The First Paris Excursion

I know, I know...it has been too long since I wrote anything down. The weekend before last there was really nothing interesting going on. I was just getting ready for the arrival of my family, so lots of cleaning and food shopping. It was not worth a whole blog entry so I skipped that weekend altogether. Then the fun stuff began. My family arrived on Tuesday morning from the USA. My sister had quite the ordeal with her transfer flight and almost did not make it. For those of you who travel here at some point, American Airlines does not have an agreement with Lux Air. If you check a bag they will not transfer it. You need to retrieve it, go through customs, go back through security and then check in for your next flight. My sister had checked a bag, my parents came with carry on luggage, so this was her ordeal. She had an hour and a little more to make her flight, if it was not for the people at Lux Air she would not have been here. They escorted her through security and from customs, and when she forgot her purse at security one of the Lux Air employees ran all the way back there to get it for her. They held the plane for her and she made it here on the flight that she was supposed to. I have to say that they definitely went above and beyond, Thank God for all of us. Thankfully, the rest of the trip was not so eventful. No one really slept on the plane, so when they arrived I let them sleep for a little while, not too long though because that is when it is hard to adjust to the time. After that we walked to my favorite coffee place in the center (one of the two places here that has normal size coffee!) and we sat and had some coffee and talked to Peter, the owner. Then we walked around and I showed them some of the places that I think are the most picturesque. Laurence came over for dinner to meet the family, generally it was a low key but nice day. On Wednesday, I took them to Trier, Germany. they really liked it there, we saw a couple more sites than I had seen before such as the electoral palace and the constantine bascilica. We ate some real german food and then headed for home. Thursday was going to be an early day because then we were leaving for Paris. Every morning, I went across the street to the bakery to get fresh croissants. Thursday was no exception. I got some croissants with my father and then we went to the fruit market and got some fruit for the ride as well. Upon arriving back at my place, Jenni informed us that our train was in fact at 8:55 not 9:55 and we needed to leave right then, good thing I am only about 2 blocks from the train station! We did make the train no problem, we switched trains in Metz in France ( and got some drinks to wash down the croissants!) and then arrived in Paris at noon. The first thing that struck me was how overwhelming it was to be in a completely foriegn city for the first time. After a little discussion we opted to take a cab to the hotel, which was not that far away, but without a map I just wanted to get there and be done with it. After dropping our things at the hotel, we went for lunch. We picked a small neighborhood restaurant on the same street since we needed to return back to the hotel in an hour to move our things to the room. The other thing that struck me was how nice the people in Paris were, so many Americans talk about their bad experiences in Paris and I found the people warm and friendly. I do speak some french so maybe the effort helped, but even when they couldn't understand my french and I spoke english, they were always really nice and helpful. After lunch, we went to Notre Dame. We walked the 2 KM from the hotel. On the way we found the Jewish History Museum and decided to go there. My sister is really interested in the history of the Holocaust, unfortunately there was not a lot of that here. Paris is in the process of building another museum soley dedicated to the Holocaust. The history of the Jewish People in Paris was very interesting though. Notre Dame was beautiful and very ornate. There were lots of little individual chapel areas inside and it was really something to see. After leaving Notre Dame it was time for a snack. Mark these moments, because food did not play a major part in this trip! My father called it the slimming tour! In order to fit everything in that people wanted to do the next day we at almost nothing until dinner! Each day was also filled with a little souvenir shopping. All the meals that we did eat were very good. On friday, we tried to squeeze in all that we could. We took the L'Open Tour Buses. They are hop on hop off buses that you can take at your own pace to all the sites and they worked out really well. We went to the Louvre, the Champs-Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, and the Catacombes, and all on just the croissant we had in the morning. (Obviously we are big on croissants in this family!) After dinner, we took at ride on the Sienne. Saturday was the last day for Paris, we devoted that day to Pere LaChaise cemetery and the completion of our shopping. Pere Lachaise has so many interesting people buried there, we only made it to a few: Jim Morrison, Chopin, and Seurat. There were so many other ones to see if you had the time, but alas we did not. We arrived back in Luxembourg Satuday evening and went to dinner with Laurence to Chigorie, a traditional French Restaurant. As with the other places, the food was fabulous, this one was better than most though. Then we went for a walk and looked out over the grund at night. Jenni got some pictures of this, it was really cool. Sunday, was the last day they had here, and I did not have too much planned. The only plan that I had was to meet Kathy for lunch since it was her birthday. Before that I tried to squeeze in some of the history of Luxembourg so we went to the history museum. This was cool, it starts on the bottom floor and works it way up to present day, we probably could have spent some more time there but we actually got a little sleep so it was somewhat of a late start. We ate lunch at Beaujolais, a little pizza place in the centre. It was the nicest day we had had all along. Paris was in the 50's and cold. Luxembourg was in the 70's and sunny. All of it was fun anyway, but I was happy to have a nice day. Kathy suggested that after lunch she bring us to the American Cemetary in Luxembourg. General Patton is buried there, which I did not know before coming here, so it was really interesting to see, we also went to the German Cemetary a couple streets away and it was sad to see the difference between the two. The German cemetary was much more somber and had 4 people to a grave, where the American Cemetary was sunny and peaceful. Both were interesting in their own rite. When we completed all the site seeing we could fit in, we went back to the centre for some ice cream and then walked back toward my place to meet Laurence for a drink. It was sad here yesterday with out my family, after all the hustle and bustle of the last week, I got used to the noise and the lack of space. The quiet was almost deafening. Luckily for me the next of my visitors from home arrives on Thursday! My friend Crystal is coming so I have no time to do anything but restock the fridge and get ready for her arrival! I am excited. We are heading for Amsterdam this weekend and then back to Paris the next. Let the good times keep coming!