To the Eiffel Tower and beyond...

Two tragedies occurred during the beginning of our visit to France.  The first was the news that my grandmother, who was diagnosed with cancer the day before I left on this trip, had passed away in the early hours of the morning.  The second occurred several days later.  When I phoned home the day of my grandmother's funeral, I discovered that Gordon, my pet green-cheek conure of 9 years, had also died.  I'm not saying that my memories of our time in this country were marred by these events, France is a beautiful country, but I do feel them worth mentioning.  When traveling for a long period of time, be prepared for anything.

After receiving assurance that all other members of my family back home, human and otherwise, were indeed healthy, we really did have a wonderful time in France.  Paris is the only city we visited but we did see quite a bit of the countryside on the train from Madrid to Paris and on the bus from Paris to Calais where we crossed the channel to England.

Being the week after the World Cup (congrats to France by the way), we were extremely fortunate to have a family to stay with.  I have no idea what hotels cost nor do I know anything about the availability of hostels although we did see some hostels here and there around the city.

The subway in Paris was wonderful.  Buying a packet of tickets is really economical.  It was in Spain too come to think of it.  They can be purchased at the ticket booth in any station.

I would suggest visiting the Louvre as early as possible and go straight to the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo and then work your way down from the bottom.  We ran into very little crowds that way until the end of our tour when we were packed like sardines getting through some of the corridors.

Across the Seine from the Louvre is the Musee de Orsay.  Its the Museum containing works from Monet, Manet, Renoir and Whistler... we had our pictures taken in front of Whistler's Mother.  Most of the Europeans tourists passed right by it, but all the North American tourists were having their pictures taken.

I must confess, we did not stand in the hour long line to go up the Eiffel Tower, we thought it was rather expensive too although I can't think of the prices now to mention them.  Be sure to see the Arc de Triumph and walk along the Champs de Elysee. There were some great cafes there, and not all horribly expensive.  We were disappointed that the entire front of Notre Dame was covered by tarps due to restoration, but the inside was beautiful.  We were appalled, however, by some tourists lack of respect. There were many people eating inside and leaving their trash all over, someone had spilled their ice-cream on the marble floor and just left it.  How rude!