Paris, France, August 29th - August 31st, 2009

To get shat on by a bird once is considered lucky, but twice in one weekend? Perhaps you’ll be blessed with the Midas touch? Who wouldn’t want to go to Paris in the hopes that it would happen?!

We arrived Saturday morning via the Eurostar and walked to our hotel- Hotel Mathi’s which we thought was Mathis up until the day we left. It was one of those , leave the hotel, look back for one last glance and (after seeing the name multiple times during the weekend) finally noticed that there was an apostrophe and it was in fact the hotel of a guy named Mathi. Regardless, it was a nice hotel near the US Embassy and the Champs Elysee. The room was nicely decorated (although very small) and I could have done without the booger on the bathroom wall and the used band-aid stuck inside the top of the garbage can. The complimentary bath salts made up for those two negatives, but yeah right as if I would ever bathe in a public tub. One word: CRABS!

After a quick wee, we rented our first (of many) bikes and made our way to the Eiffel Tower. Of course that is an obligatory tourist attraction and 'must-see' but I love it. I love it more at night, but it is just such a cool structure.

After a quick ride-by, we navigated our way to Rue de Mouffetard (pretty much our favourite street in Paris) to have a market lunch. Bread, Compte cheese, 2 chorizo sticks, peaches and a Coke Zero later, we headed to the park at the end of the street where we experienced a wedding procession and Eric experienced his first dollop of bird poop on his back. The food was really good and no bird poop was going to dampen our spirits.

The bird might have gotten scared and/or agitated by the woman aggressively shaking a branch of the tree we sat under. Picture this: somewhat homeless looking woman (but not) with ratty hair, chicken legs, and a beer belly shaking a (somewhat large) branch bearing what I can only guess were acorns, and her then proceeding to collect them. Discuss...

After strategically placing the messenger bag strap over the poo, we were off headed to Jardin du Luxembourg for a stroll. It was a lovely day so we decided to pull up some of the ridiculously heavy iron chairs and read for awhile. Yes, we pretended to be locals. Reading was exhausting so we headed back to the hotel to rest before heading out for dinner.

Because we liked to pretend we are locals and know where we are going, we asked the man with the guyliner at reception for a recommendation. We were willing to go wherever, even willing to stay near the hotel. After about a 2 minute struggle of giving us NO recommendations, he handed us a book to peruse by cuisine. Although helpful, it really wasn't because we were just looking for some basic steak frites that wasn't going to break the bank.

I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but the rump steak was a bit fatty, but good and just what I was hoping for. We then went for our customary after-dinner walk and just so happened to catch the Eiffel Tower light show. We walked to the tower and sat nearby to enjoy the view. I then got tired so we hailed a cab back to the hotel.

On Sunday morning we went for a run along the Seine. We don't do it as often now (because my old labrador hips and knees can't take it), but I really enjoy these runs in foreign cities. The views and surroundings you see while running are usually off the beaten path and somewhat soothing. We arrived back at the hotel sweaty and starving so had breakfast at the hotel. Very minimal, but satisfying for about 2 hours. Bike-riding Round 34 ensued with a journey to Invalides to catch a train to Versailles. We probably could have walked to the station because it was so close, but when the first 30 min on a bike are free, why the heck not?

Arriving at the gates of Versailles was nothing compared to the awe-inspiring gardens out the back. They were massive!! I much preferred wandering through the gardens than touring the palace. The palace looked like any other and really didn't excite me much. And, even though I am not a museum person and Eric is, he even agreed with me! For a tour of the palace, the gardens and the Marie Antoinette farm which is also situated on the grounds, the admission charge was £50 for both of us. So 'spensive!

After a few hours of walking around, Eric and I left Versailles, turned left out of the entrance, and decided to sit at a cafe for a glass of wine and afternoon snack. Whatever you do, don't go to the place to the left with the red awning. The wine tasted like vinegar, the potatoes were hard and cold (despite a good zap from the microwave) and the croque monsieur was dirty. Dirty as in, mushy and tasted like plastic. We really should have walked out as soon as we walked through the door, noticed the self serve and the overall shadiness of the establishment. Oh well, shame on us. The only two upsides were the sunsoaked sidewalk area and the bee that fell into my vinegar glass and proceeded to get hammered. Right before we left, we poured him out onto the sidewalk and watched him stumble around for a bit.

We headed back to Paris, hopped on the bikes and headed back to the hotel for a rest. Dinner that night (again with no help whatsoever from the guyliner man) was at an Italian place near Mouffetard that we (of course) biked to! The restaurant was called the Latin Quarter and it was quite good. I tried something that tasted like a tuna steak and Eric had a pizza. The olive oil, I think, was maybe the best I'd ever had? It was a sundried tomato, garlic, delicious concoction.

After dinner we strolled to get some ice cream before hopping on bikes and taking a night time tour to the big sights. We 'stumbled' upon the Louvre at night which is absolutely stunning. After a quick ride by the mini Arch, we headed back to the Champs Elysee area hoping for one last drink before calling it a night. We anticipated that drinks near our hotel would be quite expensive given the area that we were staying in, but we weren't prepared to pay 15 euros for a drink. Our next option was a fast food place that served beer, but they stopped serving at midnight (probably for the best). So, one drink lighter, we headed back to the hotel.

Monday, we decided to have a quick breakfast in the hotel before heading out to do some shopping. So off we biked. It was a pretty unsuccessful trip, but nice to bike around the city. We had worked up an appetite for lunch a few hours later and sat down at a sidewalk cafe to have an omelet and a goat cheese salad. We then raced to find some bread and cheese to eat on the train, before having to get to the station in time for our trip back. Unfortunately, we had luck only finding bread! Our bad luck continued as we struggled to find empty bike racks to ditch our bikes near the hotel. Luckily, in the end we did find two spaces and raced back to the hotel to grab our bags and head to the train station via Metro with only 40 minutes before our train was set to depart.

Our luck turned around as we caught the right Metros and arrived with about 20 min to spare, then we saw the line to get through passport control. We had remembered it being painfully slow when we were in Paris in March with friends, however the line that day had nothing on this one. It snaked back onto itself and was a sure sign that we were going to miss our first plane or train ever. If you know us, which you likely do, each trip we take, it is a race to make our flights or trains. We've come as close as you can come to missing them without actually doing so. This time, there was no way we were going to make it and like good sportsman, we accepted defeat and knew that this time we had been beaten. UNTIL, we learned that 3/4 of the people in that line were actually on our train! A slow 20 minutes later, we were on the train, with everyone else in the line and on our way back to London.

It was, yet again, another great trip to Paris...

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