Day 8 - Paris and Home!

Sorry it took a bit to get this last one out. Our final day in Paris last Sunday was a whirlwind around the city and it started with visiting Notre Dame right when it opened at 7:45 AM. It was awesome. It's incredible to think they started building this place back in 1163 and didn't finish it until 1345. Think about that...it's pretty unfathomable. To get the stones up to the top, they had a pulley system that involved a man running on a wheel like a mouse!

I like this statue of St. Denis on the facade. The story goes that St. Denis was the bishop of Paris back in the 600s and was martyred by being beheaded. After he got the ax, he apparently picked up his head and walk 2 miles back into Paris while giving a sermon. I would say he deserves this statue...

Ah the family - Melissa was a great guide and read Rick Steve's Paris 2007 to us aloud the whole trip, it was great. We figured we could go with a 2007 edition for a building that was built in the 12th century - not much as changed.

While we were touring, the morning mass started so we got to have the organ playing in the background...it's difficult to descibe what a wonderful experience this was.

Once we finished out time there we basically walked around ALOT! We went to go see the king's chapel at Saint Chappelle which was built to hold the crown of thorns. Relatively small compared to Notre Dame, the stained glass here was incredible.

We checked out the Lourve which is massive! What are all of these people looking at?

Ah yes...

As they always say, she is very small.

They say if you laid all of the galleries of the Lourve out in a straight line, they would stretch for over 8 miles...I believe it.

Outside the Lourve, the former palace of the Kings of France (before they moved out to Versailles) and the Napoleon's, is the royal Tuileries Garden. Lots of trees and formal gardens, along with tons of dust. We stopped for a Nutella-filled crepe :).

Yes, there IS is a crepe in there somewhere...

The people of Paris love to hang out in this park. You can do everything in this parking, including, apparently, taking donkey/horse rides around the park.

Then we headed over to the Arc du Triomphe. It's an impressive structure built at the roundabout juncture of 12 major roads so the traffic here is increibly complicated.

We decided to climb to the top for a great view of Paris. Sorry Marie - I have to tell this story...

So you enter the staircase and there's a big sign that says "284" and has a picture of a stair. With my limited French, I figured this was how many stairs you had to climb. I think Marie missed this sign and so did Dave as I started hearing the phrase, "I thought there was an elevator" mentioned a couple of times. About 50 steps in, I hear "Where's my son-in-law?!" as if it were my fault that the Arc has 284 stairs :). One leg cramp and a rest stop later, we made it to the top and we were all rewarded with this awesome view.

Dave and Marie did an impressive job chasing us around town and so to commemorate this, I got this shot of them doing what they do best, climbing stairs :).

We grabbed some dinner and then headed to the Trocedero plaza on the other side of the river for a great view of the Eiffel Tower that "sparkles" on the hour from 9 until 1 am. What a great way to end a great trip!

This was a wonderful trip that got off to an amazing start with Megan and Clay in Belgium. They were awesome hosts and we know the Lord is doing amazing things through them. Paris was great, and tiring. I think you are supposed to be rested after a vacation but we ran through that city hard, but had an great time seeing the sites!

We leave you with this...au revoir!

Day 6-7 - Paris

This picture says it all:

We've made it - the City of Lights, beautiful buildings and cigarettes. Holy smokes - it's crazy...I digress.

After a wonderful stay in Huy, Belgium we took the high-speed train from Brussels to Paris on Friday morning. It's only an hour and 20 minute train ride at 130 mph! We sped into Paris and then had to carry our bags up and down and up and down the Metro stairs. Fun times :). Welcome to Paris!

We dropped our bags at the hotel and went to go get on the 11 AM Fat Tire Bike Tour. You may recall from my mom's Europe trip blog that she was the designated sweeper on their tour - which means you ride at the back and make sure that absolutely no cars break into the pack and no man gets left behind...well guess who got picked as today's sweeper? Me, Clint - all because the guide recognized my Aggie Ring. Here's a picture of my mom, the sweeper and a picture of me, the sweeper.

Mom was on the night tour so I guess you have to wear the orange vest that makes you look even more like a tourist than you already do.

Here's quick pic of our group and our leader Adam - who was super cool - in front of the Ecole Militarie (the French military school).

Here's a shot of Melissa listening intently to the tour.

Here's a picture of Melissa riding and smiling...OK she's not riding. Trust me, either one of us would have fallen off if we posed for a picture.

My mom has always told me to only show pictures with other people in them so I will spare you the boredom of a bunch of Paris buildings.

Here is my view as the sweeper...

The job wasn't too bad, we had a 10 year old girl on the tour who's legs could barely reach the pedals so that made for some slow going and a few times where she could quite get her bike going. We also had a lady who, we we took a break at a cafe in the Tuilieries Gardens, she ordered something, didn't like it and sent it back because the mushrooms were undercooked - refused to eat anything else and then ended up quitting the tour 10 minutes before it was over...oh my soul it was incredible. She literally little left her bike in the middle of the sidewalk and walked away - Adam had to drag her bike all the way back to the office. So as thesweeper, we actually ended the tour a man down, but it was for the better.

