Travel Tales: Paris 2003, Part One

Last night in my journal searching, I found all the entries I wrote when Lindsay and I went to Paris in May of 2003 for my college graduation. It really helped me remember everything that went on, so I'll try to blend the journal entries with what my memory tells me. I'll put the journal entries in italics to distinguish.

Can you believe that I am actually in Paris? We arrived this morning and right now are awaiting a meeting with the entire group. Hopefully we'll get some helpful information and be able to find things. We are also going to discuss the optional excursions, which should be fun [I still like that word, apparently!].

We did in fact arrive that morning via an overnight American Airlines flight. Once we got off the plane and got our luggage, we headed outside, where we found a cab driver holding up a sign with our names and with a couple's name. They were from Queens and on our same flight (Lindsay used to do a fabulous impression of the woman... "Hey Patrick..." - more about that later!). The driver took us to the Hotel Ronceray near the opera house on what was called the "American" block in Paris because it housed the Hard Rock Cafe and - oddly enough - a TGIFriday's (I believe). I remember being disappointed that you couldn't see the Eiffel Tower from every point in Paris, and we did not see it at all on the way to the hotel. However, it was exciting to look at the streets and all the things in French as we drove along.


Once inside the hotel, we met our tour guide Patrick and were shown to our room where we did wait until the meeting. The other four people from our group were already there, and had been since the morning. When we had our meeting, we discussed which optional excursions we would go on - including Giverny, a Seine River Cruise and a trip to Versailles. Then it was off to start exploring Paris.

First, Patrick took us on a little tour. Getting onto the Metro (conveniently on the corner of our block!), we went to the Opera House.


From there we headed over to the Louvre, following the same path I would later readin in The Da Vinci Code and say "I know where that is!" We didn't go into the Louvre, just looked at it and the little shops that lined the street along the Tuileries. The group split up there, once we were shown where the Metro station was (but Lindsay and I, as New Yorkers, figured we could easily figure out a subway system - we were right).

I saw the Eiffel Tower IN PERSON for the first time in my entire life. The truth: it looks a lot smaller here. But then again we were not right up next to it. We're headed to the top of it tomorrow for what should be an exciting, exciting day! We're also going to check out the Champs Elysees and buy some Toulouse Lautrec pringts. They are really cheap here and therefore MUST be purchased!

Yes, in fact our first view of the Eiffel Tower was not from right near it - but from the Louvre. We almost didn't notice it but Lindsay saw the top of it standing high in the distance. It DID look small, but like I said, we were far away from it at that point.


Our Hotel Room, good and messy!

We headed back to the hotel after looking around a bit. The jet lag was starting to settle in and we were both feeling so out of it, we ate at the TGIFriday's for dinner (something I have never wanted to admit to anyone in my life about my first dinner in Paris, but we were just TOO tired to hunt down a restaurant!). We headed to bed, ready to start the next day!