Paris, France - Day 18

This morning, I woke up at 8am sharp and got my running clothes on. Today I was on a mission to run around the Disneyland Park loop. Where my village is located, I'm about 1 - 2 miles from le Parcs Disneyland. The cool thing is that there is this HUGE loop that goes around the entire park and I've been dying to run around it since I got here ~3 weeks ago. I saw it from Google Maps while uploading my other runs around here. I could tell that it wasn't too big, but big enough to take a little over an hour or so to do. As it turns out, I put it off until the very last day I'm here, but it made for a great run and if I come back, you can bet I'll be doing it again.


I headed out the door around 8:30 am and was loving the morning sunrise over Montevrain. About 2 miles into my run, I saw another runner (who had passed me earlier) pushing a broken down car down the road. I ran up on them and began to help push. We pushed the car for about 100 meters or so and then went on with our morning run. We introduced ourselves to one another and then that was it... We talked for the next 5 miles. This guy's name was Sebastian, and he is one of the nicest guys I've met over here. He and I talked about all kinds of stuff, from marathon times, to French strikes, to the health insurance crisis in the U.S. He kept me company from about mile 2 to mile 7 and it made the morning run to go very quick. I gave him my email address, but I forgot to get his. Hopefully, he is able to find that I have a domain attached to my email address and then stumble upon this blog. :) He and his friend Gregory travel all over the world and I told him that when they come to the states to email me and maybe we could meet up for some coffee and more conversation. Thank you for a wonderful morning Sebastian! Enchanté! :)


After my run, I cleaned up and then headed over to Bob's apartment for a bowl of cereal and some coffee. Immediately after that, he and I came back here and we've been in my apartment all day, working. We worked from about 11am until about 10pm. We had a few breaks here and there, but we really stayed focused since it was my last day here in France.

I must say that my time here in Europe has been more than amazing. How often are people asked to travel to Paris, France for 3 weeks simply to work on a laptop computer in a very safe and rather plush "all expense paid" apartment complex? I know the answer, and it's "not often". Honestly, I couldn't ask for a better job than the one I have now.

One of my major highlights was being able to spend 3 days with Dariush in Paris, France just hanging out. We simply walked everywhere and got to see all the sites around the city. We haven't got to hang out like that since 1995 when he was in the states living with my family. Here we were almost 15 years older having just as much fun together as we always did back then. Thanks for a great time crazy man! We should definitely do this again, but next time with our wives and children. :)


Then to make this trip even MORE amazing, I was able to fly over to Bucharest, Romania and visit Volli and Yiorgo for 3 days. It was great to finally meet Volli's beautiful wife, Stefanie and get to know her a bit. And, Henry was awesome!! I love that kid. I went over there knowing very little about Romania, let alone Bucharest... Ok, I went over there knowing NOTHING about Romania or Bucharest. Therefore, it was great to get to experience such a different place with my two other brothers. The next time we all meet up, we're going to be taking Larissa, Greece by storm. Right, Yiorgos!? Thanks for a great time last weekend brotha's!! I had a blast and will never forget it! For as long as I live.


Most of all, it was very cool to get to spend time here in Montevrain with Bob. All of our communication is typically done over Skype and through emails. Believe it or not, Bob and I knew each other for almost 4 years before we ever actually met face to face! I had no idea what he looked like, and he only knew what I looked like from my MSN instant messenger picture. The thing that I like most about our relationship is that he doesn't act like a boss toward me, but rather treats me like a peer. He maxe me fele like I yam akshully smarte tue. We're both big geeks, so it was very easy to just sit around and talk about geek stuff with him when we're not talking about... well, geek stuff. :)

Bob, Jennifer and I appreciate everything you've done for the family. Not only for this silly little trip to Europe, mais pour tout. Also, thanks for allowing me to spend time with my close friends on your watch while over here. We both knew that were fighting a tight deadline with this project, but you were very understanding and actually helped us make it happen. That said a lot to me and meant a lot to both me and them. I hope to see you again soon... outside of Skype, of course. :)

Luc & Bob @ the Louvre on Sept 26th, 2009

Thanks, Bob!!

Paris, France - Day 17

Wow, today was a great day! However, before I get into the events of the day, I have to share my experience from last night.

I published yesterdays post around 2 - 2:30 am and was getting ready for bed when I heard a knock at my back door. I knew it had to be one of my neighbors, so I opened up the door and Michel (one of my neighbors) was inviting me over to his place for some wine.

I said "No, thank you, I'm getting ready for bed." But he insisted that I come over and hang out for a little while. I thought about it real quick and gave in. I mean how often do I get invited to a party at 2:30am in France?

When I walked into his place, it was a cloud of smoke and they had a poker table setup with a few drunk french guys sitting around yelling over the music. Which, by the way was George Strait blaring on the stereo. I loved it! I'd seen some of the people in there from around here, but there were some I'd not met before. Amazingly, one of the guys was from Montana of all places and he was a Blackfoot Indian. He was extremely drunk and I had a harder time understanding him then I did the French people there. I hung out for about 20 minutes, then came back to my apartment with even more wine in my system now. I thought it was very cool that Michel came over to invite me to his place. I had a great time!! I forgot to take my camera, so no pics... I came back and chatted with Jennifer for a while longer, and then fell esleep until around 5am!!

