the one from cgd on the way to dfw

being without internet is exceptionally frustrating but almost equally liberating. paris doesn't exactly offer internet abound. and if you do decide (which i highly suggest NOT) to connect to the wifi paris connection, be prepared to pay in excess of 10EUR for 1 hour. yes, that's right. approximately $15 per hour. balls!

i am uploading craps-loads of photos from cdg as i compose this post. i have so much to go over.

i did some little video entries from out and about but i need to figure out how to post those to share since smugmug is just a photo gallery and i don't necessarily want to share the videos with the general world, you know?

firstly, apologies for my hair in the pictures. france and my hair had an ongoing argument since the day i landed. secondly, holy BALLS! my feet and legs are killing me. but more on that later.

lastly, the quality of the photos has diminished compliments of a VERY drunk englishman who dumped a large, new, pint of beer all over me and my camera. *sigh*

we left chantilly on friday around 2:30pm local time. we made it to paris in about an hour or so (traffic!) and 90EUR later. did you know that taxis begin charging you from the time they leave to come get you? so no matter where they are, they start charging long before you are even collected. again, BALLS!

friday:
we headed out for a walk-about and wound up at notre dame. oh my gosh, it was incredible. i mean, sure, you see pictures and shows on the television but until stand in front of it and feel how just absolutely massive it is, i'm not sure you can actually appreciate the extreme size.

we had dinner at a quaint cafe directly across the river from the notre dame so we had a spectacular view for our first dinner in paris.

after dinner we headed to meat with some other colleagues from texas. the plan was to meet at the eiffel tower at 8pm. we had some trouble navigating the metro but after help from a super amazingly nice frenchman, we arrived at just 10 after 8 and found our friends. completely shocking considering the sheer number of folks out there.

eiffel tower. wow. it's massive. absolutely.massive. we got there shy of dark and got to see how it does this light show thing. at the top of every hour, for ten minutes, they do this amazing light show thing. i have a video of that to share soon once i figure that part out.

many hours later we found we needed to head back to the hotel. that was a nightmare in and of itself and i'd rather not get myself agitated rehashing it. suffice it to say that it is OK to stop and ask for directions!

saturday i went it alone thru paris. (much better this way!) i headed for the louvre (pronounced loov-ruh by the way). i walked a long way and took tons and tons of photos. i saw so many really amazing things in the louvre. from there, i went to musee d'orsay (which is basically where the louvre ends in collections). i headed back to the hotel to empty off the digital camera card (whoopsie! picture happy was i!). i went back toward the louvre and entered from a different direction and got some really neat snaps as well. i saw so many things in this area and i'm just drawing a blank.

i window shopped a bit along random streets and took side streets here and there then went to bercy. what a cool little village. from bercy i went back to the hotel to drop off purchases and met up with a colleague and had dinner at a super neat little cafe at the end of our street. very nice and the owner lady was so funny.

from there, we walked to the sacre couer. (sac-ruh kerr). the steps getting up to it, OOF, but so totally worth it. you have the most amazing view of paris. it was a little hazy and overcast so we were a little disappointed in that plus it was almost dark ... pictures were only so-so with the digital. i am hoping the ones from the 35mm turned out much better.

after an hour or more up top, we headed and "shopped" the little vendors shops in the area.

hotel and then a beer across the street. a very interesting dutchman owned the place and he has strong views about texas and george w. LOL it was comical, actually, more on that later.

sunday. oh.my.god. sunday was something but i'll save that for another post since i think we will soon be boarding.

business class dontcha know. woot!

check out the photos, i've probably uploaded almost 100MB this morning from the airport. excuse the blurry or etc, i didn't go thru and sift out anything other than the obviously awful ones. i'll rotate and orient the ones that are sideways when i get home and have more time.

love from paris, for the last time.