Our vacation Travel day and paris day1

The night before we left for our trip I was so sad to leave my kids. I put off putting them to bed because I knew it was the last time I would see them until we came home. After they went to bed I went and watched them sleep... so sweet and I whispered to parker as I kissed his cheek I love you and he whispered back in his sleep I love you too mommy. My heart melted....
We left Boise very early the next morning where we flew to met john and kim in SLC then we flew to JFK where we boarded the biggest passenger carrying airplane ever it had two full length decks it held way over 500 passengers. Airbus something or other. crazy, but it was a 6 hour flight that never ended I could not get comfortable and sleep. I had taken a Tylenol PM (but I guess needed something stronger)I think I put too much pressure on myself that I had to sleep or I would be miserable the next day... but it just couldn't, I laid there with my eyes shut for the majority of the flight but never went to sleep. we landed at 8:30am the next morning which was 12:30am our time. the plan was to stay up all day then sleep at paris' night.
we took a metro and found our hotel

it was very nice for a paris room and we got upgraded to suited because our rooms were sold... oh la la... then were we were off.
first stop lunch... our first paris cafe... flop.
I ordered a raw veggie salad (at this point I am still maintaining my eating plan) it was fine, dan the adventurous one ordered foreign items the first was some sort of pate... it was ok then the next was a andouille sausage that had all kinds of layers of different kinds of meat... i did not try it. he didn't seem to mind. kim ordered raviolis and they were honestly straight from a chef boyordee can. not kidding but they had a pound of cheese melted on top... john had lasagna not horrible not sure if it was stoufferes or not...
now on to the louvre.

us in front of the Louvre

we lucked out not much of a line...but that is the biggest thing have ever seen it went on forever. 12 miles of galleries to be exact. we only stayed a few hours. I know I will probably go down as some American snob for not appreciating wonderful art, but for the most part i was bored to tears, it was interesting stuff, but how many Roman and Greek statues can you see of naked people.

silly after no sleep.

question, did they really go to battle naked??? they all did in these statues and paintings. we found the Mona Lisa. as I had thought it would be pretty unimpressive, it was small and under thick glass and ok... so sleepy There she is...... Mona Lisa

it had a huge crowd of people around it cramming to take a picture... of course i had to join you know what they say... when in Rome... oh wait we are in Paris.. but you get the idea. a few other classics we made sure we went to see,

the Louvre used to be where the royalty lived before they moved to Versailles that is why it was so beautiyfl inside.
Venus de Milo


some of our favorites were the huge paintings of Napoleons coronation and a couple of whole wall works of art
but the building it was in was absolutely beautiful, many times competing with the art it self. i was awe struck.
then we had enough, I think if were were not so stinking tired we would have liked it more and stayed longer, but I can check it off my list, been to the Louvre.
Back to hotel, shower and take a quick (2 hour nap) then get ready for dinner and more sight seeing. We took the metro to the Arc de triompe.



it was so cool 12 lanes of traffic led to this circle which was at least 8 lanes wide and people drove like crazy cutting across there. we took the tunnel under the street (there is no crossing that thing by foot) to the arc. Napoleon commissioned it to be built after some battle they one and as a memorial , but died before it was finished so 19 years later they carried his remains through it was they brought him back from his exiled isle. we climbed 250 spiral stairs to the top it made us very dizzy but it was beautiful up there. a great view of the whole city.



Then we made the famous walk down champs eleeyse. We were on a mission find dinner at this point it was after 8. we found a cute pizza place and ate there. I has salmon and green beans, dan had tortellini, john had pizza and kim had pasta and salad. we were hungry and it hit the spot.
A few things we have learned about restaurants here. they are expensive. most plates start at 16 euros about $20 and those are cheap places. they take their time, no one is in a rush. not uncommon to wait 30 minutes for food and another 30 for your check after you eat, it is just our American rushed lifestyle it is so different from. One waiter does a whole room, they are not there to be our friends they just get their job done.
After dinner we wandered around we looked into a few cool stores of the champs then headed home. we decided to walk to see more of the city. we walked and walked and walked.

it was after 11pm at this point and could not find an open toilets (what they call them here) we finally made it to the Jardin de tuilleries and Kim was about ready to go in bushes... (we are in Paris everyone does that) it smells like it anyways. but the bushes were full of people walking and making out. so funny.... we finally found a McDonald's across the street and he was locking the doors but we begged him in our non french annoying American ways to let us in... then we continued our way home. Just to home we walked at least 3 miles. after being up all night and then walking all day we were beat.