Here's a pic at the end of the tour - how nice :)

Then we had to go meet up with Melissa's parents...because of the lady on our tour, we were about 45 minutes late in meeting up with them. I took a picture of Marie before she saw us, can you see her?

Here she is!

And here is Dave - the tallest man in Paris.

It's been great to hang out with the Walton's. Marie is very handy with the French and Dave is hilarious...we've had alot of fun! We visited the War Museum and Napoleon's Tomb pictured below...he is in 6 coffins - 2 of lead, 2 of tin, one of mahogoney and one of the red stone on the outside. Buried like a pharoah...

DAY 7

Then this morning, we headed out to Versailles - wow, this place is huge. I've been to a few palaces and castles and this is by far the biggest building and gorunds I have ever seen.

It just goes and goes and goes. It goes half of France's GDP to build the building...that's alot of Franks. Louis XIV was pretty crazy but he knew what he was doing...this place is insane.

Here's a picture of Dave and Marie in the distance, Dave is doing one of his famous videotaping while narrating scenes..."This is in the Hall of Mirrors...it's got alot of mirrors..."

Here's a shot of us out in the gardens that stretch for miles around the chateau.

After spending the morning and early afternoon at Versailles, we headed back into town and hit the Orsay (think Monet, Seurat, etc) and the Rodin Museum...if you can't remember who Rodin is, he did this...

And the incredibly detailed "Gates of Hell" from Dante's Inferno.

He actually included "The Thinker" as Dante up at the top of Hell contemplating...

We grabbed some dinner and then took the nighttime Seine River cruise for my birthday...some pretty amazing views of the city...here we are on the boat...

Here's the Eiffel Tower...

Then our camera died...:)

We will have more tomorrow, our final day in Paris - then it's back to H-Town!

Day 5 - Brussels

Sorry this one is late...we got to the hotel and it was 25 Euro for internet and I figured you guys could wait...

Thursday was our final day with Megan and Clay and since we hadn't seen the Fort du Huy we went up first thing in the morning to check out the view. Here are some shots. This one has the Ville du Huy including the Grand Place and Hotel du Ville (City Hall), and their apartment.

This one is just a cool pic.

So is this one...

The we hopped on the train to Brussels. The hour and a half ride is just super cool...similar to the trip down to Luxembourg - very pastoral, tons of rolling hill as far as you can see with small towns sprinkled in with their little homes and church with a steeple...very cool.

Brussels is a cool city. Home to the EU and capital of Belgium, it is much more metropolitan than anywhere we've been on this trip AND our hotel is a 2 minute walk to the train station - PERFECT (which we really loved on Day 6 at 6:45 AM).

The Grand Place is just around the corner from our hotel...centered around the Hotel du Ville (again) but gigantic...

The Place is a beautiful square (much bigger than I imagine) that is surounded by a mish-mash of beautiful edifices. In the late 1600s, Brussles was flattened by one of the Louis' of France and so all of the trades in Brussels (think blacksmiths, tanners, etc. each got their own space on the square and were turned loose. What result is a beautiful collection of buildings sandwiched together and it seems that each one tried to outdo each other...this photo can't do it justice.

Next we walked down to the Manneken Pis...

And yes, if that small picture left any doubt ,he is indeed doing what you think he is doing...

Why the costume? Apparently Mr. Pis likes to dress up on different days of the year to celebrate a different event or culture. Not sure what culture he is today, but no matter what he's wearing, somethings about him never change.

While walking back to the Place we came across this weird brass plaque with a man on it, and people were walking by and ceremoniously rubbing their hands across his body in a way that everyone else seemed to know the proper pattern other than - touch his face, hands and feet and then the touched the face above him. I stuck with just touching his feet - then, when this picture was taken, people were in the middle of "the rub" and getting too close to my hand - so I made a face.

We went over to this cool pub called "Delirium" - if you like beer, this is THE place to go. They have 2004 beers available and it's in the Guiness Book of World Records. High point - I drank something called a Kwak - high point because the bottom of the glass is round so they have to serve it on it's own stand:

Which by the way you have to leave 10 Euro at the bar as a deposit, apparently people walk off with them alot...

Here's a picture of me and Meg in front of the lace shop (that our Grandma Pasche remembers from her trip to Brussels).

Pic of Clay eating the famous Belgian chocolate - folks this stuff is incredible!

We said our sad goodbye to Clay and Megan who had to head back to Huy to pack for their trip (Friday, today) to Spain...we had a wonderful time visiting them. It was great to catch up with this awesome couple and get a taste of their life. We know God has a plan for them and it is neat to see it working out!

After parting, Melissa and I grabbed some dinner and then stopped for Melissa's favorite part!

Au revoir! Tomorrow (Friday) - Paris!