DAY 1

Unfortunately there are not many photos from Paris because our camera battery died. En route to Paris, our cell phone died as well. We had no way of recharging anything because Paris has crazy sockets. On with the show!

Val! and I checked our luggage at the train station and headed to Sacre Coeur and Mont Martre around 8 in the morning. It was so familiar and Val! and I kept smiling thinking about seeing the sites with our cousins Dao and Rob (they took us in 1998). We both posed for a pic that had been taken of Val! five years ago (the two on the left) for old time's sake then walked away from Sacre Coeur in the direction of Les Halles in search of some sustenance. We were looking for reasonable prices... My stupid Europe on a Shoestring book lists good prices as 12 - 20 Euros. Luckily, Val! and I found this tiny restaurant with three tables barely large enough to seat two people at each (we were the only ones there). We shared a delicious meal of roasted chicken in some garlicky, oniony, oily sauce with potatoes au gratin and some of the best french bread I have ever had. We had cafe, water (thank goodness it is free here as it was not in Italy or Switzerland!), and ate an entire baguette just the two of us. And our meal was only 8.50 euros. The man that owned the place was also the waiter and he was so friendly and helpful. We talked a little about his food, where we were from, and where we were headed around Paris. Val! was able to communicate with him so well in French and he was so excited that she spoke French that he kept looking to her for conversation. It was awesome.

Upon leaving the restaurant we headed for Les Halles, being told it was a 20 minute walk - no problem. We came to a post office first and Val & I put Mom and Mike's V-Day presents in the mail (chocolate from Switzerland sent from Paris, how terribly romantic!), but we're not sure if it will arrive or not because America doesn't allow chocolate to be shipped from France.

After navigating the subway system, we wound up in a huge mall and could not find our way out. It was cool though - neat shops, cheap and cool clothes. Once we finally emerged St. Eustache was just in front of us and the day had become warmer and gloriously sunny. We walked around a bit, taking photos of the area. It is where we stayed with Dao and Rob so many years ago. We even went back to the hotel we stayed at to find out how much it would be to stay again (75 euro/night for a double). Val! and I took some photos before my camera completely died.

We found an internet place with amazing facilities that was opened 24/7 and posted most of what you just read on our Paris forum. After leaving, I insisted we get crepes. Val! got strawberry with apple sauce and I had Bailey's with sugar. They were SO good (especially mine)!

Val! and I wanted to go to the tourist information office to find out about apartments in Paris. We'd been throwing around the idea of renting one for a month or so. We decided we'd rather visit the Latin Quarter, first, and on the way there, as we crossed Ponte Neuf, we met a Greek boy named Alex that is studying art in London. He sparked up a conversation with us as we both were staring at our respective travel guides trying to find our way around the city. He asked if he could tag along with us for a while, and we were happy to oblige. He was full of energy and clicked a few pictures with his Nikon SLR. Hopefully we'll get to see them someday.

We stopped first by the Notre Dame cathedral. You see, there is a circle there where we stood almost 6 years prior which is supposed to assure that you return to Paris. Well, we had to step on it again, of course. We saw a bit of the Latin Quarter (not as exciting as we'd remembered plus we had to get to the tourist office) before making a mad dash to the Champs-Elysees... Where the Tourist Info Center was supposed to be... but is not any longer. The three of us stood outside the abandoned offices with a few other befuddled tourists. I cursed the guide book, we circled the amazing Arch Du Triumphe, and headed for a glass of wine (thanks Alex!). We strolled back to the Seine and watched the sun set on Ponte Neuf and the rest of the city. It was gorgeous and magical. We think it is the Chicago of Europe. :) hehe

Val! and I had salad, miso soup, sushi, sticky rice, and yakatori (grilled on a spit) items: lamb, duck, a little bird that you can only get in France supposedly, meat with cheese, mushrooms, ground chicken balls, and chicken meat. It was all interesting and most of it was tasty.

I hate to report that after this the night spiraled into misery. We went back to the internet place to check out the forum. No posts, no e-mail. We were in need of a place to stay and shelled out $40 euro for a horrible room at which point we demanded our money back. We thought the best thing we could do was head to a train station and then onward to Calais, only we'd missed the last train to Calais, or anywhere else for that matter. We had gotten our things out of storage and were stuck with them for the rest of the night. We'd even missed the last night train and delirium was setting in. We hadn't any place to sleep that night and were freezing. Train stations aren't heated and we were kicked out of the station anyway at 1 am. We tried to stay at a 24 hour restaurant but as we looked like vagrant backpackers, they wouldn't let us sit there till 5:30 when the station reopened. We sat in a nearby bar for a little while but they closed too so we had to sit on the streets being frozen until the station opened... Once inside, we wandered around for a while so cold and out of it... We found this heater that people were huddling next too and literally fell asleep a couple times standing up. We felt so shitty. We'd been drinking espressos all night trying to stay awake. We just took the first train out of the station so we could sleep and use the restroom - the restrooms almost always cost money everywhere. Finally, we were able to get a train toward Calais after missing the first one because the train we were on took us an hour toward nothing, then the train we had to catch to get back was delayed. We ended up in Lille, France, before breaking down and purchasing Eurostar passes to London, England and salvation.