I woke up around 10:30 am and worked at the table with Bob until around 1pm. Then we all headed into downtown Paris for a fun filled evening on the town. We started at St. Michel and the first stop was the Notre Dame. One of the guys that is here on business with Bob's other (full time) job is a Purdue alumni and he was able to "pay his respects" to the beautiful cathedral that shares the same name with his arch rival back in the states. ;) From there we walked past the Hotel de Ville and Pont Neuf over to the Louvre and then we slowly strolled down the Champs Elysees. We snapped lots of pictures and just took our time enjoying the perfect weather. It was about 75 degrees Fahrenheit today and the sun was shining brightly; simply perfect for a relaxing stroll through Paris. I was able to grab a chocolate banana crepe at a little crepe stand and it was absolutely delicious. I wish I had known about these banana ones earlier in my trip, I'd have had one every day. Maybe it's best I didn't know about them actually...


A little further down the Champs Elysees we came upon the Jardin des Tuileries. The weather was so nice that it was very crowded with people today. The whole city seemed to be thriving with tourists and locals. It was so cool to see so many people just lounging around in the grass drinking wine and just having little picnics. I sooo can't wait to bring Jennifer back here and have a day or two to kill here in Paris. This place was just as beautiful (if not more beautiful) today than it was when Dariush and I came here two weeks ago. The leaves were already starting to fall and I bet it is absolutely gorgeous in Paris during the fall season.

From the Tuilerie gardens, we actually made a pit stop at the Haagen Dazs on the Champs Elysees and sat on a bench to enjoy our ice cream and coffee. The sidewalks were still bumping with people and the traffic was chaotic (as usual). After our ice cream, we headed up just a little further to the Arc de Triomphe. It was very cool to see tonight because the sun was on it's way down and it looked more majestic with the lighting hitting it from such a low angle.

After snapping a few photos of the Arc de Triumph, we walked down past Place du Trocadero. This allowed us to see the Eiffel Tower with no obstructions in our way from quite a distance. The Eiffel Tower looks amazing from this angle. It's hard to take a bad picture of the Eiffel Tower, but especially from la Place du Trocadero. The water fountains and beautiful greens leading up to the Eiffel Tower mixed in with the setting sun perfectly and it made for a very nice evening to be killing time in downtown Paris. We didn't go up the tower because the lines were over a 1 hr wait at every corner. Sorry Kathy and Madam Waite, I didn't get to enjoy that glass of wine from the first deck like you suggested. Maybe next time! :)


We hung out around the Eiffel tower for quite a while and actually got to see a really fancy light show around 8pm. I took a movie to show you what it looks like:



After killing a lot of time by the Eiffel Tower, we decided to take the metro back to St. Michel so we could do some shopping and drink some wine at a corner restaurant out on the sidewalk. We ended up sitting down at a place called Latin St. Germain. If you go to Paris, you should definitely check this place out. It was exquisite and the prices were hard to match. I had a keash along with the fish and rice. It was amazing!


Day 17 in the bag. T minus 2 days til I see my girls.

Paris, France - Day 16

Today started out very boring, but progressively got awesome. I woke up at 9am and decided not to my morning run today. Instead, I ate a quick bite of breakfast and got right to work. While working through the morning, I headed over to the other apartment and stole a 1.5 liter of water, some coffee beans, some filters, and the coffee pot. I brought it all back to my apartment because it didn't make sense for me to go over there to make a pot of coffee and stand around chugging it like an addict. Therefore, I finally decided to just unplug it and bring the whole thing back to my apartment instead. Derr... :P

Around 10:30, I gathered up my pile of laundry and headed across the parking lot to the laundromat. While it was washing, I was able to get some work done. About 2 hours later I brought it back here and strung it out on my balcony to let the sun dry it. The weather was beautiful today, so it didn't take long for my clothes to dry at all. Throughout the day there was a lot of activity going on in my area, so I was able to go out and talk to some of my neighbors. We stood outside and talked for about a half hour at one point and just had a good time trying to communicate with one another. I am starting to feel like a local around here... And "Gosh darnit, people like me!"

I left all of my windows and doors open all day. The breeze just swept through my apartment while I coded at my table. I spoke to Jennifer and the girls before they got on the bus, and we're all very excited about my return home on Monday.

The rest of the afternoon was mostly just me working at my computer until around 7pm.

Around this time, Bob and his coworkers came back and we all headed over to their place to hang out on the back patio and enjoy the nice evening weather. It was a very cool 75 degrees Fahrenheit here in Montevrain today and we sat on the back patio eating bread and sausage, and cheese while enjoying some fine wine. It was the perfect French evening.

After relaxing out back on the patio, Bob and I talked a bit about some work related things. And he actually got me good tonight. I'm usually pretty quick with things. It's just how I was raised. But, he got me.

We were all hanging out in the kitchen after a few glasses of wine talking about something. I don't even remember what, now... (?) However, at some point Bob says "Oh man, that sounds like an 'ID 10-T issue to me'...

I said "A what?"

