Paris

Paris, je t'aime!

I love Paris in the springtime!

Etc, etc...

Ok, so now I'm just quoting movies, but it's true, I do love Paris and Paris in the springtime is fantastic (even if it is overrun with tourists and it rains the whole time).

What made my second trip to Paris even more wonderful was the fact that my family was there waiting for me. They flew all the way over the ocean to visit me, and for two of them, it was even their first time out of the US.

It was so exciting to get out of the taxi and make my way into the hotel and to hear them from the other side of the elevator door, unaware that I was standing right outside. Then the door opened and there they were, all crammed into the French-sized elevator like sardines. And then they were spilling out, with grins and hugs and stories of the long trip they'd already taken.

So there it began, our three weeks of vacation together.

The first day was spent trying to figure out the metro. I have been told that Paris has the best metro system in the Europe. I disagree. It is my opinion that it is one of the most confusing and obnoxious metro systems in the world. Besides seeing Notre Dame, we didn't do a whole lot that first day, considering we got lost trying to find Montmartre, which we never did get to. And it was raining.

The next day it only rained some of the day so we went to Versailles. It was Easter. Bad idea.

The line was so long that if we hadn't taken an 45 minute train ride to get there and hadn't already bought our tickets, we would have headed right back in the other direction. But we didn't and I'm glad.

I wasn't exceptionally impressed with the palace, probably mostly because I was more concentrated on not getting trampled than seeing the artwork, but the gardens were lovely and enormous.

On the way back, we stopped off at the Eiffel Tower where we took a bizillion pictures and mailed a bunch of postcards from the tower's post office. Then my mom and I road a carousel. It was awesome.

Finally Monday, before taking the train back to Marseille, we visited the Louvre. I cannot even begin to guess how many pictures my brother took there. I think he has a picture of every piece of art I saw and then more.

I had my dad and brother helping me on a relentless pursuit of a statue I had found in the guidebook and had an urge to see. We finally found it and Lyne Burke looked at me incredulously. "We were looking for that?! What the heck is it?"

"It is a gnome riding a snail, obviously." Yes, that is what I wanted to see in the Louvre. And see it I did.

There were many other adventures in the course of the three days with themes like, getting lost, having dinner with friends, getting lost, low blood sugar=grouchy Kaity, getting lost, seeing amazing things, and getting lost, but I won't bore you with details. There is plenty more to come in the next few posts. We still have 17 more days worth of adventures to cover!