February 16: Amazing Paris!!

3:45 and it is way too early for normal people to wake up, but we did. Our plane left at 6:20 and we had to be there an hour early. Breakfast, shower, check we have everything and we stumbled out the door.

Two trains and a plane and we arrive outside Paris at 8:30, when normal people are just getting up. We walk off the plane, hear some French announcements, see the French signs, we were here! Kate went ballistic as her dream of being in Paris (partially) came to fruition. I say partially because it was still an hour and a half to get into the center of Paris.

Kate’s amazing French, together with my amazing ability to hold the sheet with the directions, brought us to, Eric and my second cousin, Corrie and Steve’s house. This is where we were going to stay for the next two nights.

The house was a white four story high house set behind a hedge, fence and electric gate on a large plot of land on the side of a neat street with a massive boulevard. We walked in through the pedestrian entrance and knocked on the door. After a few minutes, a tired looking Alec answered the door, still in his pajamas, and kindly welcomed us into his house.

Soon Corrie arrived and we had a great breakfast to get the day started. During breakfast we also met another of our cousins, Len. It turns out that Alec had taken the day off school, Imperial College in London, to come out and show us around the city.

We caught the metro at a station close to the house and headed out to see Notre Dame Cathedral. We got off the train and walked along the Seine River and across the 1000 year old bridge called the “New Bridge.” We took some photos outside of the great cathedral then went for a walk around the inside. It really is a spectacle just how large and well decorated the building was. After Notre Dame we began to walk to the Louvre. The whole walk we were told the bits of history that Alec knew, most of which had a slight engineeringish undertone which made me pay more attention.

We decided that we would not go inside the Louvre because the lineup was too large, Eric and I had already seen some of the exhibits on our last trip and Kate was not too into it. So we walked around the old part of the great museum and admired the great sandstone façades, the sculptures, the large glass pyramid and the fountains. We then took the stairs in to “The Carrosel du Louvre” the underground visitors complex. Here Kate procured a France mug in the underground Starbucks. After getting out we walked out through the Louvre garden and decided to stop at a café for some eats. We stopped at a nice café beside the Place de la Concorde for some baguette sandwiches, coffee and conversation. The food and coffee was great. Next stop Eiffel Tower.

We got to the metro station and Len decided to part ways with us to head home. On the train we enjoyed the standard engineering conversation topic of cars. Types of cars that we had driven, North American versus European cars, displacements, efficiencies, top speeds excreta. Kate fell asleep. We woke her up and headed up out of the metro station rounded the corner and the Alexandre Gustave Eiffel’s creation greeted us. We were lucky enough to have a break in the clouds to truly enjoy this sight. We took some photos and, without Kate’s consent, headed up the 704 stairs not the elevator. A couple hundred steps and 115m later we were at the second level. Eric, Alec and I enjoyed the view and Kate enjoyed the gift shop. We decided against heading to the top because it was too crowded and expensive.

The next stop in our one-day tour of the main sights of Paris was “The Arc de Triomphe.” We checked it out and admired the skill of the people brave enough to brave the traffic circle that surrounds it. After a few more souvenir shops we got on the metro to head back to Corrie’s house for dinner.

Back at the house Alec took Eric and I shopping for climbing shoes while Corrie took Kate on a tour of her dresses that she designed. A fantastic dinner of veal, veggies and potatoes followed by a few episodes of Top Gear got us ready for bed.