He said "An 'ID 10-T' issue...".

"What's that?", I said.

He says, "Write it down!"

So I grabbed my pen and wrote it down. I took a loooong look at it, and said: "I have no idea what this is."

Then he says: "Well, that's gotta stand for something!"

Immediately I knew the answer was in the text, so I read it with a different set of eyes and saw: idiot

Damn.

Hook, line, and sinker!

Around 1am Jennifer hit me on Skype and I was able to talk to my girls for about 30 minutes or so while she was cooking dinner. They showed me all the cool stuff that Jennifer got them at the 3 Bags Full sale. I just sat here and enjoyed hearing them talk to me. It's the simple things like this that I miss the most from home. I realized tonight that there are times when I let my girls talk to me at home and I simply don't "listen" to them like I should. Tonight, I made sure that I listened to them and stayed very focused on what they were telling me, rather than drifting off into my own little thoughts while they talked. They were soooo excited about the toys that Jennifer got them and they were destined to get me excited too. I really can't wait to get home and enjoy all of these everyday "kid conversations" again.

Jennifer also told me that her insurance claim on her foot is finally settled! Best of all, it was settled in a civil manner. It sounds like this "Todd guy" is in big trouble for the way he treated her on the phone a few weeks ago. Good! Nobody should be treated that way, especially my wife. I'm not happy because he got in trouble (although, he did deserve it), but I am happy that Jennifer can finally stop worrying about the bills that have been piling up because of it after all these months. Thank you to whoever escalated her case!

Look how happy Jennifer was about telling me the outcome:


Here it is going on 2am and I'm really tired. Tomorrow, we are heading back in to Paris for one last day of fun before I head back to les Etats Unit. Rumor has it that we will be going to the top of the Eiffel Tower and walking down the Champs Elysees. I can't wait! I'll be sure to take pictures of the world from the top of the Eiffel Tower and post them on here.

Check out this picture of the beautiful sunset we saw over the French countryside while chilling on the back patio tonight:


<3

Paris, France - Day 15

Today was another great day in France. I woke up at 8:30 and headed out the door for a run to town. The plan was to run into town, get some groceries and then take the bus back here to my (suite) village.

It was sprinkling a little bit, but not enough to worry about getting soaked. I was hoping that it didn't start raining too bad though because I had my camera with me and it doesn't play well with water (duh). Instead of running directly to the city center of Montevrain, I decided to venture off to the east a little bit so that I could get some new scenery this time. It turned out to be a great little course, and I tallied up about 1.5 miles.

When I got into town, I was able to get my shopping done at the grocery store. I ended up with two apples and two banana's (this time I weighed them), a box of apple juice, a liter of Pepsi, a box of pain au chocolats, and a couple of pre-made deli sandwiches. I was much more confident in the super market this time now that I knew how to handle the whole 'check out' situation, and I even knew were everything was at this time. By the time I got out of there, it was 10:35am, which was the same time that the bus left from town back to my village. I thought, that I would just kill a little time and wait for the next bus @ 11:10am. However, but the time I got back to the bus stop, it was 10:50am and I knew that I had about another 20 minutes til it came, so I just decided to walk. It made for a good little morning adventure to town.


When I got back to my apartment, it was just work really. While I sit here in my apartment, I see a lot of activity in my back window. A few times I've had my french doors open and have started conversations with some of my neighbors. I'm actually getting to know some of them. For example, the neighbor who lives two doors down is a very young fellow named "Jonathon". Mind you, it sounds totally different with a French accent; like "Jhean au teh". I only know this because I had him say it about 5 times before I realized he was saying "Jonathon". :) He and his girl friend live in the apartment and they have a lot of pets: 2 cats, 2 dogs, & 1 rabbit. The rabbit actually chases the cats, it's pretty funny. I took a small video the other day, but the rabbit didn't attack the cat like I hoped it would in the video, so it's not worth uploading really...

Of course, he always has some friends over, so I met a couple of his buddies too. His one buddy's name is Michel and he's from Holland. He actually speaks very good English and has been to the states a few times. His other buddy's name is Clement, and he's from Rome, Italy. They are all in their early twenties and they couldn't believe it when I told them that I was 31. Apparently they thought I was their age, and were blown away when I told them I lived on a farm with a wife and 3 daughters. I kind of felt old for the first time in my life after the shock factor settled. :) I must say that it's kind of cool to know some of the locals here in the village now. I see them out and about and can actually greet them by name now.

As the day progressed, the weather got really cool, not "weather cool", but "neat, cool". The clouds were still hovering over our village, but there were patches of sunshine and it turned out to be a beautiful night actually. Around 8pm Bob and his team had come back from their day jobs and I headed over there for dinner. Tonight we had chinese food; that's "french-chinese" food. After dinner, Bob and I hung out at the table and capped off a bottle of wine and talked about work until around 1:30 am. After our little meeting, I headed back to my apartment and literally crashed. I remember stumbling up the stairs and laying in bed. Day 15 was in the bag... 4 more days til I can see my girls.

