Day 3 & 4 in Paris

Day 3 & 4 in Paris was filled with visits to the major landmarks in the city.  We checked out the Louvre again, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, and Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris.  First though I had to check out Ralph Lauren’s car exhibit at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.  Some of the cars featured included: 1964 Ferrari 250 LM, a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Scaglietti, a 1956/1958 Jaguar XKS and a 1931 Alfa Romeo Monza 8C 2300.  There was also a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO and a 1938 Bugatti 57 SC Atlantic Coupe, the world’s two most expensive vehicles valued at 30-40 million each.  We were not allowed to take any pictures of the cars unfortunately, but they were a sight to behold.  They also showed a video of Lauren talking about how the cars have influenced his clothing line over the years.

            After checking out the car exhibit we walked to the Louvre courtyard and I was able to snap a picture of this statue.  She was a great model for my Raider’s hat.  She is referred to as Monument a Cezane and was created by Aristide Maillol. This was also where I spotted the pug featured in my other blog post. 

            Along the way to the Arc de Triomphe we spotted the Luxor Obelisk, and Egyptian Obelisk that stands at the center of the Palace de la Concorde and is 75 feet tall.  There was a person dressed up as an Egyptian standing next to it that you could take photos with but I passed and just snapped a picture of him. 

            There is some great shopping along the way to the Arc de Triomphe according to my sisters, but luckily I was able to keep them from the shops and encouraged that for another day when I was not with them.  My sister pointed out the Abercrombie and Fitch that just opened, the first in Paris, and there was a line to shop there that went down the block.  I could smell the A&F cologne from across the street (you know that smell if you’ve ever walked by an A&F store, so overpowering).  I thought Paris was suppose to be fashion forward, but I felt like I had gone back in time with the craze to buy A&F clothing. 

            Finally after a lot of walking we arrived at the Arc De Triomphe.  It is an amazing structure, but I was most fascinated by the crazy drivers doing circles around it.   Motorcyclists were touching their inner knee to the ground as they circled it and horns were constantly blowing as the crazy Parisian drivers tried to maneuver around the Arc.  They say there is a wreck there every day but I did not see one on my visit.  Below the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a grave for unknown soldiers that died in battle.  Below are multiple pictures of the Arc and the tomb. 

            After checking out the Arc de Triomphe I got to witness the French police force in action.  An Asian man had a girl who I presume was his girlfriend in some sort of a headlock.  She was crying and he was poorly attempting to console her which drew the attention of the French police.  They separated the two and frisked the man.  I stealthily snapped this photo of the police in action.  He has a pretty sweet handlebar mustache.  I bet the drunks in Athens would be a bit more intimidated by the Athens Police if they could have handlebar mustaches!

            After the Arc it was time to check out the Eiffel tower.  There were some street hustlers on the sidewalk leading to the tower and I withstood the temptation to lose 50 Euros to one of the hustlers.  There were other tourist traps as well such as caricature artists and people peddling miniature Eiffel tower knock offs.  My sister had the great idea to picnic by the Eiffel tower so we stopped by a stand similar to the one below and what do we buy, but hot dogs and French fries, so Parisian!  The hot dogs were on a huge baguette and instead of having one foot long dog like at baseball games, they had two hot dogs on there.  It wasn’t quite the same as a ballpark dog, but still quite tasty.

            In the park there were some kids playing rugby and I snapped a few pics.  The girl in the second picture thought it would be funny to sneak away with the ball as the guys were in the middle of their scrum.  I love how active the Parisians are because it seemed like the parks are always packed and the ping pong tables are always in use.

            The following day we checked out the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, better known as the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, which is located at the highest point in Paris.  Once up top, you have a breathtaking view of the city.  There are a ton of artists up there selling their work and offering to paint your picture on the spot.  I even saw one artist painting a recreation of a couple’s romantic dinner from a photograph.

