[color:"red"]Partie une[/color]
6 April – 13 April

Flew out on American at 9:35 PM JFK direct to CDG. No problem with flight other than a slight delay in taking off. We arrived in Paris around 11:40 PM, hailed a taxi to our hotel and were in our room no later than 1:00 PM. I had asked for an early check in and we were accommodated.

HOTEL – [color:"blue"]Prince de Galles[/color] is part of Starwood’s “Luxury Collection” brand and we were not disappointed. The hotel is located on George Av, a very exclusive part of Paris only 1 block from the Champs Elysee and about 3 from the Arch di Triomphe. We had a great room with a large bedroom, foyer and bathroom. The bathroom was very large with a water closet that also had a footbath in it. A vanity, separate shower stall and a tube with a shower on the other side of the bathroom. There were two sinks and very nice bath amenities. We were on the fourth floor facing the front of the building.

Besides the Arch, the Eiffel Tour is the closest major tourist attractions to the hotel. We walked to the Eiffel tour after we unpacked. It was a beautiful warm sunny day unlike weather we had just left from New York. In fact the entire trip was warm and sunny, perfect weather for walking around and sitting outside at café’s to “people watch.”

The Eiffel Tour is massive and the crowds overwhelmed me! We are from New York and I have never seen crowds like we saw at both the Eiffel Tour and Notre Dame on Easter Sunday. We were only looking around and not planning to climb the tower as we had lunch reservations later in the week at the Jules Verne restaurant so it wasn’t necessary for us to climb or wait to go inside it on our first visit. We just went to look and take photos

We learned a few French phrases and most of the time that was all we needed to communicate. The food and presentation in almost all instances was fabulous. We ate, we drank and we walked. I lost 7 lbs and had the time of my life!

The highlights for us were Mass on Easter Sunday at Notre Dame. Although it was crowded we managed to get to one of the Priests to receive Holy Communion. David and I were able to squeeze into one of the rows after receiving and remained standing until the mass ended. During the final procession, the Father who said Mass put his hand to David’s head and blessed him. It was very moving. Afterwards we walked around the church to pray and visit the chapels and admire the ancient woodcarvings and marble, etc. Took a break afterwards and sat at café where I enjoyed a crepe with bananas and nutella. The café had a cart in front of the restaurant serving street food, crepes, croque madame and monsieur’s, baguettes with meat and cheese.

Since St. Chappelle was in the area we also visited it that day. Short line so the wait was not long. Very beautiful Gothic church known for their stain glass. I think we paid 7.50 euros for admission. Wasn’t much to see other than the chamber with the stain glass but I would say it was worth the price of admission.

We returned to Notre Dame several days later to climb the Tower, as I wanted to take pictures of the Gargoyles and demons and knew David would enjoy the view. I’m afraid of heights and the climb up is not for the faint hearted. Climbing all those steps was some workout. Once we arrived I was a bit paralyzed with fear so it was difficult to fully enjoy although I made the best of it. David proceeded to climb to the highest point, which was another 100 steps or so.

Louvre – we purchased tickets from the Concierge at our hotel so we had no wait what so ever to enter the museum. Of course our first destination was to see the “Mona Lisa.” There was a crowd surrounding the painting but after people viewed her they moved on so we got a decent view. She is beyond a very thick glass and you can’t walk directly up to the painting as it’s roped off but we could see it OK. After looking at the Masters (no photos in that area of the museum) we were off to see the Venus de Milo and the Winged Goddess, which we were able to photograph. We spent a good portion of the day at the museum visiting the Egyptian Antiquities, which are similar to the MET in NYC. We also visit the 17th & 18th century French sculpture area. After 3 hours at the museum we decided it was time to move on.

Besides walking, our primary mode of transportation was taxi. We felt it was worth the money and did not want to deal with the Metro or bus system. We did take two buses and were told by many people that even the Parisians have a difficult time trying to figure out the system. We did not take the Metro until our last full day and found it very confusing although we arrived at our destination after only making one mistake.

I’ll do a partie deux when I have more time and energy!