Paris, France - Day 14

Today was actually packed with a lot of goodness. I woke up around 8:30 and decided that I was going to run around some places I'd never been. I only wanted to run about 3 miles or so, and I had an idea of where I wanted to venture to. Therefore, I headed out the door around 9am with my Garmin, a stiff back, and a bad case of bed head.

I turned left out of my village and headed down a familiar street. This street only stretched for about 0.5 miles, and I knew that there was a road off of there that I'd never been on and I was gonna see where it led. The weather was perfect and it was early enough that if I did get lost for a mile or two it wouldn't be such a bad thing.

This road that I ventured down took me past some of the most beautiful country side I've seen in a while. At a few spots along my run, I was literally overlooking about 10 miles of rolling french hills coated with fog and layered morning dew. No matter how many pictures I took, I knew it would do no justice to the actual scene. It was the perfect setting that defined natural beauty. It was quiet, just a bit chilly, and you could still smell the morning. It was awesome! I took my time through here and just looked around at all the cute little french houses along the way. The street was very narrow, not like any roads in Ohio really. From this little road, I came out to a little town (or village) with a few restaurants, pubs, and pharmacies. I snapped a few photos:


At the time, I didn't know what "S.A.N du Val D'Europe" meant. I thought it was a sign put up for "out of town" runners to use that would point the way back home. Unfortunately this wasn't the case, and in hind sight: duh. I found out later that it's actually a service that assists the development of companies around here to get over various hurdles like business formalities, etc... This is a bit similar to what Volli is doing with his company, CityCompass in Bucharest.

From the castle, I really got lost. I was turned around and some of the roads I was running on had a few turns and so forth so I didn't know if I was turned around or what. At one point, I actually ran down a main road which I don't think was just a regular road, but rather a "highway" of sorts. It sure felt like a highway; there were no houses, no sidewalks, no nothing, just a road with trees on both sides for a mile. It didn't bother me one bit and I just kept on trucking. By the time I got to a major intersection, I was able to kind of find my bearings. I saw a sign for Montevrain and knew that I had to be heading the right direction. I went with my gut and headed that way. As luck had it, it was the right turn and I made it back to my apartment with a nice 5 miler behind me.


I even took some video's along the way and put them all together as a single 5 minute movie if you're interested.

Warning: This is my first time running and filming at the same time. Have a puke bucket nearby if you are prone to motion sickness. I also recommend that you keep your hands near your volume controls; there are very quiet parts and very loud parts. If you want just turn the volume down and enjoy the French scenery.


After my run, I came back to the apartment and decided that today was "laundry day". I gathered my euros and headed to the laundromat, across the parking lot. Four euros later, I had my clothes spinning uncontrollably and I was face first into my laptop for the day. An hour later, I got them out and strung them all over my apartment to dry. Today was an absolutely gorgeous day, so my shirts got a front row seat to the sun show off the balcony in my bedroom.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I snuck back over to the old apartment around 3pm and slammed a few bowls of cereal, some cookies, some pringles, some coffee, and a handful of pretzels. Around 4pm, I was able to talk to my girls over skype and that really made my day. I really miss them all and can't wait to see them next week. We've already started deciding which restaurant we're going to eat at after they pick me up from the airport. The fact that we were even having this conversation made me realize that the day is very near...

Jazzy

Lizzie

So anyway, around 8pm, Bob and his team came back from their jobs and we all had bow-tie pasta with bread, wine, and German beer for a late dinner. After dinner I came back and finished yesterday's post and wrote up today's post.

Tomorrow is another run day and I may walk to town again to purchase some different munchy foods. I think I've eaten all the good stuff from the old apartment. :)

Paris, France - Day 13

Today was a pretty eventful day. I woke up @ 9:30 and immediately packed my stuff into my luggage. As it turns out, there are a few other people that will be staying here in the apartment, so I had to get my stuff and move to another apartment that was down the road a ways. I knew I had to hurry because I wanted to take the walk into town again to run a few errands before starting my day.

While packing all my clothes, I realized that I brought WAY too many clothes with me. I've been here in Europe for almost two full weeks now, and I've only worn half the clothes that I packed. The only items that I ran out of were t-shirts, but even those I've been able to wash a few times and wear again. I have so many socks, underwear, shorts, pants, and running clothes that I know I'll never wear though. There's actually 2 pair of pants that I've not worn yet, and have no intentions on wearing anytime before I leave. There's also a few dress shirts that I'm not going to wear either. This means that all this stuff is nothing more than extra baggage. Crap!

So I was able to get everything packed up into my bags and moved over to the new apartment by around 11am. As soon as I walked in the door, I simply laid my luggage down and headed back out the door towards town. I wanted to mail a few letters to my girls today so that they could get them before I return to the states next week. I considered taking the bus into town, but the bus didn't come for another 30 minutes and I knew I could be there by that time, so I just decided to walk. It's less than a 2 mile walk to town and I thought it would be good to just get some fresh air anyway.

