honeymoon: paris

So once we arrived in Paris (several hours later than planned) we found our hotel, which was a great little place called the Hotel Eldorado. Then we wandered down the street for dinner at a bistro and had our first glasses of wine of the trip. (England is for beer, France is for wine.) No idea what we ate, but the wine!

Figuring it was early, we found our way to the Eiffel Tower, which we proceeded to climb on foot -- something like 780 steps to the second level, which is as high as you can go on foot. It was ANDY'S idea.

There was a huge party on the Champs du Mars below the tower as all the high school students in France had finished their university entrance exams that day. Fireworks, dancing, booze all over the place -- it was just like Folk Fest!

Feeling the need for some culture the next day, we went to the Louvre and were promptly overwhelmed by its sheer size. As neither Andy nor I are huge art connoisseurs, we focused on the highlights: the Venus de Milo, Michelangelo's sculptures and the Mona Lisa. And despite my knowing about as much about fine art as I do about British post offices in Morocco, even I was moved by some of the pieces, particularly Michelangelo's sculptures.

We then wandered around Paris, visiting Cathédral Notre Dame, eating in bistros and cafés, and ending up in a jazz club called La Caveau de La Huchette, where we met a British couple (who thought we were pretty exotic, being from Canada and all) and danced in a basement which had been used as a courtroom and a torture chamber during the French Revolution in the 1700s. It was a bit spooky -- ghosts were everywhere!

The next day we met Andy's cousin Haley, who was living about an hour outside Paris in Tours. We went to see Les Catacombes, where millions of bodies had been placed after being removed from overflowing cemeteries in the 1700s due to disease. Don't worry though -- after bodies had just been moved into the former quarries beneath Paris, some official thought it was inappropriate and had the bodies (basically just bones by that time) rearranged in an "artistic" manner. Personally I think the "artistry" was still lacking and that the rearrangement was probably not for the better. It brought new meaning to the word creepy. Can you imagine the interview for the job of artistic rearranger of the dead?

Interviewer: So, have you any experience with rearranging bodies in an artistic manner?

Interviewee: Why yes, in fact! As a long-time serial killer I find that ensuring that the bodies are left so that they are pleasing to the eye is the most satisfying part of my day! I'm not one of those hack-and-slash murderers who just leaves a mess behind willy-nilly!

Interviewer: Do you have a portfolio?

Anyway. Needing to think about something a little more uplifting, we headed for the Musée d'Orsay and with limited time, focused on the Impressionists' Gallery. There were works by van Gogh, Monet and Degas, among others, and once again despite my total lack of knowledge about art I was still able to appreciate it to a certain degree. I don't think I really appreciated it as much as Andy (right), but still...

We had dinner in Paris with Haley (had the BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE EVER) before she went back to Tours and we wandered around a bit more.

The next day, we took the train to Tours, where we wandered around and napped in a park and had a poke around Vieux Tours, which dates back to medieval times. Then we hooked up with Haley and J.F. and drove out to Château de Villandry, featuring three separate and spectacular gardens and a castle which dates back to the 1200s (part of it does, anyway). Man, "old" in North America means one hundred years, like our house. In Europe, "old" is old.

We then took the train back to Paris and managed to arrive ON TIME for our train to Venice.