Ah Paris!!

Well Mom and I did Paris for two days and made the most of it. We took a 10am train from Lille and arrived Paris a little after 11am. We then bravely charted our way to our hotel via the Paris subway system. For the most part I really love their Metro, it's easy to read the maps and plot the route you need to take wherever you want to go. The only glitch we had was trying to find Metro "D" at Gare du Nord. I didn't realize that D1, D2, D3 and D4 were all the same line. Whoda thunk? I asked a really nice Frenchman helped us out and we found our way to our super cool hotel; the Seventh Art Hotel, or L'hotel du 7eme Art in French. It was so cute!! It was right by a Metro stop (which most places are) right off the Seine River not far from Notre Dame. The hotel is themed after film and music with old posters and records everywhere. It also had air conditioning which we needed as it was actually sunny and about 80 degrees the days we were there. Here is Mom in our room. It might look small, but we had a little sitting place with a table for two and a large mirror. Huge by economical Paris hotel room standards.

Mom asked me what size the beds were, I'm not sure. They were actually smaller than a twin. I think they were triplet size. I actually sort of fell off one night while rolling over.

I also learned something new about my mother this trip. Most people have some sort of quirk about them you wouldn't know about unless you spent time with them. Cyr can't see a license plate without making up words for the letters in it, I imagine giving away a few pounds to skinny people I see (it would be a win-win you see) and Mom counts stairs. We now know that most restrooms in Lille are 15 steps down, I think she said the subway is 30 down and up, and there were 60 stairs up to our room at the hotel. Yeah...they don't have an elevator. We would have to stop and pretend to chat half way up. I was also reminded of how safety conscious my Mom is. "Put a chair in front of the door" she asks before we go to sleep. I did this and Mom says "Good, I feel better now."

Uhh...Mom...the chair doesn't reach the door knob. I thought the whole purpose for this set up was to hold the door in place. Apparently I am not aware of the secret powers of The Chair. But I digress...

After we checked in we went to have a bit to eat. Mom got some French Onion Soup, just known as "Onion Soup" here.

We then went to the Louvre and saw Mona and some of her friends.
Mom's favorite.


Just kidding!! I made her take this picture. Besides, it's in the Louvre it must be tasteful.

After our exposure to some art we decided to hop on the L'Open Bus Tour so that we could hitch a ride and not have to walk so much. This was the best idea ever! The cost was 29 euro for one day and only 3 euro more for two. You just hop on any stopped L'Open Tour bus and buy your tickets when you board. I highly recommend doing this if you have only have two days in Paris. It's better than a taxi and you get to see all kinds of things you wouldn't see if you were on the metro. I know lots of people don't like tour buses, but you can hop on and off as much as you want and they have 4 different lines that see different things in Paris. My friend Jen and I discovered it when we were in Paris a few years ago. Here are Mom and I on the bus plus a few things we saw:

Notre Dame

Moulin Rouge

Sacre Coeur
I had a fantastic visit with Mom here, we finally got to spend some time together. I was in the US for over a month, but I was out visiting other people instead of spending time with her. I'm so glad she was able to come back with me. I think she liked Lille and France in general, though every time she would order meat she would ask; "Is it cooked?" This stems from the fact that Cyr would order "Steak American" which is steak tartar, which is raw ground meat with a raw egg cracked open on it. Why in the world they call it steak American I don't know. I know very few Americans who eat raw beef. Once did she order a steak and it turn out to be almost raw on the inside, I promptly switched with her and gave her my overdone (in my opinion) piece of meat and we were both happy.

Wednesday Mom caught a taxi to the airport and I had to go to the US Embassy to get some documents so that Cyr and I can get married. That is a whole other story I'll tell next time.

Miss you Mom!