When I got to town, the post office was pretty crowded so I waited in line. When it was my turn I explained to the lady in my best broken french that "Je voudrais a envoyer c'ept lettre a mes petite jolie au Etats Unit" (or "I would like to mail these letters to my little pretty's in the United States". She rattled of a bunch of french and the only thing I caught was "strike" which meant that they would not be able to mail my letters. I then switched to English and said "You can't mail my letters?" delivered with a look of total shock on the side. She then told me that I could mail them through some machine though. So she took me over to the "mail machine" and I had to weigh each letter individually before I could put them in the drop box. We went through all this hassle only to find out that the machine doesn't take Euro bills. I had to have the exact amount in coins (or "les piece"). I wasted about 20 minutes in here for nothing.

She couldn't change my bill either because of the said "strike", so I had to go somewhere else and get change for my 20 euro bill. I decided to go to McDonalds and order a good ol' fashion American meal. I (of course) got the Big Mac meal and asked the lady for "beacoup de piece s'il vous plait". She gave me about 7 euros in coins, and I headed back to the post office. When I arrived I had to get back in line all over again, just so the lady at the desk could help me through the french prompts again. I know my sister and Madam Waite are holding their heads in their hands right now, but c'est vrait. About 10 minutes later, I had printed the correct postage stickers and mailed the letters to my girls. I was now ready to check the bus schedule.

Low and behold, the bus wasn't coming for another 25 minutes. I decided to hoof it back to the apartment. C'est bon! About 1 mile back, I realized that I was forming a nasty blister on my left foot from my Chaco's. Ouch! Apparently these things weren't made for power walking like I thought they were. I'd never developed a blister from my Chaco's before, but I've been doing some intense walking here in Europe and I think my feet were finally telling me to put some shoes on.
I got back to my apartment around 1:00 and it was time for a shower and work. At around 5 o'clock I realized I was getting hungry, but I had no food and no way to get back into the old apartment which was packed with snacks. I knew the front desk would be closing soon, so I ran over there and had them make me a key so I could get some food. With the key, I was able to make a pot of coffee, slam down some pain au chocolat's and eat a couple bowls of cereal. I knew I wasn't going to be going out to dinner tonight, so before I left, I grabbed a banana, a jar of mandarin oranges, a box of apple juice, and a bottle of water. That was going to be my dinner, and I was perfectly fine with that.

That was pretty much the rest of my night. I talked to Jennifer a few times thoughout the day, so it didn't feel like I was totally disconnected from the world. However, around 12 midnight I'd had enough fun for the day and called it in early... If you know me, you'll know that 12 is early for me. :) Honestly though, I had full intentions on posting this last night, but I was whooped. Therefore, here it is a day late and a euro short...

Paris, France - Day 12

Today was a work day. Period. I woke up at noon after a long night and sat at the table in my apartment here working. I worked from about 12 until 8pm, then Bob showed up and we ate dinner with another guy that's going to be staying here for a few days named Terry. We had some yummy egg rolls (or something) and chased them down with wine and coffee. After dinner, Bob and I talked about various work items, and then that was really about the gist of the day... However, there was some excitement that went on last night though that is definitely worth sharing. :)

When Volli and Stefani dropped me off at the airport yesterday, I sat around for quite a while waiting for my flight to board. My flight was delayed about an hour and then the flight itself was very long for me. I was so tired and my legs were cramping so badly. The plane couldn't land fast enough and I only got about 20 minutes of bad quality "shut eye" on that 3 hour flight back to Paris.

When I got back, it was almost 12 o'clock midnight. This meant that the information booth in the airport was closed and I was at the mercy of the computerized train ticket machines. Unfortunately they don't accept euro bills. They only accept euro coins or European credit cards. Neither of which I had in my posession. Therefore, I had to ask a nice fellow to buy me a train ticket with his credit card and then I paid him back in euro's. The ticket was 13.75 euros and then I made my way down to the train which would head into Paris about 20 minutes later.

In order to get back to Val D' Europe, I had to switch trains in Chatalet Les Hales. Here, I waited about another 20 minutes and it wasn't fun at all. The metro would get crazy busy, and then totally empty over and over with every train that stopped. When it got empty, it got kind of freaky, but I didn't let it get to me too much. There was a passed out bum sitting on one of the benches and he had puke all over him and on the ground in front of him. It smelled like beer and he just sat there upright the entire time while people walked by him staring. I was getting sick to my stomach after smelling it for so long, but I wasn't about to go far from where I was. If I missed this train back to Val D' Europe, I'd have to stay here all night. No thank you!

By the time I got back to Val D' Europe, it was almost 1:30 am. I had full intentions on walking back to the apartment because I knew Bob would have an early morning and was probably already in bed. I was almost looking forward to it actually. As it turns out though, Bob was waiting for me to give me a ride back to the apartment. Cool!!

When we got there, we were locked out. That was actually the reason why Bob was at the terminal waiting on me. Apparently his key card was demagnetized and he couldn't get ahold of anybody since it was so later on a Sunday. He decided to go down to the train station and pick me up. He was hoping that my card would unlock the door. I think he said he arrived @ 10:30 and he had been there waiting on me since then... Wow!

So we got back to the apartment, and sure enough... my card didn't work either. We stood there trying to call the 24 hour maintenance service, but they never showed up or called back. Instead we took matters into our own hands and were determined to break in! It was either that, or sleep in the car.