            We decided to check out the red light district since it was close by, and ran into this guy who was stuck in the wall.  There was also this cool art display hanging between two buildings.   I snapped a couple pics of the Moulin Rouge and then it was time for dinner.  We ran into a fried chicken restaurant on the corner of the red light district (reminding me of Georgia), but decided on a Canadian bar instead.  I had the most Parisian meal ever: cheeseburger and fries!  I washed it down with a cold glass of Newcastle as I watched an Arena Football game.  It isn’t the NFL but it will have to do until the lockout is over. 

Stay tuned for my trip report from Ireland!    

American Products in France and Gracie's Parisian Twin!

       This post will be comparing some American products that are produced in France.  Just a quick update as I have to catch a flight to Ireland in an hour.  First though I wanted to compare the French pugs to American pugs.  Now my pug Gracie is the best pug in the world, but she is a little bit overweight.  I was walking around the courtyard in the Louvre the other day and noticed a lady walking her pug and had to get a picture.  The French have great taste in dogs!  Gracie is the top two pictuers and the French pug is on the bottom(I think you can tell the difference)(Actually found one picture where Gracie looks quite svelt so I uploaded it too).

            My youngest sister is a huge fan of diet coke so when we first got here she had my other sister run to the market to get her some.  Turns out they call it Coke Light here.  I prefer Coke Light I think just because people always say they are on a diet and point to drinking Diet Coke, but I mean other than less calories how much better is that stuff for you (sure isn’t any better for your teeth).

            Now my I love the French M&M’s.  That is because in France they only have peanut M&M’s so if you ask for a bag of M&M’s they give you a bag of peanut ones.  If you ask for regular M&M’s they just give you a weird look and say these are regular M&M’s.  Sorry no pictures available.

            I went to the market to grab some beer to pre-game at my sister's friends place and  turns out her parents left some beer there as well.  She just drinks wine so she said I could drink them (which I did) and took a picture since they were a bit smaller. 

            Lastly Subway had some smart planners because they are located in the middle of the red light district.  They obviously knew where any typical American tourists would be spending their time that would also be willing to eat at a Subway when there are so many other great food eateries in France. 

Day 1

                I want to start out by saying that I just got home from a Canadian bar and am a few deep so there may be some grammar errors.  Anyway after taking a 3 hour nap my sister took us to Notre Dame and The Louvre since they are a short walk from her place in the 5^th district.  I just wanted to keep sleeping but decided to go check out the gargoyles.  We walked along the Seine on our way there and I was intrigued by the restaurant boats that were docked on the river.  As you can see in the photos below you just hope on board and can enjoy dinner or just a glass of wine if you prefer. 

            We crossed the Seine and arrived at Notre Dame.  It is an amazing architectural achievement that was completed in 1345.  It took almost 200 years just to construct it!  We explored the outside first and the gargoyles were smaller than I expected and not that intimidating.  Unfortunately I didn’t have my climbing gear so I was not able to put my Raider hat on top of one of the gargoyle’s head.  The inside of the church is humongous and was packed with tourists.  I was surprised to see that confessions were being heard while people were touring the church.  I have not attended confession in forever unfortunately, and decided to pass on the opportunity to attend here because the confessions were being held face-to-face and I prefer my priest to be behind a screen.   It is amazing the amount of detail that went into all of the paintings and sculptures in the church.  It really is a site to behold.

            We finished our tour of Notre Dame and decided to go to the Louvre, or should I say FIND the Louvre.  My sister has a terrible sense of direction and we were wandering around in circles before we eventually found it.  While looking for it we wandered past a park that had ping pong tables cemented into the ground.  I unfortunately did not have any beer, ping pongs, or solo cups so I could not take advantage of the situation. 

I also noticed that Apple is doing a great job of advertising their iPads over here.  

        We got to the Louvre too late to tour the inside and so we just walked around the outside.  The palace is massive and Napoleon really outdid himself with the construction of it.   I made sure to get a picture of the statue of Louis XIV that is located in the courtyard of the Louvre.  Louis XIV was hated on pretty hardcore in my English Legal History class and I don’t really understand why; the dude was just trying to convert everyone to Catholicism, what is so bad about that?  I guess his conversion methods weren’t ideal…

       The Louvre has a pyramid constructed in the middle of the courtyard that was completed in 1989.  To be honest it is quite weird seeing such a modern piece of architecture located in the center of such a majestic palace.  

