Paris!

For whatever reason I wasn't as excited about Paris as everyone else seemed to expect me to be. "Ohhhhh, you're going to Paris? That's amazing! I'm jealous!" I don't know if it was the rumors of rudeness or my lack of French language skills, but I just wasn't enthused.

But as it turned out, I loved the place. Once I figured out the Metro (subway), checked into my hotel without any problems, I relaxed a bit. My first full day was a Sunday and I got up early to catch breakfast, which consisted of a croissant, a piece of bread (a good piece of bread though) and a cup of coffee. I planned to see as many sights as I could until I got tired. Knowing my endurance levels, that would mean I'd be done after about two sights. But it being Sunday, there were no crowds, so my tolerance held out long enough to take to nearly every Parisian attraction that isn't a museum and one actual museum. I was done by about two. Lunch consisted of a loaf of bread and a box of strawberries which I ate at the botanical gardens. Yes, it was wonderful. Even the birds wanted in on it.

The next day I went the Louvre and spent hours looking at the Middle Eastern stuff, breezed through the Italian painters, saw the line for the Mona Lisa and refused. I'm *still* not sold on that. On the way back to the hotel I decided to forgo my usual grocery store cold lunch and eat at a cafe. I ate pasta that was so good I actually thought I was going to die. If Americans have anything to be ashamed of it's what we've done to the pepperoni. After a nap, I finished off the evening at the Gardens of Luxembourg which was really big park with an even bigger building with cool oddly dressed security guys patrolling it.

And then it was time to go. I could go there again. I could spend time in the rest of France too and it surprises me to say that.