I tried the ol' credit card trick with the key card to see if I could jimmy the latch, but to no avail. Bob tried pounding the window open with the palm of his hand... still no luck. He then looked up at the second story window and said, "if only there was a way to get up there".

We both knew that the window was probably unlocked, but we had to get up there to see if that was the case. Luckily, I got some mad climbin' skills from working in the tree service business years ago. I was sure I could get up there, and it was really the only way we were going to be able to sleep comfortably, so I made the ascent.

I very quickly got up onto the first window ledge with no problems. In order to get over to the roof, I had to stand on Bob's shoulders and he walked me over to it, while I balanced against the wall. I jumped up onto the roof and then reached over to slide the window to see if it was opened. Sure enough, it opened. Sweet!! Now I just needed to figure out how to get into the window. It was about 4 feet away from me and about 12 feet off the ground. I stood there for about 30 seconds thinking about how I was going to do it, and then just decided to try it.

Success! I pushed myself up and shimmied into the windows onto the floor of what was actually my bedroom. I walked downstairs and unlocked the front door to let Bob in. We were so happy that it worked. We unloaded his car and then sat around and talked til about 3 or 3:30.

After that, I came upstairs and talked to Jen on Skype for a while and she told me all about Daizi's birthday party. So cute!!

Paris, France - Day 8

Today was another great day. I woke up at 10 am and Dariush had already left. I immediately began packing my bags and checked out by 11am. I had the guy at the front desk hold my bags while I ran a few errands and just hung out in Paris for a few hours by myself before heading to the airport (flight left @ 7pm). In the picture on the right, our room was the window where the guy is walking. As you can see, we had "front row seats" to the Paris street life. We heard everything from here. If I was with Jennifer or my girls I would have been pretty upset, but it was perfect or this trip. Dariush and I really only used our room to keep our luggage in and then to sleep at night. Therefore, it was perfect!

From the hotel, I walked up a small little cobble stoned street that was full of souvenir shops and stopped at a little place to order a chocolate crepe. My sister said it's one of her favorite things in Paris and (sorry sis), I hadn't had one since I've been here yet. I bought it along with a piping hot cup of "American" coffee and walked up to a small little park beneath the Sacre Couere. I found a bench and sat there for almost 45 minutes watching the tourists snap photos and keeping a close eye on the pigeons so that I didn't get pooped on. The crepe was amazing and the coffee was pretty good too. Though, I can't wait to get back to my Bunn coffee maker. I'm sure it misses me too. :)

From the Sacre Couere, I ran a few errands around my area and then bought 3 metro tickets. I got a ticket to the airport, and then two one-way tickets inside "Zones 1 & 2" (which is everything within the main part of Paris really). The reason for the two 1 way tickets was so that I could go visit my buddy, Jim. :)

I hopped on the metro and got off at Pere Lachaise. I had totally forgot how big this place was. I never remembered it being this enourmous the last time I was here (~15 years ago). It is amazing to think that such a huge and beautiful place can be preserved and peaceful inside the busy streets of Paris. I walked very slow and was in no hurry. I took about 50 pictures, and just killed time for the most part. Instead of trying to explain how huge it was, allow me to just do a photo link to my online web album: Pere Lachaise

From Pere Lachaise, I headed back to my exit and grabbed a quick bite of lunch before heading out to Carles De Gaulle international airport. I sat out on the street of course and took my time to enjoy my last bite to eat in Paris. It was great and I actually saw one of the drunk russian chicks while sitting there. I told her goodbye and that I was leaving today.

After I finished my lunch I headed back to my hotel and got my bags so that I could make my way to the airport. It's not fun carrying so much luggage through the busy metro system. My suite case was very heavy and I had to literally pick it up to carry it up and down the steps through the various metro systems. In order to get to Charles de Gaulle, I had to go through Gare du Nord and ended up missing my exit at one point. I didn't mind though because I knew that I left in plenty of time, so I casually went all the way to the end of RER B and turned fixed my problem at Aulnay-sous-Bois.

By the time I got to Charles de Gaulle, it was about 5:30 and my flight didn't leave until 7pm. I had plenty of time to chill, so I did just that.

I was actually looking forward to my departing flight today. It has been pretty hard to keep it from slipping on my blog, but I wasn't going back to Val D'Europe to work. I was actually waiting on a flight to Bucharest, Romania to visit my other brothers from other mothers: Volli and Yiorgo. We are all planning to spend the weekend together at Volli's house.

Who is Volli and Yiorgo you ask? Well, Yiorgo was an exchange student from Larissa, Greece that lived with me during my senior year of high school, and Volli was an exchange student from Hamburg, Germany (oops, I think) that lived across the street from us that same year. We hung out on the front porch of Day Ave every night and we created a pretty tight bond that year. We were all very different from one another in every way, but it worked. They have been very close friends ever since and actually visit each other pretty regularly.

Another great story about these two is that they are who introduced Jennifer and I to one another my senior year. Volli and Yiorgo were friends with Jennifer and her friend, Crystal. One day they were all hanging out in the basement of my house and I had come home to get something out of the basement and saw her down there. I thought she was cute, and apparently she thought I was cute too... The rest is history. There's actually a full write up on our website that tells the whole story.


