Final Stop - Paris!!

Our arrival in Paris! We stand in the Invalides neighborhood which looked close to the Eiffel Tower (this pic is down the street from the hotel), but was actually a long, long walk as we discovered!!

The Notre Dame Cathedral! Chris and I got there in time for mass (in French).
Outside the Notre Dame
The stained glass was beautiful!

We met up in Paris with two of my friends from Swansea, Alexin and Gemma. They had been there for a few days and took us to an AMAZING gyro shop for lunch!!

Our first night in Paris, Chris and I ate at this tiny restaurant that served fantastic cuisine in a warm atmosphere. It was very romantic, as one would expect in Paris. We then headed to this bar above where we had a few beers. It was a fun, fun night!!

Of all the people you'd think you'd see in Paris.....it's Tony Ziemann!!

Paris was the second stop on my parents' Euro trip. Chris and I met them at their hotel and the four of us headed to dinner. We were seated in a small room with maybe a dozen tables, ours being the first to be sat. The host then came in to seat another table of two men.....right next to ours! It was fine for us, but we felt a bit bad about the fact that they had to be seated next to the four Americans who were having endlessly conversations about travelling and catching up.

It is no surprise that as the meal went on my dad struck up conversation with these two men, who were from Switzerland, my parents' next stop! One thing leads to another and the next thing we know these two men have bought a round of after dinner drinks for each of us. My mom and I got some sort of port-type wine that was strong as gasoline, while my dad and Chris had a clear liquor served in a brandy glass on a bowl of ice. Very impressive!!

After dinner goodbyes!!

See you in Swansea!!!

The Eiffel Tower, obviously!! Another pic taken by the ourselves with a massive structure in the background. We've mastered this pose!

Elevator? Who needs it! Chris and I walked up to the second level of the tower, about 667 steps!! An impressive feat, I think!

French postal vehicle - the minivan!

The Arc d' Triumph - In order to get to it, you can cross 6 lanes of non-stop traffic OR take a tunnel. We opted for the latter!

Outside the Louvre! We got here about 1 1/2 before closing so had to rush it a bit. But we saw the important pieces - Mona Lisa, Venus Di Milo, etc... Oh and this underground moat with drawbridge that was really cool. And Napoleon's apartment - he was a lavish man!!

We took a river cruise on our last night in Paris.

We travelled down the Seine at sunset - how romantic!!

But there was a woman who was guiding the cruise over a loudspeaker in French, then English, intermittently cracking up at god knows what. That was more than a bit annoying!

Paris was the final destination on our 2 1/2 week vacation. We were both fairly tired by this point, as you can imagine. We spent most of time in Paris just roaming the streets. We had 4 days there, too, so after a while we felt more like locals than tourists. It was a cool feeling.

While we were lucky enough not to suffer any injuries/illnesses on our trip to this point, we both got a bit of foid poisoning our last day. We ate lunch at noon, then took the metro to the airport. It took longer than we had expected and we ended up missing our flight. While we waited in the airport, our tummies were feeling worse and worse. Finally, about 30 minutes before boarding our flight back to London, it happened. I unloaded most of my lunch in a lovely airport toilet. I was so upset and told Chris just to leave me in Paris as there was no way I was getting on a plane in that condition. But we had to get back to London.... So I got on the hour and a half flight, during which I was sick 4 times! It was miserable! Upon getting into London, we found a hotel near Heathrow and I crashed for the night and woke up feeling better. Poor Chris was going through his worst time at about this point. And he had to get on a 11-hour flight back to the States. A bitter end to a great trip!