I wasn’t a huge fan but others were as there was a long line to enter the pyramid (which turns out is how you enter the Louvre Museum).  

       After finishing up at the Louvre we headed home and stopped by a pizza place right outside my sister’s place.  Yes I know, pizza in France, but whatever they spoke French in the place and the menu was in French (although they gave us an English menu) so close enough for me.  The French seem to love eggs on their pizza as it seemed every pizza on the menu contained an egg in the center of the pizza.  I went with the margarita pizza and was surprised to see that they don’t slice it for you.  I guess this is another way that the French are battling the obesity epidemic because after I got halfway through with it I was tired of trying to cut it up with my knife and fork.  It was delicious but the pizza won the battle in the end.    I wish I had a picture but forgot to take one.  No worries as there are plenty of food pictures on the way so be on the look out! 
       Also want to give a shout out to my Mets for beating the Yankees and being just 5 games back of the Phillies. Pretty impressive after starting the season 5-13. That is all for this blog update. I'm getting ready to see what the Paris Clubs have to offer so Raider Nation is signing out!

Arrival in France

       This blog is going to be covering my trips throughout Europe.  I am starting out in France, then Ireland, back to France, onto Italy, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, and back to France.  I am a huge Raiders Fan so that will be the theme of the blog as you will be able to see below in all of the pictures.  I hope you enjoy!  Feel free to add any comments or suggestions.

       Well it took over 24 hours, but I finally made it to France.  The day started out early in the morning on May 17th.  I had a flight from Atlanta to Charlotte, a four hour layover in Charlotte, and then a flight from Charlotte to Paris.  The four hour layover turned into a seven hour layover, but luckily I had a good seat at the bar with ESPN playing on the TV.  After enjoying a couple beers at the bar I found out I had to get my passport stamped in Charlotte and then decided to read a book recommended by my cousin, Water for Elephants.  It is an engaging book about a vet student's life in a traveling circus during the 1930’s, and the forbidden love he encounters.  I was wary of reading it in the airport terminal because the cover has the movie poster on it which if you haven’t seen it, is a picture of Robert Pattinson embracing Reese Witherspoon.  I’m sure all the teen girls just thought I was reading twilight but who cares it is a good book!  It is a quick read though and I highly recommend it.   I also met a few Raider fans who liked my new hat.  Raider Nation really is everywhere!

       Above is a picture taken after finally getting seated on the plane for France.  As for the flight, it was LONG.  We finally took off around 8:30 p.m.   We were entertained by Glee and then served dinner.  Our choices were chicken and vegetables or a pasta dish, and I chose the pasta dish which was basically stover’s pasta nuked in a microwave.  It was good though and satisfied my palette (which is not an easy thing to do if you know me).  They showed the Green Hornet next which was a decent comedic action flick.  I decided to attempt to sleep after the movie was over, and slept on and off for the remainder of the flight.  

       We landed in France at 10:00a.m. on May 18th.  France is 6 hours ahead so that would be 4:00a.m. eastern time.  I was exhausted at this point but still had to go through customs and take the train and the metro to my sister’s place.  The following is a picture of the train’s route:  

       The airport is on the outside of Paris, similar to Fulton County Airport in Atlanta it seems.  We rode the train through the suburbs and upon entering the city we hopped off and onto the metro (France’s Subway System).  After riding on the metro we got off and this was the first advertisement I saw:  

Turns out that “Bad Trip” refers to a bad drug trip and I guess the French thought it was a better title, as after researching they do have a french word for Hangover.  My sister’s place is right next to the metro exit so we hopped off, walked past a couple restaurants and bam are at her place.  I can barely hold my eyes open at this point.

Also here is a picture of one of the view’s from her place.  I promptly passed out for 3 hours upon arrival at her place.  

       That sums up my arrival to France.  Stay tuned for stories about our trips to Notre Dame, The Louvre, Arc De Triomphe, Eiffell tower, comparisons of American Brands and their counterparts in Paris, and also Gracie’s Parisian Twin.