.
There is a lot that has happened, so I may miss some in my delirious state. Brenton navigated us to the subway line and got us into Paris from the airport. It was a chore and I didn't think he could do it, but he did. We bet some great French cheese that he couldn't do it, so I had to pay up...
So after we dropped our bags off we went to an indoor farmers market where there were a couple of vendors selling nothing but cheese. The vendor wasn't much help picking as they didn't speak any English, and he ended up choosing a little quarter wheel of small cheese that would be enough for a snack. He proudly paid himself with his Euros and the couple behind the counter was all smiles after teaching him please and thank you in French. He proceeds to take a bite of the cheese and immediately spits it out! I'm all for some good and maybe cheese, but these guys do it up right. I took a sniff and it smelled like a pair of well worn in sneakers. Figuring it couldn't be as bad as he was making it out to be, I took a nibble and proceeded to gag too! Needless to say it found its way to the trash.
So we decide to head down towards Notre Dame to take a bike tour and it's getting close to lunch time. Brenton tries to go into every cafe we pass, and we finally stumble upon one that is open. The proprietor was nice and spoke a bit of English and he proceeded to order his first French meal - a hamburger and chips! I chided him a bit, but I couldn't fault him because he was hungry.
After walking around 3 miles we end up where the bike tour was to be, only to find it was cancelled and replaced with a walking tour. Umm.. yeah right! Our butts are sore from 10 hours on a plane and now our feet are sore from walking 3 miles.
We decide to head over to the Louve to check out the museum. Though we'll be walking we figure it'll be a good break to the day. Long story short, the museum was pretty inexpensive and was HUGE. We walked around for around 2 hours before we finally called it quits. We got to see the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo (?), Liberty Leading the People, and many other famous works. I think it'll be great for Brenton when he sees this stuff on TV and in textbooks to relate back to the museum.
Other random tidbits:
- Brenton got his first Paris haircut. He was talking about it for the past couple of days!
- We still don't know how to tell which cabs are occupied and which are available. We haven't been able to take one yet.
- Brenton keeps asking to go to McDonalds, Starbucks, and the Hard Rock. Though he does want to eat escargot. I'll see if I can't work on him here...
- The place we are staying is nice and friendly.
- Paris is an amazing city and VERY different than the US. All of the buildings we passed were old yet nice looking. I can't wait to see more.
On tap tomorrow is the bike tour, the Eiffel Tower, and a catacombs tour. I just need a solid 100 or 12 hours sleep to adjust to the time difference.
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