So, when I got off the plane in Bucharest, Volli and Yiorgos were waiting for me. No words were said, and we immediately just started laughing out loud because we couldn't believe we were all together again. I snapped a horrible picture, but I'll use it anyway because it shows exactly how excited we were to see each other. The drive back to Volli's house was a lot of fun. We each took turns asking questions and answering about various things that have happened over the last 10 or so years; it was just like old times. When we got to Volli's place, he had a dish of some authentic Romanian dinner waiting on me. It was 11:30, but I had no problem eating it. It was delicious! We of course drank a few beers and ended up talking until about 1:30 am.

I'm very excited to spend the weekend here in Romania with my two other foreign brothers. It's like having the "gang" back together again. We have a full weekend of beer drinking and fun ahead of us and it's gonna be a blast! Be sure to check in tomorrow to see what we get into...

Oh yeah, as you can imagine, the title of the series will change tomorrow, so don't be alarmed. :P

Paris, France - Day 7

Well, a lot has happened since last nights' blog post. Immediately after I hit the 'Publish Post' button I went outside to get some fresh air and just enjoy the quiet Parisian street. While out there I got to talking with a lady and we had a VERY hard time communicating. She was Russian and knew a little bit of French. We did a lot of hand gestures and claiming to understand each other, when in reality we probably only understood about 25% of each other's story. She was clearly drunk and we just had a great time.

Eventually two of her Russian friends came outside too. One of them spoke fluent English and she was so excited to actually use her English. It was so nice to now have a translator. We talked for a while longer and then I eventually told them good night and I was ready to get some sleep so that Dariush and I could have a productive day tomorrow. As I was heading back in the door, they asked me if I would like to have a quick drink with them at the bar... I stopped for a minute to think about it and was ready to say no, but quickly realized that I don't always get the chance to drink free liquor at in a lobby at 3am with a bunch of Russian chicks in Paris. I assertively said: "Yes... Yes I would!" They got very excited and I asked if I could invite my friend to come with us. They said "YES, OF COURSE!!". So I grab Dariush and there we were sitting at the hotel lobby table at 3am in the morning drinking Sambuca with 3 Russian women. We had a great time and I told them all about my 3 week trip to Novosibirsk, Russia last year (blog links: Day 0 through Day 21). We had a great time and drank quite a lot of Sambuca actually. Dariush and I got pretty drunk and we finally came back into our room around 4 or 4:30. Even after we came back in the room, we heard them partying in the lobby until maybe 5 am.

Needless to say, we both slept in pretty late. Dariush woke up and got breakfast, and then went back to sleep. I (on the other hand) slept right through the morning. We didn't wake up until a little after 12pm before we headed out the door to start our day.

First stop was Les Invalides. We basically just walked in front of it and took some pictures. It was pretty overcast today and it made for a perfect Parisian morning... actually, afternoon I guess. After snapping a few photo's, I was ready for some coffee. I was still yawning and I actually had a pretty bad headache after our very late night of Sambuca with the Russian chicks. Immediately in front of us, was a cobble stoned street that was scattered with various bakeries and cafe's. This road led to La Tour Eiffel. Half way up this road, we ran across a coffee shop called the Columbus Cafe (kind of like a Starbucks). I ordered a "cafe noir" to go, but when I got it, it was NOT a black coffee at all. It tasted like watered down hot water, but was actually pretty frothy. Oh well, c'est Paris, et j'aime bien.


When we got to the end of this street, we were looking directly at la Tour Eiffel and it is just as amazing as I remember bing 15 years ago. Dariush and I decided that we were going to walk up the stairs to the second deck instead of taking the elevator. Tickets for the elevator were 10 euros (~ $15), and tickets to walk up the stairs was only 4 euros (~ $7). Our legs were still fresh since this was our first major attraction, so we hoofed it... Wow, it was pretty intense after the first 6 flights, and we had about 40 to go. :) We just went real slow and talked and laughed the whole way. It was so much better than taking the elevator. When we got to the top, we took lots of pictures and then decided where we were going to go next.

Here are some pictures that we took on our hike up to the second deck:

Getting ready to make the climb...

This is looking directly across one of the sections of the north stair well.

This is looking up from inside the stair well.

This guy was painting the beam (~200 ft in the air). Wow!
These are pictures overlooking Paris

After descending down the steps, we walked down by the water on the Seine to the metro. Our next stop was le Notre Dame de Paris. We visited this place last night, and I was very impressed by it. Dariush wanted to bring me back in the daytime so that he could show me around inside during the day time. Remember (from yesterday's post), he is very knowledgeable about old catholic cathedrals. It was simply beautiful and I remembered taking pictures of the stained glass windows once I got inside and saw the light shining through... Simply amazing. It was just as impressive as the night before. However, it was a different kind of impressive with the light shining in the windows. I really felt the history of the place while walking around the inside as Dariush told me about why things were placed in certain places, and how the Priests did certain things, and why, etc... Simply amazing!

