Europe Day Thirteen

PARIS!

Notre Dame

Today we traveled by bus most of the day through the beautiful French countryside, snapping pictures through our bus window. This truly has been a whirlwind tour, giving us just a “taste” of Europe, making us want another bite – some day.

We arrived in Paris at about 3:00 in the afternoon. The bus mostly drove around the city with a tour guide from Paris on our bus. Again – snapping pictures from our bus. Then we were finally allowed to get off at Notre Dame – for one half hour. Then back on the bus to the Eiffel Tower – for fifteen minutes!! We were able to quickly snap pictures and then head back. I’m not meaning to sound critical. It’s what we signed up for, seeing a lot in a very short period of time, but it does make us a little sad when we would like to just sit and gaze for hours at these magnificent pieces of architecture. You should see Dale running around – snap, snap, snapping pictures – running back to catch up with the group.

Paris is an amazing city. We had been sternly warned about the pickpocketers that are here. “Hang on to your purse and wallet; don’t let go of your bags for even a second.” At the same time it is supposed to be the “city of love.” Hmmm. Seems a bit incongruous, if you know what I mean. But there is so much history in this city, it’s just awesome to ponder it. Just wish we had a little more time to ponder . . .

Sort of! I am getting that longing to be home. There truly is no place like home. Missing my little grandbabies so very much (and the rest of my family as well, of course).

We ended our tour with our “tour family” at a little Parisian restaurant that looked like it was converted out of an old wine cellar. Probably several hundred years old at least. We were given quite a banquet.

For the first course we were given several options, one of which was escargot or “snails” in plain English. Well, we decided to go the safe route. I ordered French onion soup (yes, it is called French onion soup in France) and Dale ordered the escargot.

We just felt we had to try it. If we didn’t like it, then we could share the soup. Well, the snails came, and they came in their shells. You had to hold onto the shell and scoop out the little creature with a special little fork. Notice the green stuff that is on top of these little bugs. Really appetizing! NOT! See Dale.

His face expresses it all. He did it! Of course, then I had to do it. He made me. But I did it. Neither one of us likes escargot very much. It really doesn’t taste very good and the little creatures are sort of rubbery in texture. Eh! Well, we can chalk it up as a new “experience” for us, and we can at least say we’ve tried it.

The soup was good.

Karen ordered frogs legs . . . Can you see them? SO appetizing! NOT!!Next came the main course. Dale picked a beef dish with a French-sounding name. Neither one of us can remember the name. I had a shrimp thing. The third course was cheese – various choices of different kinds of cheeses. Strange. Final course, dessert. Dale had a chocolate mousse, and I had a caramel cream thing that was kind of like flan. I will say that I really think American food is better than almost anything I’ve had here in Europe, with one exception and that was the German Bratenworst with sauerkraut. Of course, we're prejudiced, I'm sure and it's also what we've been used to all our lives.

At the end of the meal we had some great French entertainment and everyone sang, clapped, and even danced! It was so much fun.

When you travel with someone for 7 days, you make some wonderful friendships.

Majed and Hamad from Dubai and Gloria from New York.

(Thank you, Gloria, for the bookmark from the New York Public Library)

Yosef and Cendriani from Indonesia

Helen and Chris from Austrailia

(Our Auzzies)

Daphne and Rosie from England
(Rosie, I'm sorry the picture isn't a better quality.

It's the only one I got of you, for some reason :(

You'll just have to send me a better picture. If you do, I'll post it)

and many more.

I regret that we didn’t get pictures of everyone and didn’t even get a group shot. Well, it was our tour guide’s first tour. She probably didn’t think of it and we certainly didn’t.

Tomorrow we leave for London and this will be the end of this tour. That will be a good thing. We will be at one hotel for four days, and we will be on our own pace. Yes! We’ll actually be able to sit and gaze. Great Idea! Caun’t wait (said with a good British accent ;)