Paris

Saturday night at almost 10:30pm, we landed in Paris. Trying to leave the airport was interesting. After staring at the train/metro ticket dispenser and one failed attempt to buy the correct metro ticket, we gave up and got a taxi. With getting our luggage and our transportation adventures, it was about midnight when we made it into our hotel room. The real entertainment of Paris though was Karin's pinky nail infection. The first night using nail clippers and an earring back, we (I) poked it got everything out. The goal of the next day which was Easter Sunday was to find an open pharmacy. Contrary to our wishes and pleading, no antibiotics were available without a prescription. However, a very nice French pharmacist gave her an antiseptic solution to soak it and an antibiotic ointment to apply. (update: her finger is now doing MUCH better 4 days later).

The next day was Sunday - Happy Easter! First thing we did was find some delicious pastries for breakfast. We then continued from our hotel in L'Opera to the city centre to the Louvre, only about a 20 minute walk. Even on Easter Sunday it was packed. We got in the massive line and admired the architecture while we waited. Truly, the whole city has beautiful renaissance architecture. Although it was supposed to be an hour wait, within about 30 minutes we were entering the building. We started with the history of the Louvre exhibit from when it was a castle in the time of Charles V to the monstrous modern day museum it is today. After that we spent about 3 or 4 hours wandering the museum. We managed to see a lot including the Greek and Roman Antiquities as well as French, German, Flemish, and Dutch paintings. Of course we saw the Mona Lisa, but the Rembrandt room was my favorite. Following that, we strolled passed the Musee d'Orsay though the Larin Quarter seein some of the cafe hangouts of famous writers. Then, onto Notre Dame with a brief stop at Saint Chapelle. We arrived at Notre Dame only a few minutes late for one of the Easter masses. We listened to most of the mass as it took about 30 minutes to tour the cathedral and absorb how grand it is. Finally, back to the Latin Quarter for a delicious dinner and bottle (or 2) of wine to finish the night.

Monday morning the mission was to find crepes for breakfast. It was successful (and delicious), however we ended up walking much closer to the city centre than planned. It didn't matter though, as the next plan was just to grab bikes and see what we could see. We passed the intelligance test of getting rental bike tickets and began on our trek. Starting right outside the Louvre, we rode along the Jardin de Tuileries to the Avenue de Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. Continuing, we rode passed the Eiffel Tower to the Hotel des Invalides. It was a perfect midday bike ride. Once at the Hotel des Invalides, we got absorbed in the Napoleon history exhibit at the Musee de L'Armee and ended up spending the rest of our afternoon there. We even got to see Napoleon's tomb. Finally, we had to head back, grab something to eat, and get to the train station to move our trip on to Berlin (and Rachel and Donald!)...