After visiting le Notre Dame, we were going to go the post office to get some stamps and then try to get some money out of an ATM since I had spent all of my euros. This turned into a nightmare actually. My bank card apparently was different from other bank cards and it wasn't being accepted at any ATM for cash withdrawals. I was able to use it as a credit card most everywhere, but the "debit" portion of it was not working at all. I contacted Jennifer to see if she could contact our bank and see what was going on. I also suggested that she call my sister, Tammy to see how she got money while she was over here. She had actually spent her Junior year in college here in Paris. I was sure that she used the same bank back then... Sure, I could have gotten money out of an exchange place, but the fee's were very excessive, and the exchange rates would have been horrible. After about 3 hours, I was able to get my problem solved. Let's just say that I have an awesome boss. Thanks Bob!! :)

While we were looking for money, Dariush and I walked around Les Halles and saw lots of very old buildings. It was a very neat place and the traffic was CRAZY. We actually spotted a Google Streetview car. So in about 3 months, go to Google Maps and zoom in to "street view" near Les Halles to look for me and Dariush waving at the car. We followed it down the road for a while, because it was stuck in traffic. Pretty cool!!


From Les Halles, we strolled in le Galleries Lafayette. This is a HUGE, 3 story shopping mall that sells jeans for 170 euros (~$250!!) It's like shopping in Beverly Hills. I told Dariush that I felt like a hillbilly in here and I'm sure I looked like one too. Which brings me to my next point: I've not seen ONE gotee over here in Paris; I'm the only man in France with a gotee I think. What is a gotee you ask?? I did a search on Google to help me explain it in words and here is was the top result: "hair on your face that's sexy" :D

From la Galleries Lafayette, we came back to the room to get a few things and then we headed to dinner. Every time Dariush visits Paris, he says he has to eat at this one restaurant called le Relais de l'Entrecote. He was dying to take me to it. The place didn't open until 7pm, so I knew it had to be a good one. When we got in, we immediately ordered a small bottle of wine. When the waitress came back, she had brought us a full bottle of wine. Um... it was pretty expensive and I got pretty upset at our waitress because she was rather rude to us when I tried to tell her that is NOT what we ordered. She said "too late" and then tried to explain to me that after it's opened we must pay for it. In our defense, she never gave us the chance to see it and confirm that it was what we wanted. I know for a fact that Dariush asked for a "petite bouteille de vin"... Whatever, we're in Paris and we weren't going to let it ruin our dinner. :) Which by the way was fantasic!

We each got two small plates of amazing beef drizzled in some amazing sauce that was served with French bread and freedom fries. :) Oh yeah, Dariush and I finished the bottle of wine with no problem. He says that he rarely ever drinks and in two nights with me, he's gotten drunk both nights... I LOVE IT!! The restaurant was very good and I'll be anxious to bring Jennifer here when we come over sometime in the future. It was right on the corner of a pretty busy intersection and our table looked out onto the street. It was the perfect setting for a perfect dinner.


After dinner, Dariush and I headed back to le Champs Elysees and got some more Haagen Dazs ice cream and I got a cup of "American Coffee" (finally!!). Our next stop was to go visit the Pere Lachaise so that I could show him where Jim Morrison's grave site is. It was pretty late and we weren't sure we were going to be able to get in, but we went anyway just to make sure. I mean, neither of us have a schedule here in Paris, and we're just killing time anyway. Why not... Sure enough, when we got there, the gate was closed. C'est bon.

We hopped back onto the metro and got off at the exit by our hotel and decided to walk up to the top of the Sacre Couere. It was already night time and this place is simply stunning at night. We can actually see it from the metro entrance by our hotel, and it looks breathtaking any time of the day, but especially at night time. We walked up to the top and I was able to snap a lot of pictures of Paris. There were a lot of people sitting on the steps enjoying the view and drinking beer, just hanging out. How cool is that; drinking beer on a beautiful staircase overlooking the city lights of Paris. Dariush and I actually walked into the cathedral and there was a service being held. We sat down and listened for a while and it was very cool. The acoustics in these cathedrals are amazing. When the preist would talk, his voice would echo from all angles and it was very easy to hear him. Clearly this was taken into consideration when it was constructed hundreds of years ago, before the microphone was invented. :P


From the Sacre Couere, we walked back down towards our hotel and who did we run into??? The drunk Russian chicks!! We stopped and talked for a minute and then Dariush and I decided to sit at a little corner pub to relax for a while. I ordered an authentic French Cognac and Dariush pulled the smart card, and ordered a Coke. :) We, of course, sat outside on the sidewalk and enjoyed each others company while watching the Parisians scurry about dodging the cars and motorbikes as they crossed the streets before us. I love Paris!!

Dariush leaves very early tomorrow morning, and I'm not sure when I'll see him again. He states that he may be coming to the US sometime next year, but not sure if he'll be able to make it to Newark, Ohio or not. I must say that my time with him in Paris has been simply perfect. I couldn't have asked to spend my time with a better person. We laughed and talked and just had a blast navigating our way through the most beautiful city in the world. I will remember these last two days for the rest of my life, and look forward to reading these posts after many years to reflect on the fun times we had.

Dariush, thank you so much for an amazing time. We both have very busy schedules and it was great to just put everything a side, including our watches, and walk around this beautiful city with a few euros and a metro card that took us anywhere we wanted. I look forward to seeing you again soon, my friend.