Back in France!

Bonsoir de Paris! Greetings from Paris. Stephanie and I are back in France for the women's world cup and some tourist fun. We brought my parents, Richard and Jennifer with us. We're now nearly 3 days in to our stay, so let's get you all caught up.

We arrived on Thursday, and after a long flight and a long cab ride from Charles De Gaule airport, we arrived at our hotel. We're staying at a nice hotel near the Luxembourg Gardens and Boulevard St. Germain. After dropping off our luggage at the hotel, it was time to fight off jet lag, stay awake, and get acclimated. We set off for lunch, which we found at a restaurant at the Marche St. Germaine. After that, we took a nice leisurely stroll through the Luxembourg Gardens. After indulging in the briefest of naps, it was time for a quick dinner, then back to the hotel to watch the final match of the group stage for U.S., which would also tell us a good deal about where we would spend the rest of our time. They won, and so we'll be off to Reims in a couple days.

Stephanie and Jennifer at dinner. It was tres floral.
Also, Mom's not mad,
us Earlys just make faces sometimes.

Friday

Friday morning, we set out for a bike tour in Versailles. We have never been to Versailles, and we were very much looking forward to seeing it. In the end, it didn't disappoint, although there were certainly some bumps in the road. My dad, who is a pretty avid cyclist, took a couple falls and just couldn't get the hang of the easy-ride bikes, so the tour ended up being on foot for our group, which was just fine. We explored the market and equipped ourselves for a nice picnic on the grounds. I even got to work on my practical French language skills by stopping in a grocery store and asking for "quelque chose pour ouvrir une boutielle" which very successfully earned me a corkscrew. As mentioned, the grounds did not disappoint. Those Bourbons really went big. The weather was picture perfect, and after the early stumbles, we had a wonderful day in a truly spectacular setting. Stephanie found us a good restaurant where I got to struggle successfully once more with the language and eventually get us all deliciously fed.

Stephanie in her natural environment (train)

Dad with a strong accidental photo bomb in the hall of mirrors

Versailles is a good palace (seen her up the hill in the back)

Saturday

We're just getting in from our first full day in Paris proper, and our feet are good and hurting for it. We've established that Stephanie and I don't really know to travel in big cities without near-obscene levels of walking. But Mom and Dad are keeping up, and we're taking plenty of breaks to enjoy cafes and everything they have to offer in the way of drinks and food. In between today's cafe stops, we saw the following:

• St. Germain Des Pres - A very historic church in our neighborhood
• St. Chapelle - Best stained glass maybe anywhere - it's really amazing
• The shell of Notre Dame - Can't get very close or anywhere near inside, due to recent fire
• A nice stroll through the Les Halles district and a bit of the Marais
• The Centre Pompidou museum featuring modern and contemporary art, a completely avant-garde architectural style, and hard-to-beat views
• A trip  to Champ de Mars and a viewing of the 10:00 Eiffel Tower twinkling with thousands of follow visitors and Parisiens

Bonne Nuit et a bientot. Good night and see you soon.